As industries expand and more older safety workers continue to retire, the need for qualified safety professionals is growing, according to industry experts.

It can vary from industry to industry and company to company, but experts say the demand for safety professionals will continue to grow. Leaders across many industries are looking for alternative ways to bring more people into the safety field, which offers more opportunities than meets the eye.

The role of safety professionals is to identify and evaluate workplace hazards to prevent injuries, illnesses and fatalities of other workers.

Michael Adamczyk, assistant professor of safety management and department chairman at Slippery Rock University, said overall there is an increasing demand for safety professionals, with employers reaching out to him on a regular basis with openings they are trying to fill with SRU graduates.

“The demand is seen pretty much across the board,” Adamczyk said. “One of the positive attributes about our program is it provides students the opportunity for flexibility in different sectors. Construction and manufacturing are big. We are seeing increased demand for insurance companies, as well as oil and gas.”

Adamczyk said the growing demand, particularly in construction, is due in part to construction ramping up across the country, especially with the number of artificial intelligence data centers being built.

“I think people are wanting to get into the industry,” Adamczyk said. “I just think the demand is growing at a solid rate. I think things are good economically, and I think companies are recognizing the importance of safety. Now the smaller companies are stepping in.”

SRU’s safety program currently has about 450 students enrolled, making it the second largest major at the university.

Adamczyk said that figure has been consistent year over year, and the program itself has grown as the needs of employers become more complex.

“We have modified it to be more hands on,” Adamczyk said. “We have state-of-the-art laboratories with a construction lab, an industrial hygiene lab and a fire lab. When I came here, it was all classrooms. We have a forklift, overhead crane and a confined space simulator.”

Also, companies are increasingly asking safety professionals to take on more manager-type responsibilities tied to safety.

“They are looking for people with leadership skills, presentation and communication skills,” Adamczyk said. “The technical skills are important, but so are the management pieces. One minute you are working with new hire orientation, and then the next minute you are in the executive board room talking about your strategic plan for the next five years. You might then have an incident to respond to. The mix is wide, and it depends on the industry. A day in the life of a construction safety manager is going to look different from someone in energy, insurance or manufacturing.”

According to Mark Revesz, director of health and safety with construction company Hensel Phelps, the lack of safety professionals in the industry is the result of two things.

For one, the older generation is retiring at a much faster rate than universities can pump out graduates. On the other hand, as Adamczyk said, the industry is growing, mostly from the AI data centers being built.

“Basically, for every 20 people you have on the job, you need one safety professional,” Revesz said. “These mega jobs with thousands of people are eating up 30 safety professionals. For the most part, that is the data centers. There is just a growing demand.”

While growth is a good problem to have, baby boomers retiring at a fast rate is not, Revesz said, and both of these issues have been trends in the industry for at least the past five years.

“It is a lot more strain on the rest of the staff of these companies,” Revesz said. “It’s mainly in data centers, but also pharmaceuticals is big for safety, and oil and gas. If you don’t have the right staff, they won’t let you bid on jobs or award them to you. Safety companies are also gobbling up a lot of safety people whether they need them or not, and it’s hurting the smaller companies.”

To help draw more young people into the safety field, Revesz said Hensel Phelps and other companies in search of safety workers have begun going directly to high schools for career fairs, something that has shown success in recent years.

However, he believes if the top 10 safety schools doubled their amount of safety students, it would still not be nearly enough to fill the gaps.

Revesz said that every industry has safety to some capacity, and there are a lot more industries in search of these professionals than most people think.

“It is not what they think it is,” Revesz said. “You can go into health care, construction or if you want to sit behind a desk, there’s a job for that. There are jobs in the area, but you would not be without a job if you are willing to move. It’s a career and profession that will only continue to grow.”

Adamczyk can also attest to safety having more options than people realize. For example, he once had a student who loved downhill skiing and he told her to look into resort safety. She now works for a company that consults with downhill ski safety.

“It is a very broad brush when you look at safety as a whole,” Adamczyk said.

Manufacturing is one of the largest industries in Butler County. It is home to hundreds of small- to large-size manufacturers, according to the Tri County Manufacturing Consortium.

Ralph Hardt, owner of Belleville International in Butler, said his company outsources the majority of the safety-related work to an outside firm, which, for the most part, is the norm for medium-size manufacturers like Belleville, which produces custom and standard disc springs, among other items.

“They have skilled professionals, and they have the ability to stay up to date with all the current regulations and laws,” Hardt said of the third-party safety firm Belleville uses. “They also have the ability, since they serve multiple companies, to see what are the best practices and share those best practices with their client base.”

Hardt said Belleville has an in-house safety committee that meets with the outside safety firm at least once a month. The firm also hosts employee meetings with the entire 43-person staff to discuss a variety of safety topics on a regular basis.

The outside firm also conducts walk-throughs of the facility to help point out potential hazardous conditions.

“If you are a larger manufacturer and you can afford a full-time internal safety staff, that is the way to go,” Hardt said. “But we are a medium-sized manufacturer, and we can’t afford a full-time staff. I think we have the best of both worlds. We have someone to call if we have an issue, but also someone who sees best practices from other companies and can apply those practices to us.”

Hardt said the system he has in place works, but as the industry grows — along with regulations and workers’ compensation insurance increases — the need for qualified safety professionals will always be there.

“Safety is our No. 1 value,” Hardt said. “I think a loss of skilled talent is a concern. For a medium-sized manufacturer, we could get by with just our in-house committee. I take it a step further by having someone provide additional oversight with the consulting firm.”

John Sabo, vice president of leadership training and development at Deep Well Services in Zelienople, said from an oil and gas perspective safety is first and foremost.

Sabo said Deep Well Services has not seen a lack of safety professionals at the company, but other companies in the industry might have a different story to tell.

“Logistically, we have a great pipeline of workers,” Sabo said. “In this region you have some very good schools for safety. I would say there are companies a little smaller that struggle. They may not want to invest the way economics are right now and putting that position in place.”

Sabo himself is an SRU safety graduate who has worked in a variety of industries. He has been in the energy sector for a few years now.

He said oil and gas safety jobs in the Western Pennsylvania region are hard to come by, so traveling for work in the industry is almost a guarantee.

“We don’t have the infrastructure in the region for massive growth on the energy side,” Sabo said. “I mean, we have operations everywhere, so I might ask someone if they are OK with moving to Texas. Who knows, in a few years you could get experience and transfer back home.”

Sabo’s advice for future safety professionals is to start networking as early as possible.

“An internship is important, but it’s more important to be able to get your brand out,” Sabo said. “Get on LinkedIn, connect and post some material. Focus on communication skills and leadership skills. They are always going to lean toward people with those skills.”

This article originally appeared in the February edition of Butler County Business Matters.