Rita Babski: Construction H&S Consultant

What is your role at Pick Everard?

I'm a Construction Health & Safety Consultant, carrying out a Principal Designer role or a CDM/Health & Safety Advisor role. Both are challenging but rewarding roles as I’m always part of something new. This can be a new building, or a newly demolished building as a part of a new development, or a new fitout for an office.

As Principal Designer I plan, manage, monitor, and coordinate health and safety in the pre-construction phase. As a CDM/Health & Safety Advisor I support and advise clients across a wider range of relevant health and safety matters, including CDM 2015 (The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015).

What inspired you to pursue a career in construction health and safety?

This is an interesting question. I found what I had always liked to do being brought together within Construction Health & Safety. I have a construction background, and I have always loved to build something – or demolish and start over with something new. For a long time, I wanted to be a teacher, so I did tutor before this role, as I really enjoy sharing knowledge but also, I enjoy learning new things. I think I have a good eye for details and picking up irregularities. When I moved to the UK and learned more about Health & Safety, I felt that it was what I wanted to do as a profession.

What attracted you to Pick Everard?

I wanted to be a part of a team where we deliver a quality job for our clients. Pick Everard gave me the opportunity to do this and more. It is a privilege to be a part of a multi-disciplinary company, working with high profile clients, where the quality of the service we are providing is important and where the leaders are investing time, energy and money into the people who are delivering the work.

Describe working at Pick Everard in three words.

Quality, Teamwork, Opportunities

Why is health and safety so important?

Everyone is practicing health and safety every day, it’s just most people don’t recognise it. When you look around before you cross the road, or use a thimble when you sew something, or use an oven glove before taking a hot tray from an oven, or using a rubber glove for cleaning, this is Health & Safety.

Health & Safety is important in all aspects in our life. We all want to go home from work in one piece, safely. Health & Safety helps to improve standards, research new areas and develop new technology, materials, equipment and machinery.

What advice would you give to junior health and safety consultants?

To be a Health & Safety professional is a life learning exercise. Find your field in Health & Safety, like construction, or property, or engineering. Then find a few topics which you want to master in that area.

What does the future of health and safety look like to you?

I feel that more companies will go above and beyond to comply with legislation and follow best practices. More companies will start changing behaviour and provide the relevant training, equipment and PPE to staff to support them to carry out their work in safe and healthy conditions.