Hello Enzo
I hope that things are going better for you at work.
I doubt if there is any HSE certificate or diploma program that will give you the tools to deal with difficult co-workers and management. I guess it comes down to experience and working your way up and learning from other on how to approach specific issues. I am not gonna comment on what you should legally do as previous replies already informed you of those duties and apart from the legal aspect, it should also be clearly stated in you job ticket.
I was very fortunate early in my career to be guided by a expert in communication skills. The company I was working for at that time was using the DuPont STOP® for Each Other observation card system and senior management arranged on site training for the entire HSE team, from fire watchers up to the HSE manager. The most valuable thing I learned during that week was how to approach people who are working unsafe and how (and when) to speak to them.
You will find that most people are aware of the fact that they are taking a short cut or breaking a company procedure when they do so. When they are then caught or seen it is natural that they will look for an excuse to justify this action and most of the time they will act out in anger. How you approach someone in this moment can either escalate or defuse the situation.
You mention that the SMT will not attend any HSE training, but why do you not prepare something in house and specific to your organisation? This can be done in a PowerPoint presentation along with short movie clips and even practical exercises to make it fun and informative. Your MD is clearly aware of the H&S issues, but he himself does not have the answers so he is placing the pressure on you to magically solve it. Did you miss the section in the NEBOSH Diploma where they advise you to obtain magical powers?
Prepare a few training presentations to raise awareness on H&S matters, then draw up a strategic plan and go and discuss this once ready with you MD and get his buy-in. The focus should be less on punishment and more on the collective benefit that can be gained from this. Implement kick-off meetings if you don't have it already prior to high risk activities and raise your H&S concerns here for each step of the task. If this is done properly then the work should be performed both smooth and safe without being stopped. This will not change the safety culture over night, but if everyone is committed, you should see results and hopefully discover the fun side to H&S.
From my experience HSE should be involved from the planning phase to raise concerns and find collective solutions with the team. This approach have two major benefits:
1. You avoid work being stopped due to lack of planning or risk break down that result in unsafe actions.
2. You integrate H&S vision/culture into each task that result in H&S not having to compete with production at a later stage when the work are midway.
Remember that any businesses primary function is to produce and make money and not SAFETY FIRST. We have a use sign at work saying safety first and it makes me smile every time I look at it
I am fortunate to say that we are currently on a 1069 days without LTI and prior to that we reached 1000 days. We also have very little near misses or incidents, but it is an ongoing process of raising awareness, training and being involved that require the participation of the whole organisation.
Feel free to pm me if you have any questions and best of luck with the challenges at work.
