How to become a good SHO

SHO is interesting occupation that can challenge our capacity & capability in managing OSH at workplace... involved multidisciplinary including technical knowledge such as engineering, chemical, health, management etc making SHO as a challenging job...

so, how to become a good SHO? I received a good comment from OSH colleague in NRG-MASHO network... below is the excerpt from his email..

On Thu, Oct 8, 2009 at 1:28 PM, Dinesh Kumar wrote:
Dear All,

I had received a lot of CV’s; thanks and I’ll be contacting you guys if there is any available position arises. Apologize; I can’t reply your mails personally; it’s too many to reply.

I would like to share some information and let us think: How to be a successful SHO? For many people or legally, it means that you need to study the SHO course, pass the NIOSH examination, get the required experience and register with DOSH. You’ll be walking to fame earning a very high salary. Right? It’s wrong actually….

The above requirement is the basic entry passport to be a competent SHO. Of course it will improve from your present life situation but it won’t guarantee you to be a successful SHO. You need to be very much more competent than that.

I think what going to make a difference whether you are going to be successful safety manager, safety engineer, SHO or even a safety supervisor are:

Your public relation skills: You must be able to communicate efficiently, speak good language and always look presentable. Safety is often described as non profitable department. Always there will be situation where we need to convince our boss to implement or purchase some things. If your PR is not good, your boss won’t buy your idea. Really. Everybody will have the confidence when dealing with a guy whom has a good PR. When you are in a meeting, speak confidently, don’t talk nonsense and ensure that everybody understands what you are trying to convey. You must be able to speak your mind in front of people.
Its IT world out there. Computer applications must be at your finger tips, you must be able to do good reports, make presentation slides and write commanding emails all the time. A work memo is not like sending text messages; most people still lack this basic skills (I noticed a lot of mails sent to the group are really sub standard). You can use this group as your learning platform on this matter.
Leadership skills. Safety line requires a lot of it. If you can’t show that you can lead your workers, then you are in no business doing safety.
Education. It’s been a trend these days that many people start taking safety courses right after they finish their SPM. I can’t see the logic: A full time SHO course is not even a month and a full time engineering degree is at least 3 years. Can we expect to be paid the same after we graduate? The thing here is you must have a tertiary education; a recognized diploma or degree in certain field and do the safety course as a major study later on. Now days there are even a lot of degree or master program in safety as well.
Knowledge. I mean real working situation knowledge. A lot of people out there will try to bullshit to us and find their way out; so don’t be fooled by them. Hit right to their face with your knowledge. Power will come with great knowledge. I’ve seen many cases here where the SHO will be pushed to do jobs that actually not related to him; just because it’s in context with safety. Good knowledge will let you judge how you suppose to handle this kind of situation.
Be practical. I’ve seen normally SHO’s are more concern on the legal matters. They will be so worried if their place didn’t comply with certain issues. For example there is a case recently where someone’ fire extinguishers doesn’t have the bomba cert and he has been so worried about it. What’s the scare here actually? As long as the FE can be used, explain to bomba the company situation and promise them that you’ll renew the cert as soon as possible. That’s all. The bomba or DOSH not going to penalize you, instead they’ll give you much more suggestions to improve your work place.
Goals. Set your goals. What do you plan to achieve in your career?


This mail did not intend to criticize anyone here; I’m just doing my part to the community and share my knowledge.These is all based on my personal experience and maybe some of you guys won’t agree with me as well. There are a lot of successful and knowledgeable guys in this group that I had come across. Maybe they can share their knowledge as well.