Health & Safety Advisor

Job Introduction

Are you looking for a new challenge that gives you the chance to use your knowledge and expertise of Health and Safety? Looking for a company that wants to help further your career as well as provide you with an exciting, inspiring and fun place to work?  

If the answer to all of these questions is ‘yes’ then you’re just the kind of person we’re looking for! 

A bit about the role

As Health & Safety Advisor, you will be working predominantly at Selfridges’ Head Office at the Oxford Street store, London. There will be occasional visits to Birmingham Bullring, Manchester Exchange and Manchester Trafford stores to provide advice and assistance, ultimately to support in the management of health and safety, improve health & safety culture and knowledge and deliver safe operational practices.

Selfridges operates a flexible approach to remote working for most Head Office functions. The Health and Safety team currently work in this way with regular time spent in the physical stores and Head Office spaces.

As a Health and Safety Advisor, you will be responsible for:

Influencing and Engaging

• The key stakeholders for this role are the various site management teams, including Visual Merchandising, Retail Operations and Events. This role will partner with them to ensure the delivery of projects and activity are safe and risks are managed appropriately
  • Key to these relationships is the ability to understand the challenges of the various stakeholders and then to identify and manage risk to enable Selfridges to meet our purpose to reinvent retail and put the customer at the heart of what we do.
• Improve the knowledge and understanding of the responsibilities relating to health and safety amongst stakeholders and in doing so, positively influence the behaviours of their teams
• Support and contribute to creating robust policies and raising awareness of these policies amongst relevant parties
• Maintain awareness of changes within current Health & Safety legislation to ensure continued compliance and deliver up to date advice and support

Incident & accident management

• Investigate and record incidents, accidents, complaints and cases of ill health. Establishing immediate cause, contributory factors and root cause with an agreed action plan to reduce/eliminate future incidents and accidents
• Liaise with relevant authorities as and when required
• Liaise with Customer Services to discuss any incidents/accidents involving customers
• Investigate insurance claims as required to satisfy the requirements of our insurers and their agents
• Complete risk assessments and area inspections with area managers, agree action plans if applicable and support the progress through these actions

Reporting

• Analyse data from both leading and lacking indicators and ensure regular reporting for all stores and areas of the business
• Work with key stakeholders discussing findings of data analysis and the impact on their activity – lowering risks, increasing knowledge and improving behaviours and performance

Training

• Work with the Learning and Development team to create and deliver Health & Safety training 
• Proactively identify training needs and opportunities and support the delivery of them to relevant parties throughout the business

A bit about you

Qualifications/ Training:

• Membership of IOSH (Tech or Grad status, or working towards)
• Essential – IOSH Managing Safely and/or NEBOSH General Certificate qualification (or equivalent)
  • Desirable - NEBOSH Diploma NCRQ or equivalent or working towards

Experience:

• Currently working within a Health & safety role at Advisor level or equivalent
• Retail experience is advantageous but not essential
• Experience working in a fast-paced environment, undergoing change and growth

Technical Skills:

• Use of MS Office
• Sound knowledge of Health and Safety legislation

Personal Attributes/ Behavioural Skills:

• Strong at building working relationships with key stakeholders across all levels – highly approachable and a strong communicator with the ability to influence behaviours
• Ability to work to tight deadlines in a very fast paced environment
• Highly self-motivated individual with strong prioritisation skills
• Flexible approach to suit the needs of the business with a high level of care taken in each task
• Strong team player but can also work autonomously to deliver results
• Passionate about Health, Safety and Retail