Safety Isn’t the Safety Police Anymore, and That’s a Good Thing

After 15 years recruiting in the safety profession, if there is one thing I have watched shift more than anything else in that time, it is the perception of what a safety professional actually does, and what they are worth to a business. 

When I started, the stereotypical was someone with a clipboard and a hard hat doing audits, telling people what they were doing wrong, and then walking away. The ‘safety police,’ people used to call them. They would tick the box, hand the problem back to operations, and move on to the next site. That is not the role anymore, and frankly, it probably should not have been the role back then either!

From Auditor to Influencer 

The best analogy I give people is the driving instructor. Think about your first lesson: the instructor sat next to you and said: put your seatbelt on before you turn the ignition. Simple and non-negotiable. And now? Most of us don’t even think about it. It is coded into how we get into the car. 

That is what great safety practice looks like. Rather than telling people what they are doing wrong and walking away, it is the teaching, influencing and coaching, until safe behaviour becomes second nature. It is about having people own their own safety, not because someone is watching, but because it is just the way they work. 

That shift, from auditor to influencer, is the single biggest change I have seen in 15 years. The technical skills, like knowing the legislation, understanding the WHS codes of practice, being across duty of care obligations are expected. What separates the top safety professionals now is their soft skills. Can they walk into a site, read the room, build trust with a team, and get people to genuinely buy into safe work practices? That is the game. 

The Safety Pyramid 

I always describe the safety profession as a pyramid. At the base are the advisors and business partners and there are thousands of them across the country. This is the engine room of the profession. These roles exist in construction, logistics, manufacturing, mining, healthcare... Demand is consistent and the volume is real. 

As you move up the pyramid, the numbers thin out. Heads of Safety and Group Safety Directors only really emerged as formal functions 15 to 20 years ago. A decade back, there were maybe 300 or 400 at that level nationally. Now it is several hundred more and will likely keep growing; the senior market is still maturing. 

The size of any safety team is directly linked to risk exposure. A high-risk business, like waste management or construction, can run a team of 20 or more. They have to; people could get seriously injured, or worse, doing that work. A small to medium sized white-collar business might only have one person because the risk profile does not warrant more. A broadcaster, where journalists are reporting from flood zones or fire fronts, sits somewhere in between; medium risk means medium sized team. 

Qualifications Are Getting Serious 

For a long time, a Certificate IV in WHS was the entry ticket. It still gets you in the door at the advisor level, the course is practical, legislatively focused, and broadly accessible. But the trend is clear: hiring managers are increasingly expecting a Diploma, or even a Bachelor’s degree in OHS. A master’s is becoming relevant at the senior end too. 

The AIHS has built out a chartered professional pathway that is gaining real momentum. For those with 10 or more years’ experience and a master’s qualification, chartered status is becoming a point of differentiation, and some organisations are starting to make it a soft requirement. It is a signal that the profession is taking itself seriously. 

One recommendation I consistently make to safety professionals, regardless of career stage, is to consider a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment. When you boil down what a safety business partner does every day, it is adult education, teaching, influencing, changing behaviour. A formal framework for doing that well is genuinely valuable. 

Psychosocial Risk: The New Frontier 

This is where a lot of safety professionals are feeling the pressure. Psychosocial risk has become a legitimate part of the WHS framework, and employers are now expected to manage it with the same rigour as physical hazards. Bullying, harassment, job design, workload are safety as well as HR issues. 

The challenge is that most safety professionals have grown their careers through physical risk management. They know manual handling. They know working at heights. They know live traffic requirements. Being asked to manage psychosocial hazards is a different skill set entirely, and many are honest enough to say, “I’m not a psychologist, I have not been trained in this.” 

This is where the overlap with HR becomes significant. Safety and HR need to work closely together on this. It is additional work, but it is where the profession is heading. The safety professionals who are open to this and who get ahead in it will be the ones in demand. 

AI and Technology: Exciting and a Little Bit Scary 

Most organisations are still in the testing phase, scratching the surface of what is possible. But the innovation happening right now is significant. 

Cameras are being used to monitor workplaces to track activity patterns and flag fatigue or near-miss clusters in real time. Drones are replacing people for high-risk inspections on rail networks, power lines and rooftops. Predictive analytics are identifying risk before incidents happen. Body-worn cameras in environments like policing are used to monitor situational escalation and prompt de-escalation or extraction before things turn dangerous. 

The safety professionals I speak to are mostly excited, a bit curious, and a little worried, which is a balanced response. The technology is moving fast, and the profession needs to move with it. If you are still doing safety the way it was done 5-10 years ago, you are already behind. 

Safety never sleeps. But now, neither does the technology backing it up. 

Stephen Coldicutt is Associate Director of The Safe Step, a specialist safety recruitment consultancy operating across Australia and New Zealand. He has 15 years’ experience placing safety professionals across all levels, sectors, and risk profiles.