Regional Health & Safety Advisor

MacFarlane Group; Heywood; Hybrid; GBP 40,000 - 45,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading packaging solutions company in Heywood is seeking a Regional Health & Safety Advisor to ensure compliance and promote a positive safety culture across sites. The role offers a salary of up to £45,000 plus benefits including hybrid working, a company car, and extensive training opportunities. The ideal candidate will have a NEBOSH General Certificate and experience in a multi-site environment. Willingness to travel within the Northern region is essential.

Benefits

Company car or allowance

25 days annual leave

Contributory pension scheme

Employee discount scheme

Annual volunteering day

Qualifications

• Experience in a health & safety advisory role.
• Valid UK driving licence and willingness to travel.
• Ability to challenge standards and strive for best practices.

Responsibilities

• Develop and implement a continuous improvement plan in line with Health & Safety developments.
• Conduct site safety audits and agree on remedial actions.
• Investigate accidents and provide statistics for improvements.

Skills

Interpersonal skills

Documentation skills

Compliance management

Communication skills

Education

NEBOSH General Certificate

Degree level education

Job description

Regional Health & Safety Advisor (Northern Region)

- Salary: Up to £45,000 (dependent on experience) + annual bonus

- Company car (or allowance), hybrid working, flexible benefits

- Hours: 37.5 per week, Monday-Friday

- Sector: Packaging Solutions (distribution & manufacturing)

Protecting what matters, together

We're dedicated to protecting what matters most - our people, our customers, our communities and the environment. At Macfarlane Packaging, our commitment to customer satisfaction, sustainability and continual improvement creates a highly collaborative, supportive and friendly workplace where you can unpack a career that grows.

With history stretching back over 75 years, we offer stability whilst always striving for continual growth. Our fast‑paced, results‑driven approach will challenge and often stretch you, but it will also give you opportunities for personal and professional development. Every colleague has the chance to directly influence our success, leading to real job satisfaction and achievement, at all stages of your career.

We provide competitive pay and personalised incentives, alongside adaptable benefits to make your rewards package go further. And additionally, the way we work prioritises work‑life balance and flexibility, empowering our colleagues to manage what is most important to them. Our business values commitment, diligence, teamwork, adaptability and a thirst for learning… so if this sounds like you, come and join us to help drive change that enables businesses to plan for a better future.

The Regional Health & Safety Advisor Role

The primary remit of the Regional Health & Safety Advisor is to ensure legal and best practice compliance for Macfarlane Packaging across the Northern region of the UK. This role acts as a key point of contact for sites, relevant authorities, auditors, and customers on all Health & Safety related matters. By developing strong relationships across the business, the advisor will ensure that all customer requirements are exceeded while leading the development of a positive Health and Safety culture across various sites. This role shall require flexibility with travel as required to various site locations within the Northern region. Our role will ideally be anchored to our Heywood site, but for the right applicant, we could be flexible in switching this to one of our other large Northern sites (Wakefield or Newcastle for example).

Regional Health & Safety Advisor - Key Responsibilities

• Develop and implement a continuous improvement plan in line with Health & Safety developments.
• Conduct site safety audits, highlighting any issues and agreeing on remedial actions.
• Ensure all sites actively use the Health & Safety Reporting software.
• Ensure the relevant risk assessments are conducted and monitor actions while considering risk minimisation strategies.
• Facilitate local H&S meetings and involve all key stakeholders.
• Investigate accidents, dangerous occurrences, and 'near miss' reports, ensuring areas of concern are highlighted at the appropriate level.
• Keep records of all incidents and accidents across the region, providing Senior Management teams with statistics and recommendations for improvements.
• Ensure all sites have fully trained first aiders in accordance with current requirements.
• Maintain all Health & Safety documentation.
• Stay up to date with legislation and maintain a working knowledge of all Health & Safety legislation.
• Lead in‑house training with managers and employees about Health and Safety issues.

What you will bring

You will be an experienced Health & Safety professional, ideally with previous experience of working within a multi‑site organization. Specifically, we'd like to see the following:

Essential

• Minimum NEBOSH General Certificate (NVQ Level 3).
• Relevant experience in a similar health & safety advisory role.
• Valid UK driving licence and willingness to travel as required.
• Strong interpersonal and influencing skills.
• Proven ability in compliance management.
• Strong organisational and documentation skills.
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal.
• Residing within a comfortable commute of our Heywood site (or alternatively our Wakefield or Newcastle sites).
• Willingness to travel to various site locations as required by the role.
• Diplomatic but assertive in dealing with issues.
• Ability to challenge standards and strive for best‑in‑class practices.

Desirable

• Degree level education.
• Experience in a multi‑site regional role within fast‑moving distribution or specialist manufacturing businesses.
• Experience working within a national PLC or decentralised business.
• Proven track record of compliance management with ISO standards.
• Prior experience with FSC and BRC standards.

What you will get

• 25 days annual leave (rising to 27 days with service) plus all public/bank holidays.
• Additional Holiday purchasing scheme (run annually).
• Contributory pension scheme.
• Free parking at most of our site locations.
• Annual (company paid) volunteering day.
• Range of company cars or cash allowance (including hybrid/electric) for qualifying job roles.
• Employee assistance program to support & advise with well‑being & any issues.
• Extensive range of training/development & potential progression opportunities.
• Employee discount scheme (discounts on several major retail/leisure brands).
• Simply Health/Dental Cover option or BUPA cover for qualifying roles.
• Enhanced HR policies relating to various employee rights & entitlements.
• Long service awards (5-40 years).
• Charitable giving options.
• Financial support with eye‑tests/purchasing glasses (DSE users only).
• EE Mobile discount scheme.
• Candidate referral scheme (awards £750 for referring successful applicants to Macfarlane job vacancies).

Your future with us

Working at Macfarlane Packaging, you truly have the potential to shape your own future and set your own ambitions. We are a large group company where internal promotion and mobility is a key feature of our success. Through tailored career plans, we provide a wide range of structure training & development pathways, utilizing both in‑house expertise to share knowledge and the best‑in‑class external training partners. There is potential access to management & leadership development, and we work closely with recognised, accredited bodies including the Institute of Leadership & Management (ILM); So there really are no limits to where your journey within our business may take you.

Next Steps

We are working swiftly to find the best applicants and hope to hold local interviews ASAP and for the successful applicant to join us as early as possible in January. We envisage a two‑stage formal interview process. Please click 'apply' to submit your up‑to‑date CV. All applications will be acknowledged. If you haven't heard from us within 2-3 weeks, please assume your application was unsuccessful.

We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds irrespective of your age, gender, disability, race, nationality, ethnicity, gender expression, religion, or sexual orientation. Should you require any specific support or adjustments during the recruitment process, please email our recruitment team directly.

NO RECRUITMENT AGENCIES PLEASE