Occupational-Health Surveillance Governance Director

The mandate

Plants identify noise, solvent, dust, sensitiser and heat exposures through industrial-hygiene processes, but employee surveillance cohorts are maintained separately by local medical providers. Role moves and contractor conversions do not always trigger review, abnormal results follow different referral pathways and managers receive inconsistent work-restriction information. Aggregated dashboards count examinations completed without showing missed high-risk workers, delayed follow-up or whether exposure control changed. The group needs governance joining hazard evidence to clinical action while protecting medical confidentiality.

The deliverables are a hazard-to-cohort map, surveillance trigger standard, worker journey, provider accountability model, restriction communication protocol, de-identified indicator set, control library and implementation roadmap. The design must cover entry, periodic, event-driven and exit surveillance; role and exposure change; abnormal-result referral; temporary and permanent restrictions; contractor inclusion; consent and privacy; and escalation when clinical findings suggest ineffective workplace controls. Licensed clinicians retain all diagnosis and fitness judgements.

Four milestones govern five months: week four accepts hazards, populations and clinical-governance boundaries; week ten completes pathway and provider diagnostics; week sixteen accepts target triggers, communications and controls; and week twenty-two delivers simulation evidence, training, indicators and rollout priorities. Billing follows those milestones. Legal, medical and works-council interpretations will be recorded as client dependencies rather than converted into consulting assumptions.

Acceptance requires industrial hygiene and occupational health to reconcile representative workers from exposure assessment through surveillance and action; providers must demonstrate referral closure and restricted-data handling; managers must correctly act on functional restrictions without receiving diagnoses; and two simulations must expose missed role-change and abnormal-result cases. The sponsor supplies one combined response within seven working days of each submission.

The client provides hazard registers, job profiles, exposure assessments, surveillance protocols, de-identified completion data, referral processes, restriction notices, provider contracts, incident findings, counsel guidance and controlled access. The consultant does not diagnose, determine fitness, access clinical notes, interpret law, conduct industrial hygiene, contact workers, direct treatment or certify regulatory compliance.

Why this is external work

Safety teams own exposure controls, clinicians own health decisions and HR owns employment processes, yet surveillance failure occurs where their records and triggers do not meet. Providers can improve their own service but cannot independently set group governance. External occupational-health design expertise can connect the pathway without demanding medical content or weakening clinical independence.

What you will own

• Map hazards, exposure thresholds, roles, contractors, locations and surveillance cohorts using approved technical and clinical inputs.
• Design entry, periodic, event, role-change, incident and exit triggers with accountable data and referral owners.
• Trace de-identified worker journeys from cohort inclusion through appointment, result, referral, restriction and closure.
• Define manager communications that convey functional restrictions and review dates without diagnosis or unnecessary medical detail.
• Establish provider standards for credentials, access, timeliness, escalation, continuity, data separation and quality evidence.
• Create indicators for missed cohorts, overdue referrals, repeat abnormalities, restriction delay and exposure-control feedback.
• Deliver controls, simulations, training, provider remedies, system backlog and phased plant adoption.

Candidate qualifications

• Has designed occupational-health surveillance governance for chemicals, mining, manufacturing or another exposure-intensive industry.
• Understands hazard assessment, medical surveillance cohorts, clinical referral, restrictions, confidentiality and contractor inclusion.
• Can link industrial-hygiene evidence to people-process triggers without making clinical or exposure-science judgements.
• Has governed multi-provider pathways and measured missed surveillance, delayed referral and control feedback.
• Brings credible collaboration with clinicians, hygienists, safety leaders, privacy, works councils and plant management.
• Is independent of clinical-provider sales, occupational testing volume, laboratory referrals and health-technology placement.

Non-negotiables

• Can attend monthly Hamburg plant weeks and both provider pathway simulations despite remote design work.
• Brings direct surveillance governance; general wellbeing or safety management without occupational health depth is insufficient.
• Will not access clinical notes, make fitness decisions, reveal diagnoses or present provider completion as outcome evidence.
• Will disclose relationships with occupational-health providers, laboratories, insurers, unions and industrial-hygiene firms.

1. 49 words maximum. Which role event should trigger an immediate occupational-surveillance review?
2. 49 words maximum. How would you inform a manager about restriction without disclosing diagnosis?
3. 49 words maximum. What metric reveals risk hidden by a high examination-completion rate?