Risk management is not only necessary, it also has many positive benefits for organisations.
Risk assessments are the process of identifying potential risks in the workplace and putting measures in place to eliminate or mitigate them.
Safe Work Australia states that employers have a duty to manage WHS risks in the workplace. So, what are the steps you need to follow to complete a risk assessment?
Firstly, let’s explore the benefits of risk assessments.
Whilst maintaining employee safety is paramount, the benefits of risk assessments go beyond preventing accidents.
Not only do risk assessments ensure you adhere to health and safety legislation, they are also a key factor in promoting a positive safety culture in your workplace. A positive safety culture – where both employers and employees actively participate in health and safety – helps organisations to maintain safe operations.
Studies show that the companies that develop a positive safety culture can reduce costs and boost productivity. Staff are also more engaged when safeguards are in place because they can focus on completing their work, rather than on any potential hazards or dangers.
Risk assessments also enable you to identify any gaps in staff training, ensuring that all staff have undertaken health and safety training that is both appropriate and up to date.
Risk assessments are a systematic approach to identifying and reducing risk.
According to Safe Work Australia, you should always aim to eliminate risks, as this is the best way to manage risk. However, if a risk can’t be eliminated, you must minimise any risks so far as is reasonably practicable.
Risk assessments need to be based on a realistic assessment of your organisation and the tasks that your staff perform. Every workplace is different, so every risk assessment needs to be unique to your company and operations.
Within your risk assessments you must also consider any risks to the health and safety of others that could arise from your business conduct – for example, harm to the general public.
Steps must then be taken to ensure, as far as is reasonably practicable, that risks are eliminated or reduced to an acceptable level.
The first step to undertake as part of your risk assessment is to identify the risks and hazards present in your organisation.
To help you identify potential hazards in your organisation you should look at:
You may also want to talk to your employees and ask them for feedback on any risks they have identified and look at past incidents and near misses and identify the causes. Staff questionnaires, surveys and focus groups can also be helpful.
Types of hazards that may be identified include:
The types of hazards identified can vary widely depending on the industry you work in, from a health visitor to being attacked in a client’s home to a machine operator using poorly maintained equipment. If you employ lone working employees, any risks can be magnified, as there is no one else to raise an alarm in an emergency.
Lone workers should be considered separately within your risk assessments to ensure that you have considered the specific risks that they face.
Next you must consider how likely it is that someone could be harmed and how serious it could be. This is assessing the level of risk.
This process will help you to identify the best controls to put in place to minimise risk. You do not need to list everyone individually, but rather identify people collectively by job role or site.
To assess the level of risk, you need to decide:
It is important to be aware that some employees may have special requirements, for example younger workers, expectant mothers, those with disabilities, home workers or lone workers.
You should also take into consideration the experience and training levels of your staff.
As well as your employees, your business holds a legal responsibility to protect the wellbeing of anyone who may be affected by your work activities. This includes contractors and members of the public.
Once the hazards and those at risk have been identified, you then need to decide how you will control the risks. Remember, the greater the risk, the more robust the control measures will need to be.
Look at what you’re already doing, and the controls you already have in place. Ask yourself:
Next you will need to put the controls you have identified in place. Businesses are not expected to eliminate all risks, but must do everything ‘reasonably practicable’ to protect people from harm.
When deciding on mitigations, you should consider;
Some practical steps you could take include:
If your risk assessment has identified a number of hazards, place them in order of importance and address the most serious risks first.
For risks likely to cause accidents or ill-health, you should establish whether short-term controls need to be put in place immediately while you take steps to control the risk long term.
Workplaces are constantly changing, and new hazards are likely to arise. Over time, you may find that the procedures you have put in place haven’t been effective, and that more still needs to be done to control risk. Therefore, it is important to regularly review your risk assessments and controls.
A review should also be conducted in the event of an incident to understand how it occurred and if there is anything you can do to prevent it happening again.
A risk assessment is more than a tick-box exercise. It is a living document that should be referred to and reviewed on a regular basis. Risk assessments need to be managed by a Health & Safety Director in large organisations, or a responsible member of a small business.
It is also important to regularly review your risk assessments in board, senior management or team meetings and to record the dates when actions were taken. Full records need to be kept as evidence for any claims that may be made against your organisation, and to ensure proper management of health and safety issues.
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