Why Business Risk Consultant is Important for Business | Required Skills

The mission of the Business risk consultant is to evaluate the various potential occupational risks of a company and to propose and implement the necessary prevention. Business risk consultant also known as professional risk prevention engineer, consultant in prevention of psycho-social risks, psychologist of labor, hygiene and safety adviser and workplace safety and health worker, etc

Why Business Risk Consultant is Important for Business

Prospecting and Analysis of the Mission Entrusted to

• Contact customer.
• Analyze your request and rephrase it.

Drafting of a proposal for intervention

• Define the issues defined (expressed by the client) and latent (not expressed by the client but present in the request’s watermark) of the intervention.
• Negotiate with the client the conditions of the intervention (cost, schedule, time).

Observation phase

• Observe the operators in real working situation and talk to them.
• Collecting as much information as possible: taking notes, taking pictures (photographs or films), taking measurements (eg noise measurements), etc.
• Study the operation of equipment and safety devices at work.
• Analyze observations as part of a report to the client.

Assessment / Diagnosis

• To deal with economic and social data, including social balance sheets.
• Write and pass questionnaires.
• Conduct qualitative interviews.
• Diagnose the malfunctions observed.
• Draft client analysis report

Implementation and follow-up of an Action Plan

• Highlight proposals for detailed actions in terms of prevention (training of managers, awareness of staff, and exchange of good practices …).
• Facilitate working groups and organize steering committees.

Possible Activities

The professional risk management consultant can intervene as a trainer in the world of education or in business.

It can also carry out external communication activities, at trade fairs, seminars and symposia, which contribute to its mission of economic and technical oversight of professional practices.
Variability of activities

The activities of a Business risk consultant vary according to his specialty.

The consultant specialized in the prevention of psychosocial risks will seek to remedy the psychological suffering of the employees. He is in charge of crisis management (such as suicide) and is responsible for repairing the trauma caused by this crisis. It must also prevent any situation that can generate stress and more generally suffering at work.
The consultant specializing in ergonomics focuses on the physical suffering of employees. 
In particular, it manages safety, hygiene, workstation layout and design.
The function of ergonomist can find its place in different fields of activity which induce profound declensions.

• The industrial field: the ergonomist works mainly on production sites (factories). It takes into consideration essentially physical criteria that affect the safety, comfort and productivity of the employee.
• The medical field: the function of ergonomist is frequently present in hospital environments, to promote the performance of the hospital staff while improving the comfort of patients.
• The domain of multimedia (virtual ergonomics): the ergonomist organizes the contents of a website or a CD-Rom to facilitate its use. The position of multimedia ergonomist is present in the world of software publishing, the creation of websites, but also in the banking sector or more widely in the universe of services.

Required Skills for Business Risk Consultant

Technical Skills

• Good notions in psychology, sociology, physiology (functioning of the human being) …
• Knowledge of safety, hygiene and working conditions.
• Legal knowledge (labor legislation, social security law).
• Very good skills in his field of specialization (work psychology, ergonomics …).
• Practice of techniques and methods of administering questionnaires and collecting data.
• Mastery of qualitative studies, including techniques for conducting exploratory or semi-directive interviews.
• Knowledge of the organization of the company and its environment.
• Excellent knowledge of the field of industrialization (industrial methods, production process).

Personality Traits

• Analytical capacities mobilized during the observation phase.
• Resistance to pressures and influences within the company.
• Political skills: knowing how to position oneself according to the different interlocutors
• Qualities of communication, a mixture of firmness, empathy and diplomacy to assert his position.
• Ability to innovate and bring proposals forward.
• Meaning of the concrete in order to take into account the reality of the company (define what is desirable but also what is possible).
• Perseverance and obstinacy throughout the intervention.
• Rigor in order to respect the progress of the ergonomic approach.
• Curiosity and listening skills to get relevant information.
• Versatility and ability to adapt to different audiences, situations or demands.
• Geographical mobility: accept the frequent trips required for this trade.
• Business qualities needed by any consultant.

Working Environment and Professional Evolution

• Consultants and Associates
• General Manager of the client company
• Human Resources Department
• CHSCT, Staff Representatives
• Directors and production managers
• Services related to production (service methods and industrialization …)
• HSE / QSE Engineers
• Company medical and occupational health service
• Social Workers
• Psychologists

Professional Evolution

• Human Resources Consultant
• HR Development Manager
• Professional Risk Engineer

Factors in the Evolution of the Profession of Business Risk Consultant

This profession is constantly evolving under the burden of regulations on hygiene, safety, working conditions, occupational diseases and accidents at work? But its perimeter has also expanded in the face of the rise of problems related to stress, psycho-social risks and the emergence of the notion of well-being at work.
There is a growing recognition of the psycho-social risks within companies linked to regulatory changes:

• The 2004 European agreement: all companies must now apply the national intra-professional agreement in 2008, which sets out a definition of workplace stress and obliges companies to prevent stress-related problems.
• Darcos emergency plan that requires companies with more than 1,000 employees to implement a diagnosis.

The prevention of psychosocial risks has become all the more important because it forms an integral part of the social responsibility of companies and is part of a CSR approach.