HSE Community Insights - Alex Sciascia
Page Published Date:
September 19, 2019
We spoke with Alex Sciascia, Divisional SHEQ Manager at Visionstream to gain insights into Alex’s HSE journey to date, what opportunities the sector are faced with and advice on future HSE capability requirements.
What do you think the 3 biggest opportunities that the HSE profession are faced with in the constantly changing world of work?
“The first is around remaining visible and demonstrating value. As organisations continue to progress towards more streamlined structures, it’s critical for HSE professionals to avoid becoming desk bound and purely focused on meaningless administrative activities. A HSE professionals best and most impactful work is often having meaningful conversations with frontline and operational leaders in a coaching and mentoring capacity.”
“The second opportunity I see within the HSE sector is not losing sight of what our core function is, which is about providing a service to our stakeholders. Consider asking yourself what yo should stop doing? i.e.;
- Are the business needs being considered? Keep it simple, there’s nothing wrong with fewer initiatives and a simpler strategy. Do we really need 10-15 strategic initiatives on a strategy which are complex and unachievable? Or are we better placed in delivering 2 to 3 key items while continuing to improve on our current service offering?
- Are we trying to be strategic for the sake of being strategic and building our own personal profiles? We need to be accessible, approachable and think like a true business partner. This has its own challenges so it’s important to get clear on why people come to us, ask yourself what are my stakeholders coming to me for? and, what are they not coming to me for, but they should?
- Health and Wellbeing is at the forefront of many organizational strategies and rightfully so – is it being resourced effectively to ensure it doesn’t lose focus or is it an add on to a person’s role who is already at capacity? Thus, risking what the core function is, I see this is an ongoing challenge”.
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What are the top 3 capabilities required in your view for success in the future?
“Currently there is much discussion on certifying HSE professionals and verifying a person’s capability within the HSE space. I am of the view that we don’t need to be the whole problem solvers, our Operational people have many of the answers, an HSE professional needs to be able to foster an environment where we allow our people to determine the solution to their problem. Therefore, I see soft skills becoming more important than technical skills”.
“The 3 capabilities that I value are:”
“Being people focused, understanding who your stakeholders are and how you engage them because relationships are vital”.
“Having strong business acumen, the ability to understand the commerciality and operational impact our input has across the organization”.
“Finally, the ability to embrace technology is becoming more vital than ever.”.
Looking back over your career, if you could change one thing, what would that be?
“I think I would have focused on gaining more solid experience instead of chasing financial gain early in my career.. Jumping too quickly can have a detrimental effect on your career path and essentially leave you poorly prepared for your next challenge. Move because it’s the right fit and not because it’s a financial fit. If I was to share a key learning from my experience, I would advise young HSE professionals to assess the values of the business and ensure sure they align with your values”. Trust your gut instinct, it is more often than not, spot on!”
What is innovative about the organisation you are working for?
“We’re a project focused organisation with thousands of contractors conducting work on our behalf. Managing this type of workforce is challenging, as we have may have thousands of job sites across the country on any given day. Our focus is on tools that allow us to better target high-risk activities allowing for mitigation of risk and better utilisation of resource”.
