Our inspectors play a key role influencing work health and safety in Aotearoa. The Inspectorate’s goal is to prevent harm from work, promote a culture of safety, and hold organisations accountable for maintaining healthy and safe working environments.

About the role

As an inspector, no two days will be the same! Inspectors complete a range of work/mahi. This could be a visit to a business; helping businesses, organisations and workers understand their obligations; writing up reports after doing an assessment on a worksite or investigating an incident.

The work is varied and interesting, but at times can be challenging due to the nature of the role as you may be exposed to traumatic events, files, photos and statements, or dealing with people who are impacted by having a worker, colleague or family member injured, or even killed.

Inspectors are expected to work full-time Monday to Friday during normal business hours. Once you’re experienced as a qualified inspector, you will also be on the national on-call roster. Inspectors on the roster may work outside of normal business hours and on weekends.

What we’re looking for from you

You will love building rapport with stakeholders and have a natural ability to communicate with people from diverse backgrounds. The conversations aren’t always easy, but you will remain calm under pressure and be able to appreciate the viewpoints and perspectives of others.

You’ll be great at assessing the information and risks to identify the best outcome. In doing so, you will work towards achieving a common goal of ensuring that all New Zealanders that go to work come home healthy and safe.

While a background in health and safety or industry experience in construction, agriculture, farming, mining and/or manufacturing would be highly advantageous to working for WorkSafe, it is not essential. WorkSafe provides our Inspectorate kaimahi with the full training and development that's required while on the job.

Please ensure that you review and meet the requirements listed on the position description before applying(external link)

Onboarding and development

Starting as a trainee health and safety inspector you’ll progress through in-house training, gain on the job experience and coaching until you obtain a Certificate of Appointment giving you powers as an inspector. As your career as an inspector continues, you will build your skills and knowledge and progress through an Inspector Pathway.

To ensure we recruit the right people with the right skills at the right time, we follow a structured recruitment process. Cohort recruitment is held up to three times a year in various locations across the motu, depending on organisational needs.

With our recruitment timeline, stages need to keep progressing to move smoothly for all candidates to ensure you receive outcomes on dates advised. It is important to complete tasks in in the timeframe provided to not delay the process.

Current recruitment

Applications are open for the health and safety inspector cohort 28. This cohort is focused on recruiting for roles based in the following regions (with travel across the region required):

• Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland with a focus on construction, manufacturing, and other high-risk industries.
• Kirikiriroa/Hamilton with a focus on the agriculture sector, mainly dairy farms, and some manufacturing businesses.
• Tauranga with a focus on forestry, manufacturing, construction and agriculture, including seasonal horticulture.
• Ngāmotu/New Plymouth with a focus on agriculture, construction and forestry.
• Te Whanganui-a-Tara/Wellington with a construction focus as well as manufacturing, agriculture and forestry.

Key dates for this cohort

• Virtual kōrero (video/phone interviews): 24 March to 11 April 2025
• Online information session: 15 April 2025
• Online testing completed by candidate: by 17 April 2025
• Group interview (in-person):
  • Auckland: 28 and 29 April 2025
  • Wellington: 1 May 2025
• Ride along and employment checks (in-person): 2–9 May 2025
• Offers made: 12–16 May 2025
• Start date: 16 June 2025
• Training begins: 30 June 2025

If you’re unable to meet these key dates, attend the group interview date specified or employment start date, unfortunately we won’t be able to progress with your application. However, you are welcome to apply again in the future.

Upcoming recruitment

We will have other cohorts in 2025 – please note these are subject to change. If the cohort 28 dates don’t work for you, please register on our careers site to receive an email alert when we are recruiting again.

• Cohort 29 applications open: Monday 9 June to Friday 20 June, likely start date of Monday 1 September 2025.
• Cohort 30 applications open: Monday 6 October to Friday 17 October, likely start date of Monday 26 January 2026.

Register on our Careers website(external link)

How to apply

Visit the job ad at our Careers website to apply:

Apply to be a WorkSafe inspector(external link)

Want to know more?

Our recruitment team can be contacted by emailing careers@worksafe.govt.nz if you want to discuss the role or recruitment process – a member of our recruitment team will get back to you as quickly as they can.