Women Working in Workplace Health & Safety

Workplace Health and Safety is a rewarding profession for women to build a career. Females can provide unique skills and perspectives which ensure WHS teams achieve the best results for their organisations.

Working in the WHS sector provides interesting career opportunities for women. Health and Safety can be a great way to influence an organisation's culture, meet people and learn new things.

Gender and other forms of diversity are essential for achieving the best business outcomes. “If you don't have diversity in your team, you end up with 'groupthink',” says Elizabeth Tosti, General Manager, Safety at ComfortDelGro. 

The health and safety industry can achieve the best results by understanding a variety of perspectives. “You need people who come from different experiences, who bring different ways of thinking and working together and that's the value of having a diverse team,” says Tosti.

Women may also be able to contribute depth and breadth of skills to a health and safety team. “There's a lot of research that says we're really good at non-verbal cues and perhaps teasing out some of the answers or suggestions from the team,” explains Horizon Power’s Regional Safety Advisor, Debbie Brown. 

Employers value collaboration, communication and influencing skills when recruiting for Workplace Health and Safety professionals.

Workplace Health and Safety is an extremely rewarding profession for women to build a career in. “Just go for it! It's a lot of fun,” says Ms Brown. “You're always learning something and you get to really spend a lot of time understanding how people work.”

“Women should definitely get into a career in health and safety,” agrees Ms Tosti. “You can have such a diverse, exciting time working in so many different industries. It's a role that is so critical to every organisation, and you can be part of the leadership team and have a huge influence on an organisation's culture.”

Amazon’s Senior WHS Manger, Implementation, Chris Edwards believes technical knowledge is not enough to succeed in Workplace Health and Safety. Her advice to females entering the WHS profession includes:

• Look for a strong female mentor who can support you in your career. 
• Seek opportunities to network outside of your current organisation.
• Focus-in on building your soft skills.

“Stay humble, ask a lot of questions, and just acknowledge that you won't know the same thing that our workforce does... and that's a good thing. You can come from a fresh point of view,” adds Ms Brown. 

If you are a female safety professional looking to start out in the sector or take the next step in your career, please reach out to The Safe Step team.

Review current HSE job listings or submit your resume to get the ball rolling. 

Keilee Armstrong and Matthew Thomas are Consultants at The Safe Step. They specialise in supporting early to mid-level HSE professionals in the NSW market.