SHEQ and the OHS Act in hiring decisions

Why the appointment letter matters

South African occupational health and safety law places duties on the employer and allows specific duties to be assigned in writing to named people. Those written appointments create real accountability. When you hire into a role that carries one, you are not only buying skills, you are deciding who carries that duty on site.

It follows that the interview should cover the appointments the person has held, what they were responsible for and how they discharged that responsibility in practice.

What a strong SHEQ candidate shows you

• A working knowledge of the legislation, regulations and standards relevant to your operation
• Real incident investigation experience, including root cause work and the follow through
• Evidence of audits passed and, more usefully, findings closed out
• Contractor management experience, which is where many plants are weakest
• The ability to influence production managers rather than only report on them

The credibility problem

A SHEQ manager who cannot hold a conversation with a production manager about throughput will be ignored, whatever the policy says. The best people in this field understand the process well enough to propose a safer way of achieving the same output, instead of simply stopping the job.

When we shortlist for SHEQ roles we test that directly. Technical knowledge is necessary, but influence is what changes the incident numbers.

A note for hiring managers

If your last SHEQ manager left because they were not supported, the market usually knows. Be ready to explain what has changed. Candidates in this field check, because their own name goes on the appointment letter.