When you talk about safety and health, it’s all about caring for people,” said Bernard Soh. At the workplace, this translates into having a safe and healthy working environment for everyone.
According to Bernard, Singapore has established a high standard of workplace safety and health (WSH) in terms of safety processes, policy and compliance. Compared to the region, he said that Singapore is considered to be at the forefront in several aspects of WSH.
Opportunities In WSH
Direct jobs in this space include being a WSH officer and Bernard shared that Singapore’s WSH officers are increasingly taking on regional roles.
Domestically, Bernard said that in addition to traditional sectors such as shipbuilding, oil and gas facilities, construction and manufacturing, areas with growing opportunities for WSH officers include logistics and supply chain, hospitality and healthcare.
“In some of the larger hotels in Singapore, they have safety departments staffed with WSH officers. We are also seeing opportunities in the event management industry, where WSH officers work to ensure safety of the event venues,” said Bernard.
To help members realise these opportunities, SISO is looking at developing industry-specific skillsets and customising courses to help them transition between industries.
Working With The Labour Movement
Highlighting some of the essential skills WSH officers should possess, Bernard said: “I think it’s a range from psycho-social skills to leadership skills. Soft skills are often the hardest to pick up.
“As a WSH officer, we’re deemed as a leader at the workplace, whether we like it or not, leadership skills are definitely important. And that is something that we are working with NTUC’s U Associate (UA) to help WSH officers develop these leadership skillsets.”
Additionally, the institution is also working closely with the UA to better develop the competency of WSH officers.
“In the business leadership course that we are running with the help of UA, one of the key components is business acumen. We realise that if a WSH officer doesn’t have business acumen, he/she will not be able to address the business needs through WSH. Knowing what they are will enable an officer to manage them in a way that can enable the officer to achieve the goal of keeping the workplace safe,” added Bernard.
Promoting Safety
To help spread the message of a positive safety culture, SISO is also actively working with union leaders.
“Part of what we’re doing is through engaging union leaders to share with them the various aspects of safety knowledge.
“There’s no silver bullet to inculcate a positive safety culture. To get people more aware about safety within a working organisation typically comes from compliance or a policy. If you don’t adopt the right safety measures, you get penalised. But that is not sustainable because once people step out of a work environment it doesn’t apply. Another step is to constantly ‘bombard’ people with messages on the importance of being safe,” said Bernard.
