IOSH competency framework to 'drive highest standards'

Expectations of professionals working in health and safety have changed significantly in the past decade. As businesses strive to become more sustainable, OSH professionals must demonstrate a range of competencies to embed good health, safety and wellbeing effectively in workplace cultures. 

Factors influencing change and transformation, including increased business complexity, technological advances, the gig economy and evolving platforms and processes, all challenge the capability of today’s OSH professionals. 

This new competency framework – Professional standards for safety and health at work – expands on strong technical skills, to include the ‘soft skills’ and business skills OSH professionals need to influence and drive change.

The 69 competencies are divided into 12 areas across Technical, Core and Behavioural categories. 

They are: 

• Technical
  • Health and safety law
  • Risk management
  • Incident management
  • Culture
  • Sustainability
• Core
  • Strategy
  • Planning
  • Leadership and management
• Behavioural
  • Stakeholder management
  • Personal performance
  • Communication
  • Working with others

The newly updated competency framework covers all the skills, knowledge and behaviours needed by occupational safety and health professionals. 

It reflects the findings of an extensive research project which included focus groups, desktop research and analysis of over 250,000 data sets from Blueprint, IOSH’s first generation self-assessment tool.

Vanessa Harwood-Whitcher, director of professional services said, “As the Chartered body that sets the standards for occupational safety and health, one of IOSH’s key roles is to help OSH professionals keep pace with rapid change in the workplace. 

“When combined with the enhanced tools coming from IOSH in 2020, the new competency framework will help to drive the highest standards of capability within the profession. In the meantime, it is a powerful resource that individuals and their managers can use to steer career development and optimise team performance.”

The release of the updated framework will be followed in 2020 by the launch of an enhanced suite of practical tools to assist employers and professionals. 

These will include Blueprint 2.0, a new CPD scheme, new technical guides and a free Career Hub for members, with access to thousands of learning resources and career planning tools.

For more information please visit www.iosh.com/competencyframework