Industry stalwart Monica Szabo on why safety is inherent in everything she does
Implementing change in the safety industry, while keeping your team on board, is a delicate balancing act - but it's one Monica Szabo has managed with aplomb over the years.
Monica Szabo started her career protecting the environment, focusing on reducing emissions from different industries, including cement production, steel manufacturing, hydro plants and mining operations. Now, after a long and varied career, she is president of her own consulting firm, Szabo Safety & Operations Services (Szabo SOS), which provides organizations in the construction sector, as well as retail and financial services, with OHS expertise.
Szabo has both her Registered Occupational Hygienist (ROH) and Canadian Registered Safety Professional (CRSP) designations, something which she is proud of. She says: "This combination of skills was quite rare some years back but it is great to see more professionals pursuing both designations now.”
She is heavily involved in the OHS community, having served on the Board of Canadian Registered Safety Professionals (BCRSP) as board chair and on the BCRSP screening committee for more than 20 years. She also served on the Occupational Hygiene Association of Ontario as program committee chair and president, and is currently a board member on the Ontario Workplace Health Coalition, an organization working to promote and work with partners for communicating the importance of wellness and wellbeing.
Szabo’s consulting firm offers coaching services for companies that want to build and sustain their health and safety program. Her favourite part of safety is “making a difference and being a positive influence by helping organizations grow and improve and leaving them with a sustainable program".
Despite her love for the sector, Szabo says that she has nevertheless faced challenges, the biggest being implementing big changes in an organization.
“In a senior leadership role, you provide direction to an organization through insight and foresight, and ensuring that employees get on board to move in the new direction is the hardest part of the journey.”
“My teams have always been very important to me and I take their happiness seriously. So, it can be a delicate balancing act between directing the change because of business needs and also helping employees embrace and implement change while still enjoying the work that they do,” says Szabo.
And safety is just as important outside of work – “as a consultant, I promote safety in everything I do!”
Szabo provides guidance, coaching, and resources to help her organizations build and continuously improve their health and safety programs.
“I speak often of the importance of senior leadership support as well as frontline input. I have been successful in assisting companies build a working H&S program by customizing my approach to fit the culture of the sector and organization. I have always given back to my profession.”
