Health & Safety Director

The Brief

Crossrail retained our services to recruit the Health and Safety Director for the programme. The role was responsible for leading the transition for Health and Safety in construction to operational testing and commissioning, and then into passenger operations.

The particular challenges we were faced with for this assignment included;

• Finite duration – the programme had c2 years to completion and this was to be a fixed term post. Due to the length of contract on offer, it was difficult to entice established HSQE Directors who were settled in a permanent roles.
• Crossrail publicity – the project was viewed as prestigious but there were some concerns regarding the adverse press about the delays to the programme.
• Gender diversity – The senior team (like much of the industry) needed greater diversity. The candidate population of H&S Directors with the required skills and experience was scarce in diversity.

The Process

Executive search was our primary method to identify candidates. We supported our executive search with some online advertising at the client’s request, as they wished to have transparency of the recruitment process. Our executive search focused on identifying all the suitably qualified individuals who had significant leadership experience in health & safety at a senior level within:

• Rail infrastructure owners
• Rail contractors
• Overseas rail projects
• Other rail bodies

The Outcome

We were successful in recruiting the Health & Safety Director from another major UK rail infrastructure project, who was highly credible at senior level. Crossrail were very happy with the outcome as we were able to appoint a talented and capable H&S Leader, who also improved the diversity of their senior leadership team.

Why Us?

This is what the HR Director for Crossrail, Dawn Barker said:

Newsom Consulting have delivered a number of high calibre people to the project, they always ensure they understand the brief and work to tight timescales. Given the choice I would always use Jim for future assignments.

The approach we have taken is a mixture of search and advertisement, and in all instances success has been achieved. We consider Jim and his team to be an extension of our recruitment team rather than a supplier.