Health and safety professionals must look after themselves to ensure they protect others, the new President of the chartered body for the profession says.
Kelly Nicoll recently became the 58th President of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) and has a clear message for her fellow professionals.
“I want to explore how we look after ourselves when we spend so much time looking after others,” she said.
Kelly is an experienced occupational safety and health (OSH) professional. She is currently Head of Environment, Health and Safety at Doncaster Culture and Leisure Trust. In her 15-year career, Kelly has also worked in industries including rail, facilities management, the NHS, construction, events and broadcasting.
She has held several volunteering roles for IOSH, including as a member of the Thames Valley Branch committee, as a mentor and as a member of Council. Away from IOSH, she represents health and safety for a special educational trust in Doncaster and is a board member for the Recovery Coach Academy, which delivers coaching skills for people recovering from addiction.
She took over from Stuart Hughes as IOSH President following the Institution’s AGM on Wednesday 13 November.
Speaking about the key areas she wants to highlight, she said: “I have experienced both burnout and very poor mental health during my career but found that I felt I was unable to reach out to people because I was always the one that others reached out to.
“Building excellence within our profession, one of IOSH’s missions, cannot be done without ensuring that we have the resilience, and the support and network around us when we need it. We cannot create a safe and healthy world of work without the input of others. So, how do we support each other? And how do we ensure that we get the help and support that we need when we need it?”
Kelly has two other key areas she wants to focus on. One is coaching skills, especially management styles, with the other being fatal and significant incidents. The latter has been prompted by her personal experiences of workplace accidents, one of which resulted in a fatality.
She said: “One resulted in a colleague breaking his back in four places. I remember walking into the hospital, hearing him screaming in pain from the other side of the ward, and seeing him in his hospital bed, surrounded by his family, and them looking to me for answers as to why this had happened to their child. The other was a fatal fall from height, and the trauma of picking up the pieces of a business after the tragic loss of a colleague is something I still carry with me.”
After handing over Presidency to Kelly, Stuart has become Immediate Past President. Meanwhile, Richard Bate has become IOSH President-Elect and is due to become President in late 2025.
