What Is A Health Inspector? Skills And How To Become One

Updated 27 March 2023

Health inspectors are professionals who protect the environment and health of the public by ensuring various facilities follow health and safety rules and regulations. These professionals regularly visit various facilities and award sanitation grades to businesses that determine a company's cleanliness and sanitisation in its operations. If you have an interest in becoming a health inspector, understanding what this job role entails can help you make an informed decision.

In this article, we answer “What is a health inspector?”, understand what they do, explore the average salary, learn about their work environment and discover the steps and skills required to become one.

What Is A Health Inspector?

The answer to “What is a health inspector?” is that they are professionals who check the health standards and sanitisation conditions. They visit various public health places and food facilities to ensure that safety measures are in accordance with the state government rules and regulations. These inspectors can work in local and state government places to ensure health and safety standards. They can inspect nursing homes, restaurants, daycare centres, public pools and schools.

A health inspector ensures whether the facility requires any action to eliminate hazards. They work as compliance officers who have the authority to suspend businesses and issue fines to places that do not adhere to the health and safety standards.

What Does A Health Inspector Do?

A health inspector ensures companies comply with health regulations and legislation. Apart from ensuring adherence to safety standards, these professionals perform various health inspector duties, such as:

Ensuring inspection: They inspect various places like hotels, hospitals, restaurants, schools and other public areas. A health inspector ensures the functioning of public places in a hygienic environment.
Resolving complaints: A part of their job role involves resolving complaints lodged by customers or people regarding health issues. These professionals ensure organisations take all measures to resolve problems related to workplace and hygiene.
Ensuring safety in the workplace: A health inspector ensures the employer provides a healthy work environment. They might oversee biological, chemical and physical workplace hazards.
Developing strategies and creating reports: These inspectors design various strategies for reducing illness, environmental accidents and ensuring public safety at every place. Also, a health inspector writes reports about the health and safety standards in their assigned research market.
Imposing fines: A healthy inspector has the power to cancel the license of established companies if they violate the health and safety regulations. They provide evidence describing the grounds for shutting down or imposing fines on an organisation.
Designing training programs: A part of their job role involves designing training programs. This helps in providing safety awareness education to everyone.
Making changes and educating the public: These professionals improve the environment of a facility and recommend changes so that the facility follows all health and safety rules. Often, a health inspector educates the public about health-related issues such as disease outbreaks or infectious disease control.

Average Salary Of A Health Inspector

The national average salary of a health inspector is ₹23,788 per month. Their exact salary depends upon the company, skills, work setting and geographic location. For instance, the average salary of a health inspector in Delhi is ₹26,753 per month. Other factors contributing to a lower and a higher salary include the years of experience and certifications. Those in senior roles are likely to receive a higher salary than someone in an entry-level role.

Where Do Health Inspectors Work?

Health inspectors can work for private and government organisations. These professionals work for large organisations such as care homes to inspect the health and safety standards. As they inspect various facilities, their job involves frequent travel to different places. Also, a health inspector performs inspection, assists the organisation and provides training to remain compliant with health orders. A part of their workday involves working in an office setting to complete their job-specific duties. Some common employers of a health inspector include:

Manufacturers
Hospitals
Mines
Construction
Safety consulting firm
Local authorities
Solid-waste management companies
Water treatment plants
Pollution control organisations
Food sanitisation companies

Skills Of A Health Inspector

A health inspector requires a combination of skills to perform the responsibilities and duties. Some of these to master are:

Problem-solving and analytical skills

As a health inspector, you use analytical skills to determine the root cause of the deteriorating health and safety environment. Apart from identifying problems within a facility, these professionals help solve health and safety standards issues. Also, problem-solving skills help a health inspector to develop practical solutions.

Communication skills

A health and safety inspector may collaborate with business owners and facility managers to ensure that a company complies with all the legal requirements. These professionals require communication skills to work with various stakeholders. Offering guidance and advice to facilities requires excellent verbal communication skills. Also, as they create reports, these professionals require written communication skills.

Organisation and time management skills

An employer prefers candidates who can manage multiple safety projects and analyse multiple studies simultaneously. A part of their job role involves inspecting various sites and this requires excellent organisational skills. Also, a health inspector requires excellent time management skills to ensure they complete all their work-related duties.

Stress management

A competent health inspector remains calm during stressful situations, such as giving a poor report or issuing monetary fines for non-compliance. The ability to handle upset facility managers and explain to them the reason for shutting down a facility requires someone who can deal with stressful situations. Working in a stressful environment reduces productivity level. So, managing the problematic situation is essential for this role.

Ability to understand rules and regulations

A health inspector requires a clear understanding of environmental and health regulations. The ability to explain rules in simple languages for others to comprehend is essential for this role. Understanding what rules are and what they mean is an essential for the job. Also, this requires an accurate interpretation of legal rules and regulations.

Honesty

Employers expect these professionals to have an unbiased attitude towards duty when inspecting a facility. An honest health inspector submits accurate reports and keeps the public's welfare in mind. Employers often prefer inspectors who can save the health of the most vulnerable group of people affected by the disease. This role requires someone who can honestly conduct inspections.

How To Become A Health Inspector

To understand how to become a health inspector, follow these steps:

1. Complete your 10+2

The first step towards becoming a health inspector is completing your 10+2 in the science stream. Studying subjects related to science makes you more adept at excelling in this role. Focus on choosing subjects like physics, biology and chemistry as compulsory subjects.

2. Pursue a bachelor's degree

Most employers prefer candidates to earn at least a bachelor's degree in public health, physical science, environmental health or related areas. Pursuing a Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree takes only three years to complete. You can learn about health, social and physical science, health legislature and ethics during your course.

3. Complete an internship

The next step towards becoming a health inspector is completing an internship after graduation. When you complete training under an experience health inspector, you gain the relevant skills required to excel in this role. During your internship, you can apply your knowledge gained during your education to real-world situations. You can apply for internships in state and city departments based on job availability.

4. Pursue a post-graduate course

Once you work for some years as a health inspector in an entry-level role, you can focus on completing a post-graduate course in a relevant field. Often, employers prefer candidates who have a Master of Science (MSc) degree. Having a post-graduate degree help you get hired for more complex and advanced roles. It can help you earn a higher salary and advance your career.

5. Create your CV and apply for jobs

After gaining the required skills, experience and educational qualifications, creating a CV that lists all your details is essential. Before applying for a job role, review the job description and pick keywords from the job description to include in your CV. This makes your CV applicant tracking system (ATS) compliant and helps you get shortlisted for desirable jobs. After creating your CV, upload it to various job portals and apply to relevant jobs.

Salary figures reflect data listed on the quoted websites at the time of writing. Salaries may vary depending on the hiring organisation and a candidate's experience, academic background and location