Helen stood up at #COHSF2020 and shared her origin story with courageous honesty. Yes, she has been a collector of letters (CFIOSH, CFNZISM, MIIRSM, MSc) and openly admits that there was great value in both her academic and technical qualifications. She’s worked with government and charitable organisations and her current role is National Health and Safety Manager at St John. She has also learnt some hard lessons along the way. One of these lessons was what it’s like to have to defend your professional choice after a set of circumstances eventually lead to injury.
Helen’s presentation focused on what it means to be competent.
Being a member of a technical body, or having a qualification does not make someone competent. Instead, knowledge, skills, experience, an ability to adapt and your attitude combine to create competence.
When it comes to hiring an external safety resource it’s also important to understand how someone connects with your team and your organisational context. No one size fits all!
A discussion around how a contract management project role was scoped and filled at St John was used to illustrate how you can set up an advisor to win. Helen gave her advisor access to people, information and resources. She then continued to provide guidance and oversight as the project progressed, which is a key step that seems to be routinely forgotten about (a.k.a. see me when it’s done).
Sadly, Helen is no longer available for consulting opportunities as her role at St John is full time. However, we can only hope that she keeps speaking at conferences and sharing her hard-earned ideas. The COHSF committee would like to formally thank Helen for taking the time to come and speak to us and would welcome her back anytime.
QUICK FIRE QUESTIONS
1. What has been the highlight of your working career? Providing advice to the independent task force and investigating the RENA
2. What has been the hardest decision that you have had to make during your working career? To take a permanent role
3. What was the hardest lesson that you have had to learn? You really can’t please everyone. You have to be true to yourself and own it.
4. If you could go back to your first year in your professional role, what advice would you give to your younger self? Work to your strengths, enjoy the ride and build a network of trusted champions and mentors.
5. What advice would you give to people starting out in their health and safety career? Learn to listen. Learn to reflect. Trust yourself.
6. What is the key message from your presentation?
There is no silver bullet when it comes to competence, no one size fits all.
7. What is the one thing you would like the audience to do when they leave the conference?
Properly scope the work you need done before engaging an HSE professional.
GET IN CONTACT
Email: helen.parkes@stjohn.org.nz
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/helen-p