The health and safety profession is facing a pending shortage of occupational safety and health professionals.

Thomas Cecich, the new president of the American Society of Safety Engineers, discussed this challenge and how safety professionals can demonstrate their value by shifting the conversation from compliance to risk with Business Insurance Senior Editor Gloria Gonzalez.

Why did you want to become ASSE president?

ASSE has been a real partner in my career. I really have a desire to give back and help current safety professionals and the next generation of safety professionals. It's a noble profession. It's always a great thing to look back and say a big part of my job was helping people get home safely.

What are your goals or priorities for your term as president?

The area of the strategic priorities I'm most keen on is the value of the profession and what do we do to promote the value of what our members do, the importance of safety to organizations … transitioning from a focus on compliance to a focus on risk. As safety professionals, compliance is important. A lot of organizations are still challenged by that, particularly small and medium-sized firms. But to truly go to the next level, to help organizations prosper and to help safety professionals be viewed as real business partners, we really need to do a better job in identifying, managing, abating and communicating risks.

(Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health) David Michaels is concerned that there won't be enough qualified safety professionals. We have that concern too. We want to make sure that we're promoting the highest level of professional achievement for people who want to enter the field of safety. If there are people out there who are practicing safety that really aren't very effective or very knowledgeable, it becomes a reflection on the majority of professionals that really have done everything in their power to prepare themselves and maintain their capabilities.

What's the biggest challenge for the profession?

Our challenge of defining value isn't unique by any means. I truly believe that one way to break that value ceiling is to be better communicators of risk and the impact of risk to our organizations. As safety professionals, we have a niche. I don't do anything about currency risk or political risk, but I do understand and can assess different forms of operational risk and safety and health-related risks to an organization. We need to be at the table when risk is being discussed.

What legislative or regulatory issues have implications for the profession?

Not a lot is happening from Congress although the new Toxic Substances Control Act is really interesting. I'm not sure most safety professionals have that on the radar yet. It may not impact safety professionals directly, but certainly their organizations are going to have to spend more time looking at chemical testing. Beyond that, there isn't very much to get excited about one way or the other about legislation.

On the electronic recordkeeping, we have some serious issues with that.

We think it's focusing on the wrong things. We think it's more important to focus on leading indicators that actually drive change. In OSHA's view, it's using the concept of behavioral economics to try to put pressure on people by publishing what they do. As safety professionals, we're just not thrilled about that approach. We think it's better to focus on what you can do to prevent (injuries and illnesses).