1) 20 hours more than adequate. 5 might be closer to the mark.

2) List what you are expected to achieve. Then list the behaviours your stakeholders want to see from you

3) Committees should be site based. For an average team of 30 people the need for a committee ought to be questioned.

Hi Jim,
Site based committees are a good idea, have you considered an H&S Committee terms of reference document? For me a committee would have reps from each site department, a management team rep, plus you. At my last site we asked for nominations for Committee Chairperson & Committee Secretary in November so we could elect the positions in December. These roles were for a year. Your terms of reference should mention a Quorum - the need to have at least 51% committee member attendance in order to vote on any decisions.
It's important for the committee to share meeting info & minutes, also encourage them & their teams to suggest agenda items so it's not all coming from you.

Hi Jim,

Congratulations! It's exciting to establish your own rules of engagement for your role, although I'm also guessing it seems a little overwhelming at the same time!

1. If you are focusing on compliance, review and general monitoring 20 hours should be enough, although having a clause that there may be additional hours due to unforeseen circumstances (think Worksafe visit or notifiable incident) could blow that at. Also, remember to schedule in your own professional development and training. If you are maxed out, this will be the first thing to go.

2. Reporting to the CFO can be good and bad, on the one hand, you are talking directly who signs off on money stuff, so you can start canvassing early for next year's budget. On the other hand, the CFO may have limited bandwidth for HSE issues (Or simply be MIA) during a budget review or end of year process). You need to be quite strategic about this.

As far as job descriptions go, take a look at INSHPO's 'A Global Framework for Practice' https://www.inshpo.org/work look at pg. 16, there is a useful table of skills and competencies that you can put into your JD

3. As far as trying to start up full-blown HSE committees while you are still new to your job, I'd recommend starting small and establishing your 'friendly' stakeholder group first.
a) Establish HSR's for each site
b) Get the Operation/ Site Manager on board (do a proper project plan that explains who will be involved, how they will be trained and the time commitment).
c) set up a communications plan to roll out the plan to workers who might be interested
d) hold elections.....

You may find the following useful:
WorksfeNZ https://worksafe.govt.nz/managing-health-and-safety/health-and-safety-representatives/health-and-safety-committees/

SiteSafe https://www.sitesafe.org.nz/guides--resources/practical-safety-advice/health-and-safety-committee/

UK govt Guide 'How to set up your H & S Committee' NB this does not use the same words as our legislation, however, it has some excellent ideas on 'How To...' http://www.hse.gov.uk/involvement/howtosetup.htm