
- Genuine concern for people: One must be ready for self-sacrifice rather than being self-centered and self-serving.
- Leadership by example: Safety officers must be able to walk the talk. In this profession, credibility is very important. Therefore, a good safety officer must be able to practice what he/she preaches; only then people will comply and follow.
- Hungry for knowledge: In the field of health and safety, continuous learning is necessary. All true professionals will update their knowledge on an ongoing basis through ongoing education so that they are able to provide the company with the latest, safe and effective information.
- Consistency: There can be no confusion among staff when it comes to their and their colleagues’ health and safety, so the health and safety officer has to be consistent with their messages and actions.
- Resilience: With great resolve and single-minded purpose, a ‘good’ safety officer should be able to overcome any challenges.
- Ability to listen: The ability to listen is one of the secrets of successful people. One task of a safety officer is to audit. Auditing requires listening and checking the adequacy of systems. Additionally, listening is an effective way to get feedback from workers.

- Alumni: Keep in contact with past employees who have moved on from your organization by creating online alumni groups or hosting alumni events. This creates a circle from which you can draw when you are recruiting workers.
- On-site events and continuing education: Host workshops, sponsor industry events and area also gives you access to a worker pool.
- Employees as recruiters: Your current workers can be your greatest tool in finding great candidates. Encourage them to attend networking events and become involved with community organizations, take them to job fairs, and send them to training events.
- Colleges and universities: Volunteer your employees and leaders to speak at local colleges and universities—either at events or for classes. Develop strategic relationships with faculty so that they can help you identify the best candidates.
- Job training programs: Start an apprentice-like or unique job training program for the position. Assess program candidates for ability, motivation, willingness to learn, potential and achievement. If this is successful, you gain a large amount of control in the hiring process.
- Why do you want this job as a safety officer? Candidates should be passionate about their profession and the opportunity.
- What is your Safety Management philosophy? A credible candidate should be able to explain how they perceive their role and provide a general philosophy as explanation.
- How do you measure success? Safety officers have a lot of responsibility and should have a good grasp of how to measure their performance.
- What have you learned from your mistakes? Everyone makes mistakes but what’s important is how we learn and grow. Ideally it won’t be a massive mistake but a candidate who doesn’t admit to ever making a mistake is not credible.
- What challenges are you looking for in this safety officer position? This is a good general question that helps determine the kind of role the candidate wants and whether they are suitable for position on offer.
- Describe a typical work week as a safety officer? This gets into the nuts and bolts of how the candidate performs in their job. You should expect nothing else but a detailed answer that hopefully fills you with confidence.
- What is your biggest weakness? A classic interview question and for a reason. It forces the candidate to be honest and self-aware and encourages them to come up with solutions for their own shortcoming.
- Why should we hire you? This gives the candidate a clear opportunity to present their case including levels of experience, skills and personality.
- What do you know about our company? If a candidate applies for a job, makes it through to an interview and knows nothing about your company, that’s a bad sign. The ideal candidate will have a broad knowledge base of the company.
- Why do you want to work with us? A candidate should be able to present a compelling case, including a detailed knowledge of the business and its values. The right candidate should want to be part of a company’s culture.

- Understanding what makes a positive work climate and how it affects performance
- Improving the work climate by motivating employees and providing challenge, clarity, and support
- Strengthening communication by listening, understanding, and responding constructively
- Providing opportunities to learn, create and be innovative
