We are recruiting for a Health and Safety Advisor
Who are we?
Howden is a global insurance group with employee ownership at its heart. We're experts helping clients adapt and thrive in a changing world. Together, we have pushed the boundaries of insurance. We are united by a shared passion and no-limits mind-set, and our strength lies in our ability to collaborate as a powerful international team comprised of 23,000 employees and spanning 56 countries.
Our people are our biggest asset as well as our largest shareholder group and are everything that makes us unique; our inclusive culture, the quality service we offer our clients, and our continued growth, all come from our people-first approach. There’s no such thing as individual success. We all need to play our part, contributing our skills and experience to make a true difference. That’s Howden.
Why work at Howden?
We have always been employee-owned and driven by entrepreneurial spirit. Right from the beginning, we've focused on employing talented individuals and empowering them to make a real difference to the company, whilst building successful and fulfilling careers at the same time. Simply put, we hire talented specialists and give them what they need to make a difference for clients. Always have, always will.
People join Howden for many different reasons, but they stay for the same one: our culture. It’s what sets us apart, and the reason our employees have been turning down disappointed head-hunters for years. Whatever your priorities – work/life balance, career progression, sustainability, volunteering – you’ll find like-minded people driving change at Howden.
What is the role?
To assist the Head of Health and Safety UKI to actively promote health and safety compliance, improve the safety culture and deliver quality support to the UK and Irish business, with future expansion potential for global delivery.
What will you be doing?
- Assist with the roll out of the Health and Safety Strategy and Policy as instructed by the Head of Health & Safety
- Delivering short in-house training and toolbox talks internally to staff or any other training requirements as needed
- Assist with the investigation of accidents and incidents and liaison with the Business Continuity Team around emergency preparedness
- Assist with the creation of risk assessments for activities and events and maintain the risk assessment library
- Support the Catering teams with setting up food safety inspections and procedures, including liaison with the retained food safety consultancy
- Carrying out internal audits of premises in the UK and Ireland and follow up visits where necessary, driving forward actions from the fire risk assessments and H&S inspections carried out by the fire consultant and attend office safety sampling catch up meetings with the Health and Safety Administrators to close local inspection actions by the site coordinators
- Liaising with Health and Safety Administrators, Corporate Real Estate Services (CRES), landlords of sites and other Operations staff with regards to safety improvements and training performance improvement
- Offer guidance to the Health and Safety Administrators
- Give workstation assessment advice, carry out risk assessments over Teams where possible and engage with retained DSE consultancy for home workers where necessary
- Review all expectant mother risk assessments which are self-completion questionnaires logged in a shared secure area
- Administration of the hybrid worker online DSE queries escalated from the administrators and course provider
- Creating agenda and minutes from the Health and Safety Committee and following up actions to assist the Health and Safety Manager
- Maintain a record of all safety management documentation to ensure it remains up to date for version control including annual review of risk assessments
- Deputizing for the Health and Safety Manager at Group Corporate Services meetings where required
What are we looking for?
- Ability to work in a fast-paced dynamic environment
- Knowledge of food safety and HACCP procedures (desirable but not essential)
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, along with demonstrable presentation skills
- Excellent MS Office IT skills including use of Word, Excel and PowerPoint and Co-pilot/AI applications
- Ability to handle multiple competing priorities
- Ability to work independently as well as collaboratively and make decisions based on competent knowledge.
- Advanced DSE Workstation assessor experience/reasonable adjustments
- A comprehensive knowledge of current health and safety legislation and relevant standards and food safety requirements
- Accident investigation, auditing skills, inspections and risk assessment skills.
- Proven track record in providing professional, technical and practical health and safety advice and training internally
- Minimum NEBOSH Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety or equivalent (Construction, Fire, International)
- Membership of IOSH (minimum Tech IOSH essential)
- Level 2 Food Safety (desirable but not essential)
What do we offer in return?
A career that you define.
Our business succeeds by allowing our people to make a mark in the areas they care about most: personal development, volunteering, and fundraising for charity, or creating new insurance products that address society’s greatest challenges.
And we know that separate home and work lives don't really exist. If you're happy and healthy at home, you're more likely to be happy and fulfilled at work – and vice versa. That's why we do our best to support our people in every aspect of their lives.
Diversity and Inclusion
At Howden we value diversity - there is no one Howden ‘personality type’. Instead, we’re looking for individuals who share the same values as us:
- Our successes have all come from someone brave enough to try something new
- We support each other, in the small everyday moments and the bigger challenges
- We are determined to make a positive difference, at work and beyond
We consider our people our chief competitive advantage and as such we treat colleagues, candidates, clients, and business partners with equality, fairness, and respect – regardless of age, disability, race, religion or belief, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, or family circumstances.
Reasonable adjustments
We're committed to providing reasonable accommodations at Howden to ensure that our positions align well with your needs. Besides the usual adjustments such as software, IT, and office setups, we can also accommodate other changes such as flexible hours* or hybrid working*.
If you're excited by this role but have some doubts about whether it’s the right fit for you, send us your application – if your profile fits the role’s criteria, we will be in touch to assist in helping to get you set up with any reasonable adjustments you may require.
*Not all positions can accommodate changes to working hours or locations. Reach out to your Recruitment Partner if you want to know more.
Our sustainability promise
We’re on a life-long journey to become an ever-more sustainable group. It's a commitment to taking care of our people and the world we live in, to doing good business, and to making a positive impact wherever we can. Our governance processes, company policies, and review systems are all geared towards our goal of making a positive impact in the world. You can read more about our sustainability work here.