HR Career Profile

OH&S: Reducing Risk in High-risk Industries

Pepper Shepherd, Director and Safety Consultant, PL Solutions

Following many years in the oil and gas industry working as a safety expert for companies such as Shell, Pepper Shepherd has recently taken the plunge, starting her own consultancy business. PL Solutions specialises in HSE (health, safety and environment), a term virtually synonymous with occupational health and safety.

After initially studying commerce/arts, Pepper 'fell' into the workplace safety industry. Working in admin and document control roles in the construction industry while at university, Pepper's exposure to OH&S issues grew; and so did her interest.

Did you do any formal OH&S training?

I studied aspects of OH&S as part of my commerce degree, but when I actually started working in the area, I went back and completed a Diploma in OH&S. I studied part time while I worked and completed it in two years. The course was a good way to concrete the knowledge I'd gained at work. It was also very good for networking and contacts. There were lots of people in the course who had no experience with occupational health and safety at all and it was a really good start for them; a great way to get into the industry.

What are the main issues you face in your business?

There's a lot of regulatory compliance under the Petroleum Act, so we do a lot of risk assessment; looking for anything that could potentially create an issue. Then we put in controls to mitigate the risk - procedural changes, training and also changes in design, and engineering.

There's then ongoing monitoring of compliance, auditing, training, checking for regulatory changes, and analysis of day-to-day incidents that might occur. It's quite a broad scope. But people don't realise how much paperwork is involved! You have to understand and be able to apply legislation in the workplace. And you have to be adaptable, dealing with management as well as site staff.

People talk about 'common sense', but I don't believe in it. If there was common sense, we wouldn't need health and safety specialists! Everybody's idea of what's right is different, so it's about filtering all of that into one single shared thought. We still have incidents occurring because people take shortcuts - it's human nature - so what we're really trying to do is slow people down a bit so they think about what they're doing for a couple of minutes before they do it.

What jobs can people with OH&S training get?

It's pretty much in every industry. You could just about get a job anywhere at the moment in health and safety. There's a high demand. There are well-sought-after roles in oil and gas and mining. It depends on whether you want to do it specifically as a career or just as an add-on to your existing job, but there's plenty of work.

The course gives you really good background knowledge to take you forward. And if you're already working in an industry like construction, mining or oil and gas then you already have a foot in the door. But it's not exclusive. You can come from anywhere at the moment with a desire to give it a go; there's enough jobs out there.

It's a really dynamic area. There are so many projects, so there are a lot of travel opportunities - in different states and in different countries. Most of the site work is outside the main cities, but the compliance work is mostly in the cities, so there's a good mix. It just depends where you want to take it.

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