Meet Jess Beckwith, a Senior EHS Project Manager based in our United Kingdom office!

Jess Beckwith

  • Office:  UK
  • Practice Area: Environment, Health and Safety
  • Area of expertise: Ergonomics
  • About Me in 140 Characters:

I am a Senior EHS Project Manager for Antea UK, with a wide range of sustainability, ergonomics, wellbeing and health and safety experience in retail, corporate, lab and industrial sectors. People say that I have a positive attitude and demonstrate passion for my work

Get to Know Jess...

What is your favorite thing about being an EHS Practitioner:
Making a tangible difference to people’s lives by providing ergonomics advice.

What is the most interesting project you’ve ever worked on?
Managing ergonomics programmes for tech clients inevitably involves dealing with complex cases. I really enjoy supporting people with significant health challenges to improve their comfort. We implement all sorts of weird and wonderful solutions!

I also undertook environmental monitoring at a cats rescue centre several years ago. There were about 30 cats and kittens living there. We wanted to take the kittens home with us!

What is a key ingredient for success as an EHS / Ergonomics practitioner?
The ability to listen, empathise and show that you care. The other important aspect to this role is setting expectations!

What areas of EHS are you most interested in? Why?
My core interest lies with ergonomics, not only in traditional office set ups, but in labs, retail spaces and beyond. I am interested in this field because the advice is constantly evolving, and as working culture changes, we can adapt and still make a difference. For example, providing ergonomics support during COVID was challenging but we quickly adapted to tailor our advice to remote workers.

If someone at a party asks what you do, how to you respond?
I am a health and safety consultant, specializing in ergonomics – helping people with back and neck ache!

What surprises people about your job?
The variety of working activities that I support. The stereotype of ergonomics is supporting a traditional DSE workstation set up. Our job is far more varied than this.

If you could develop a new solution for Ergonomics, what would it be?
A better solution to work ergonomically on the go, including on public transport.

Just for Fun 

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
An estate agent! I used to love being nosey and looking round people’s houses.

What was your first job?
A waitress in a café. I left after 6 weeks because it was clear that I was terrible at making coffee!

What TV show character do you identify most with?
Anne Carlson from Workin’ Moms – juggling mum life and work life like a boss!

If you had one month off, where would you go or what would you do?
I would either go on a round-the-world trip, or hunker down in an eco-off-grid community and tend to my allotment!

What is on the top of your bucket list?
Build my own self-sufficient eco-home