A to Z about Risk Engineer Profession

The following are the general descriptions and requirements to be a risk engineer/surveyor. The requirements may differ from one country to another.

Insurance risk surveyors, also known as risk consultants, risk control surveyors and risk control advisers, work for general insurance companies, brokers, or firms of specialist surveyors or even as a freelancer. Their main role is to advise about risk, based on technical knowledge and good practice.

Surveyors undertake detailed risk surveys of the property/site to be insured and advise clients and insurance underwriters about appropriate improvements to reduce the risk. This involves visiting a wide variety of locations and businesses from retail outlets to large-scale petrochemical plants and producing detailed reports, which help inform underwriters about the acceptability and quality of a particular risk.

Surveyors spend about half of their time visiting clients and conducting detailed surveys of the sites to be insured. They often specialised in specific areas, such as:

• property;
• business interruption;
• crime;
• liability;
• fire protection systems.

Surveyors specialising in property assess the risks associated with fire, explosion, storms, flooding and malicious damage to a building and/or contents based on the processes and activities that take place and other features specific to the location. Surveyors specialising in liability assess the risks to which employers or other individuals are exposed based on the processes and activities that take place.

All surveyors are expected to be competent in the main areas listed above, but may take on the support of specialists for complex cases, for example those that showed a heavy liability risk.

Typical work activities involve:

• collating and assessing risk information on site;
• using templates to record assessments and collecting photographic evidence;
• preparing and proofreading detailed reports, either on site, at home or in the office (reports include recommendations to the underwriter, e.g. additional fire exits, installation or replacement of sprinkler systems or burglar alarms, health and safety improvements, installation of CCTV cameras, etc);
• advising clients on site and discussing with them opportunities and requirements to improve the level of risk, or persuading them of the need for risk improvement programmes;
• allocating quality grades to the client once improvements have been completed;
• accompanying underwriters on site visits to help with their training and development;
• liaising with other professionals, e.g. underwriters, brokers, client representatives, inspectors of health and safety and fire officers;
• keeping up to date with technical aspects affecting risks, e.g. trade processes, legislation, hazardous materials.

Entry requirements

Some insurers recruit new entrants as trainee risk analysts, but most companies take on new graduates as risk surveyors.

Although a degree is not required for entry into the profession, most risk surveyors are engineering graduates, although some company may accept other degree such as insurance is acceptable. Those who have studied risk management, economics, business studies, law, management, insurance or engineering subjects - a pre-requisite for specialist engineering insurance surveying 1½- may succeed in gaining a training post.

Previous experience in the insurance industry is usually necessary, often in the field of underwriting, and some companies ask for as much as five years' underwriting experience.

Communication skills are key and you also need to be commercially aware, diplomatic and confident enough to deal with a wide range of people, from site workers to managing directors.

What skills and knowledge will I need?

• excellent observational skills and attention to detail
• an enquiring mind
• a methodical approach to gathering information
• good communication skills
• an assertive but tactful and persuasive manner
• an understanding of technical information and plans, and the ability to explain them clearly to non-experts
• report-writing skills
• computer skills
• the ability to work alone and also as part of a team.

The above are the ideal traits to be a risk engineer. Nevertheless, a wishful candidates may not necessarily to have all the requirement at the initial states as the skills can be acquired through on job training.

Prospects

Individual employer companies usually define progression within their own organisation, from trainee roles to senior surveyor positions, heads of department or senior management roles, where the work is likely to be more administrative and strategic.

As you progress, you may choose to concentrate in a specialist technical field, moving into risk assessment in a particular industry or sector.

As the job description and requirement of a risk engineer are almost standard, a risk engineer has a tendency to work around the globe.