HASANZ Register

If you're looking for a workplace health and safety adviser, start at the HASANZ Register!

Launched in July this year, the HASANZ Register is a one stop shop to find verified workplace health and safety professionals. It can be a useful HR recruitment tool to help screen applicants for health and safety roles within organisations and to find consultants to complement your own competencies.

This national, online database is the only one of its kind in New Zealand, covering the broad range of health and safety disciplines€¦from occupational health nurses to ergonomists, as well as generalists who can assist with everything from health and safety audits to developing and implementing health and safety policies. The HASANZ Register is FREE to use.

The Health and Safety Association of New Zealand (HASANZ) is the driving force behind the Register. "The Register grew from a recommendation made in the Report of the Workplace Health and Safety Taskforce, resulting from the Pike River mine tragedy," says HASANZ Executive Director Philip Aldridge. "Giving businesses better access to reliable, quality health and safety advice and services will help reduce the risk of serious harm in New Zealand workplaces. The Register has been developed with significant input from both health and safety professionals and businesses, with funding provided by WorkSafe and ACC."

You can't just pay to be on the Register €“ you have to earn your place there. Firstly, to apply to list on the Register you have to belong to a HASANZ Full Member association. Then you have to meet stringent registration standards set by that association. HASANZ Registered professionals must provide evidence of their qualifications, experience, continuing professional development, commitment to a code of conduct, good character and required insurance cover.

Only people who are listed on the HASANZ Register can use the HASANZ Registered quality mark €“ which gives quality assurance.

HRINZ Associate Member Sarah Bond is currently applying to join the HASANZ Register through her membership of NZISM. Head of consultancy, Employ me now! Be Safe Now!, Sarah is both an experienced Human Resources and HSE professional. She welcomes the arrival of the HASANZ Register.

"Because health and safety is so broad, with all the different lenses people have, the HASANZ Register gives you clarity on the skills and competencies you are recruiting for," she says.

She also sees the Register as a valuable safety net when choosing a health and safety consultant. "If  a consultant is on the Register you know their qualifications have been peer reviewed and that they have insurance," says Sarah. "There are a lot of health and safety advisers out there with no formal qualifications or insurance doing contractor reviews and insisting that contractors have these requirements without having them themselves. Often, an HR person in a company has a set budget for recruitment and training and if they're bringing on a health and safety person, they need to have confidence in the integrity of their credentials and baseline ability. The HASANZ Register provides that. If you're going to employ a health and safety professional it's not a dark art!"

She likens the value of HASANZ Registered Professional status to being a Chartered HR Professional and sees it gaining momentum and being necessary for workplace health and safety to stand up as a profession. "It's the integrity and authenticity of it that matters."

For Sarah, becoming a HASANZ Registered Professional also means accessing the benefits that membership of HASANZ brings, including extensive professional networks across health and safety disciplines. "You can access so many networks and valuable information as part of the wider HASANZ community," she says. "We want our advisers to have access to a breadth and depth of knowledge."

HASANZ Registered Chartered Health and Safety Professional Margaret van Schaik has used the HASASNZ Register when recruiting people for her own consultancy, Van Schaik Health & Safety Solutions, a team of experienced career health and safety professionals providing health and safety consulting and training solutions for clients across New Zealand.

"I've recently taken on a couple of new senior consultants and we put it as a stipulation that applicants had to be a HASANZ Registered Professional or in the process of applying to be one," she says. "I'm HASANZ Registered and set that as a baseline for competence in my team. It gives you assurance they have been through a robust screening process."

Margaret believes the HASANZ Register has wide application.

"We work with a lot of big clients and everyone is struggling to fill health and safety roles," she says. "We always point clients towards the HASANZ Register if they want to approach people directly. They can check out their profiles and see their expertise and the industries they've worked in. The Register isn't just for consultants, it also has value for people working internally in health and safety who want to demonstrate they meet the benchmark that HASANZ Registration sets."

For trusted health and safety advisers with proven experience and capability, go to the HASANZ Register www.register.hasanz.org.nz

*HRINZ is an associate member of HASANZ.