Top 12 Health and Safety Coordinator Skills to Put on Your Resume
A Health and Safety Coordinator keeps people out of harm’s way and the business on the right side of the rules. Your resume should show a sharp mix of technical know‑how, clear communication, and fast, steady problem-solving. Prove you can cut risk, drive compliance, and nurture a safety-first culture that actually sticks.
Health and Safety Coordinator Skills
- OSHA Compliance
- Risk Assessment
- Incident Investigation
- Hazard Recognition
- Emergency Response
- Safety Training
- Ergonomics
- Industrial Hygiene
- Environmental Management
- ISO 45001
- Safety Audits
- EHS Software
1. OSHA Compliance
OSHA compliance means aligning workplace practices with applicable safety and health standards—federal OSHA or an approved state plan—to prevent injuries, illnesses, and fatalities.
Why It's Important
It cuts incidents, shields the organization from penalties, and signals to workers that their well-being isn’t negotiable.
How to Improve OSHA Compliance Skills
Conduct regular training: Tailor by role and risk. Refresh often. Verify understanding, don’t just take attendance.
Perform risk assessments: Systematically scan tasks, equipment, and environments. Rank hazards and act in priority order.
Build a living safety plan: Clear procedures, emergency actions, safe equipment use, reporting workflows. Update when processes change.
Use proper signage and labeling: Standardized, visible, maintained. HazCom that workers actually grasp.
Inspect and maintain: Planned walkthroughs, equipment checks, and prompt repairs. Document, track, close out.
Foster a speak‑up culture: Anonymous channels, zero retaliation, quick feedback loops.
Keep records tight: Training, inspections, incidents, corrective actions. Accurate, current, retrievable.
Stay current: Monitor regulatory updates and consensus standards; adjust programs proactively.
How to Display OSHA Compliance Skills on Your Resume
2. Risk Assessment
Risk assessment identifies hazards, evaluates likelihood and severity, and drives controls to reduce risk to an acceptable level.
Why It's Important
It focuses effort where danger truly lives, preventing injuries and downtime while directing resources with precision.
How to Improve Risk Assessment Skills
Identify hazards: Walk the floor, review tasks, tap worker insight, analyze past incidents and near misses.
Evaluate risk: Score likelihood and consequence. Visualize with a matrix to prioritize action.
Control with hierarchy: Eliminate or substitute first, then engineering and administrative controls; PPE last line.
Train and communicate: Make controls visible and practical. Reinforce expectations through toolbox talks.
Review on change: New equipment, processes, or staff? Reassess. Audit effectiveness and recalibrate.
How to Display Risk Assessment Skills on Your Resume
3. Incident Investigation
A structured process to uncover root causes of injuries, illnesses, property damage, and near misses—and to prevent repeats.
Why It's Important
It turns bad news into better systems, strengthens compliance, and protects people.
How to Improve Incident Investigation Skills
Train on methods: Evidence gathering, interviewing, timeline building, and bias reduction.
Standardize reporting: Clear forms, prompt notification, photos and sketches, preservation of evidence.
Use root cause analysis: 5 Whys, fishbone diagrams, and barrier analysis to move past blame.
Capture near misses: Treat them like gold. Trend them. Fix weak signals before they roar.
Revise controls: Update procedures, training, and engineering measures based on findings.
Close the loop: Verify corrective actions, measure effectiveness, and share lessons learned.
How to Display Incident Investigation Skills on Your Resume
4. Hazard Recognition
Spotting physical, chemical, biological, ergonomic, and psychosocial threats before they bite.
Why It's Important
Early detection means faster controls, fewer surprises, and a steadier operation.
How to Improve Hazard Recognition Skills
Educate broadly: Teach hazard types and indicators, matched to your workplace realities.
Inspect with purpose: Use targeted checklists; vary times and routes; include frontline staff.
Practice through drills: Tabletop and live exercises sharpen eyes and instincts.
Make reporting easy: Simple channels. Quick acknowledgment. Visible fixes.
Mine your data: Incidents, observations, maintenance logs—trend and act.
Keep learning: Refresh competencies with periodic workshops and peer sharing.
How to Display Hazard Recognition Skills on Your Resume
5. Emergency Response
Planned, coordinated actions to stabilize crises—medical events, fires, chemical releases, severe weather—and restore normal operations.
Why It's Important
Seconds matter. Competent response limits harm, keeps people calm, and cuts recovery time.
How to Improve Emergency Response Skills
Assess and plan: Identify credible scenarios, define roles, routes, and shutdown procedures. Keep contact lists current.
Train and drill: Evacuations, shelter-in-place, spill response, CPR/first aid. Vary conditions and evaluate performance.
Strengthen communications: Redundant channels, plain-language alerts, and accountability procedures.
Equip and maintain: Alarms, extinguishers, spill kits, AEDs—inspected, stocked, and accessible.
Debrief and improve: After-action reviews with clear corrective actions and owners.
Coordinate externally: Align with local responders and building management for smoother joint operations.
How to Display Emergency Response Skills on Your Resume
6. Safety Training
Teaching people how to work safely, comply with rules, and respond when things go sideways.
Why It's Important
Knowledge reduces errors. Good training also builds habits that last longer than a slide deck.
How to Improve Safety Training Skills
Customize content: Match hazards, tasks, and literacy levels. Translate where needed.
Make it interactive: Simulations, demonstrations, peer teaching, and scenario-based practice.
Blend delivery: E‑learning for fundamentals, hands‑on for critical tasks, microlearning for refreshers.
Keep it current: Update for new equipment, procedures, and standards.
Measure and adapt: Quizzes, observations, and incident trends guide improvements.
Enable supervisors: Equip leaders to coach and reinforce on the job.
How to Display Safety Training Skills on Your Resume
7. Ergonomics
Designing work to fit people—less strain, better posture, smoother motion, fewer injuries.
Why It's Important
Comfort fuels productivity and keeps musculoskeletal disorders from quietly draining your operation.
How to Improve Ergonomics Skills
Assess work tasks: Look for force, awkward postures, repetition, contact stress, and vibration.
Educate workers: Neutral postures, proper setup, safe lifting, and early reporting of discomfort.
Engineer solutions: Adjustable stations, mechanical assists, redesigned tools, better materials handling.
Encourage movement: Microbreaks, task rotation, stretch routines where appropriate.
Track outcomes: Discomfort surveys, injury data, and productivity metrics to steer improvements.
Include remote work: Provide guidance and checklists for home office setups.
How to Display Ergonomics Skills on Your Resume
8. Industrial Hygiene
Anticipating, recognizing, evaluating, and controlling exposure to chemical, physical, biological, and ergonomic hazards.
Why It's Important
Healthy workers mean fewer illnesses, fewer claims, and steadier operations.
How to Improve Industrial Hygiene Skills
Survey and sample: Air, noise, heat, and surface testing guided by task observations.
Apply the hierarchy: Eliminate or substitute hazardous agents; then engineer, administer, and, finally, equip with PPE.
Control exposure: Ventilation upgrades, isolation, enclosure, process changes, and validated PPE programs.
Educate and fit‑test: Train on hazards and protective measures; verify PPE fit and use.
Monitor over time: Periodic sampling and health surveillance where appropriate.
Stay compliant: Align with applicable exposure limits and documentation requirements.
How to Display Industrial Hygiene Skills on Your Resume
9. Environmental Management
Planning, controlling, and improving how operations interact with air, water, land, and waste—meeting legal duties and shrinking impacts.
Why It's Important
Good stewardship protects people, avoids fines, and builds credibility with customers and communities.
How to Improve Environmental Management Skills
Assess impacts: Map aspects and impacts across processes; prioritize the significant few.
Ensure compliance: Track permits, limits, and reporting deadlines. Align programs with recognized standards such as ISO 14001.
Train the workforce: Spill prevention, waste segregation, and emergency procedures.
Drive sustainability: Reduce waste, conserve energy and water, and prefer safer materials.
Use PDCA: Plan goals, do the work, check performance, act to improve—repeatedly.
Engage stakeholders: Communicate performance and collaborate on improvements.
Prepare for incidents: Maintain spill plans, conduct drills, and stage supplies.
How to Display Environmental Management Skills on Your Resume
10. ISO 45001
The international standard for occupational health and safety management systems, designed to prevent work‑related injury and ill health and to drive continual improvement.
Why It's Important
It gives a clear, globally recognized framework to manage risk, engage workers, and measure progress.
How to Improve ISO 45001 Skills
Run a gap analysis: Compare your current system against the standard to pinpoint work to do.
Elevate participation: Involve workers in hazard identification, consultation, and change planning.
Build competence: Role‑specific training for leaders, supervisors, and operators.
Strengthen risk processes: Robust hazard identification, risk assessment, and operational controls.
Track performance: Use leading and lagging indicators; review trends and act.
Review with top management: Regular management reviews to align goals and resources.
Audit and improve: Internal audits, corrective actions, and continual improvement baked in.
Consider certification: External certification can validate performance and reassure stakeholders.
How to Display ISO 45001 Skills on Your Resume
11. Safety Audits
Structured reviews that test whether safety programs exist, work as intended, and deliver results.
Why It's Important
Audits expose gaps, verify compliance, and ignite corrective actions that reduce risk in the real world.
How to Improve Safety Audits Skills
Prepare well: Define scope, criteria, and schedule. Gather docs ahead of time.
Engage people: Interview across levels; observe tasks; invite candid feedback.
Use digital tools: Standardized checklists, timestamped photos, and action tracking improve consistency.
Train auditors: Techniques, objectivity, and current regulatory knowledge matter.
Write actionable findings: Clear issues, root causes, owners, deadlines, and verification steps.
Follow through: Close actions, validate effectiveness, and feed insights into program improvements.
How to Display Safety Audits Skills on Your Resume
12. EHS Software
Digital systems that manage safety, health, and environmental data—incidents, actions, training, audits, permits—so programs run faster and smarter.
Why It's Important
It centralizes information, improves visibility, speeds reporting, and reveals trends you can actually act on.
How to Improve EHS Software Skills
Integrate systems: Connect HR, maintenance, learning, and asset data to cut duplicate entry and enrich insights.
Design for adoption: Simplify forms, minimize clicks, and tailor fields to the way people work.
Configure and scale: Build workflows, permissions, and dashboards that fit today and flex for tomorrow.
Train users: Role‑based onboarding and refreshers; quick guides for frontline reporting.
Keep it current: Update for regulatory changes and evolving processes; maintain data quality rules.
Leverage analytics: Use dashboards and automated alerts to spot leading indicators early.
Enable mobile: On‑the‑spot reporting, offline capability, and barcode/QR support where useful.
Automate actions: Assign corrective actions, reminders, and escalations to ensure closure.
How to Display EHS Software Skills on Your Resume
