Health and Safety Advisor

The Natural History Museum (NHM) is a world-class visitor attraction, leading science research centre and commercial event space. We use our unique collections and unrivalled expertise to tackle the biggest challenges facing the world today. We care for more than 80 million specimens, both in our London and Tring museums, spanning billions of years and welcome more than five million visitors annually.

The Museum is rightly proud to maintain OHSAS 18001 and is working to achieve ISO 45001 in 2021. There is a strong health and safety culture throughout the organisation. This is a positive and supportive workplace for a health and safety professional.

We are at a pivotal moment in our history as we seek to appoint a Health and Safety Advisor.  In the summer we will launch a new strategy setting out our role as the natural world faces increasing threats.  Building on our world-leading collection, global reputation for science and as one of the world’s leading visitor attractions, the NHM has ambitious plans leading up to the 150 anniversary of the opening of the Waterhouse Building in 2031, making this a truly exciting time to be part of the NHM team.

Diversity and Inclusion at the Museum

We welcome applications from everyone – diversity, inclusion and the feeling of belonging matters to us. By attracting people to work for us from a broad range of diverse backgrounds we can continue to look at the world with fresh eyes and find new ways of doing things. We offer a stimulating and professional environment in which to work.. This is a remarkable place and we look for staff who can work according to our values – we champion diversity, encourage creativity, we are connected, and we value evidence.

About the role

We have an exciting opportunity for an experienced, talented and friendly health and safety advisor to join the team at one of the UK’s best loved museums and leading research institutions.

Reporting to the Health and Safety Manager, you will play an important part in the provision of health and safety advice to the whole Museum community, across the full range of the Museum’s business. This will include supporting the science facility, permanent and temporary exhibitions, events and all those working in the museum.

In addition to day to day health and safety you are responsible for maintaining the Museum’s H&S software applications, including incident reporting and workstation assessments as well as supporting staff to use the software.

The intranet is the primary source of information for most staff and volunteers; ensuring the health, safety and wellbeing pages are useful, easy to use and up to date is a key part of the adviser role.

There is also the opportunity to take on radiation protection supervisor responsibilities working with colleagues in Science and leading or collaborating on projects, which could be with any part of the Museum’s business.

Carrying out internal audits and supporting the accredited audit program, OHSAS 18001 and ISO 45001 is part of this role as is supporting the internal inspection regime.

Advising on fire safety issues will also be required to support the project and event teams.

We are looking for someone who is enthusiastic and committed to a career in health and safety management and will support the appointed candidate to develop necessary additional skills.

About you

You will be an experienced health and safety professional used to working in a multi-disciplinary workplace.  You may not come from the museum or public sector but will bring an understanding of complex environments with a wide range of risk.

Well organised and tidy, you will be an exceptional administrator and enjoy working with systems – such that the software facilitates many of our H&S requirements. Proactive and curious, you will keep your knowledge of latest H&S products up to date. You will enjoy working with latest software to eliminate paper-based records.

You will observant and vigilant, to identify risks where you find them and outside of regular audits.

You will need to be a good problem solver who can take the lead when necessary. We are looking for someone who can find solutions rather than simply raise objections. You will need to have the confidence to apply your knowledge and use your professional judgement to make good decisions. You will also need to demonstrate good anticipation, to identify problems before they arise and find solutions.

Highly collaborative and personable, you will need to have good people skills to build strong working relationships and trust within the museum community. You will bring a helpful customer service approach to the job.

Excellent written skills are essential to prepare investigation reports, audit recommendations and to communicate clearly with colleagues by email. You will relish task-orientated work within a very varied role, a role that blends repetitive work and project work.

Closing 9am on Wednesday 21 August 2019

To apply please visit: https://careers.nhm.ac.uk/templates/CIPHR/jobdetail_1761.aspx