Write a Risk Assessment

As part of managing the health and safety of your business, you need to control the risks in your workplace. It’s your responsibility to consider what might cause harm to your workers and decide how to take steps to prevent harm to your workers. This is known as a risk assessment, which most businesses are required by law to complete. A risk assessment is not about creating huge amounts of paperwork. Instead, it will help you consider all the possible risks in the workplace and the ways you can keep people safe from these risks. To create a well rounded risk assessment, you will need to go through a series of steps to then write the assessment.

Steps

Identifying the Hazards

1. Understand the definition of a “hazard” and of a “risk” the workplace. It’s important to distinguish between these two terms and to use them properly in your assessment.
   • A hazard is anything that may cause harm. For example: chemicals, electricity, working from heights like a ladder, or an open drawer.
   • A risk is the chance that these hazards could cause harm to others. For example: a chemical burn or an electric shock, a fall from heights, or an injury from hitting an open drawer.
2. Walk around your workplace. Think about any hazards you notice as you walk around. Ask yourself, what activities, processes, or substances could injure your employees or harm their health?
   • Look at any objects, office furniture or pieces of machinery that could be hazards. Examine any substances in the workplace, from chemicals to hot coffee. Think about how these substances could injury your employees.
   • If you work in an office, look for any long wires in walkways or under desks, as well as any broken drawers, cupboards, or counter tops. Examine the chairs at your employees' workstations, the windows, and the doors. Look for any hazards in the common areas, such as a faulty microwave or an uncovered section on the coffee machine.
   • If you work in a big box store or a warehouse, look for any machinery that could be hazards. Note any spare materials, like hangers or safety clips, that could spill or land on an employee. Look for any hazards in the aisles of the store, like narrow shelving or cracked sections of the floors.
3. Ask your employees about any possible hazards. Your employees will be able to help you identify any hazards they encounter on the job. Send out an email or have an in person discussion asking for feedback on any possible hazards in the workplace.
   • Ask specifically about hazards that your employees think could result in significant harm, such as slips and trips, fire hazards, and falling from heights.
4. Check the manufacturer’s instructions or data sheets for any equipment or substances. They can help to explain the hazards and put them in perspective in terms of how the equipment was made to be used and how misuse can lead to hazards.
   • The manufacturer's instructions will likely be on the labels of any equipment or substances. You can also check the manufacturer's manual for more information on possible hazards associated with the equipment or substances.
5. Look at any accident and ill-health records for the workplace. These documents will help you identify less obvious hazards, and any hazards that have occurred before in the workplace.
   • If you are in a management position, you can likely access these records for your company online or in the company files.
6. Think about any possible long term hazards. Long term hazards are hazards that will have an impact on workers when they exposed to the hazards for a long period of time.
   • These could be exposure to high levels of noise, or exposure to harmful substances over a sustained period of time. This could also be safety hazards through the repetitive use of equipment, from a lever on a work site to a keyboard at a desk.
7. Visit a government health and safety guidelines website. Depending on your country, you can access practical guidance on hazards in the workplace via a government health and safety guidelines website. These sites have a list of hazards and possible ways to control them, including recognized hazards such as working at height, working with chemicals, and working with machinery.
   • In the U.S., you can access the government health and safety guidelines website here: https://www.osha.gov/.
   • In the UK, you can access the government health and safety guidelines website here: http://www.hse.gov.uk/.

Determining Who Could be Harmed

1. Identify groups of people who could be at risk. You are creating an overview of all potential individuals at risk, so avoid listing every worker by name. Instead, make a list of groups of people in an environment.
   • For example, “people working in the storeroom” or “passers-by on the street.”
2. Determine how each group might be harmed. You then need to identify what type of injury or ill health might occur for each group.
   • For example: “shelf stackers may suffer back injuries from repeated lifting of boxes”. Or, “machinery workers may suffer joint pain from repeated use of a lever.”
   • This could also be more specific injuries like "workers may be burned by the printing press" or "cleaners may trip over the wires under the desks".
   • Keep in mind some workers may have particular requirements, such as new and young workers, new or expectant mothers, and people with disabilities.
   • You will also need to account for cleaners, visitors, contractors, and maintenance workers who may not be in the workplace all the time. It’s important to also identify any possible hazards to the general public, or “passers-by”.
3. Talk to your employees about who is at risk. If the workplace is a shared space among several workers or several hundred workers, it’s important to reach out to your employees and ask them who they think is at risk. Think about how your work affects others present and how their work affects your staff.
   • Ask your staff if they can think of any group you may have missed when identifying who is affected by certain hazards. For example, you may not realize that the cleaning staff also has to deal with lifting boxes at your employee’s desks, or you may not be aware that a certain piece of machinery is a noise hazard for pedestrians on the street.

Evaluating the Risks

1. Determine how likely it is that the hazard will occur in your workplace. Risk is a part of everyday life and through you might be the boss or the person in charge, you are not expected to eliminate all the risks. But you need to make sure you are aware of the main risks and you know how to address and manage these risks. So, you need to do everything “reasonably practicable” to protect people from harm. This means balancing the level of risk against the measures needed to control the real risk in terms of money, time, or trouble.
   • Keep in mind you do not need to take action that would be considered disproportionate to the level of risk. Don’t go overboard on your risk assessment. You should only include what you could be expected to know, within reason. You are not expected to anticipate unforeseen risks.
   • For example, a risk of a chemical spill should be taken seriously and noted as a major hazard. But smaller risks, like a stapler harming someone using it or the lid of a jar hitting someone, are not considered "reasonably practicable". Do your best to identify major and minor hazards, but do not try to account for every possible hazard in the workplace.
2. List control measures you can put in place for each hazard. For example, maybe you provide shelf stockers with back protectors and safety gear (also known as PPE, or Personal Protective Equipment). But ask yourself: Can I get rid of the hazard altogether? Is there a way to rearrange the storeroom so shelf stockers do not have to lift boxes from the ground? If this is not possible, ask: how can I control the risks so that harm is unlikely? Practical solutions include:
   • Trying a less risky option. Such as having the boxes on a raised platform or ledge to reduce the distance the shelf stockers will have to lift from.
   • Preventing access to the hazards, or organizing the workplace to reduce exposure to the hazard. Such as rearranging the storeroom so the boxes are placed at a level that do not require lifting by the shelf stockers.
   • Issuing protective equipment or protective practices to your workers. Such as back guards, PPE, and information on how to complete an action safely. For example, you could educate shelf stockers on how to properly lift a box from the ground, bending at the knees, with a straight back.
   • Providing welfare facilities, such as first aid and washing facilities. If your workers deal with chemicals in the workplace, for example, you should provide washing facilities and first aid close to their workstations.
3. Look for effective, low-cost solutions. Improving health and safety does not necessarily mean spending a lot of company money. Simple adjustments like placing a mirror on a blind corner to prevent vehicle accidents, or holding a brief training session on how to lift objects properly are all low-cost precautions.
   • In fact, failing to take simple precautions can cost you a lot more if an accident does happen. The safety of your workers should mean more than the bottom line. So if possible, spring for higher-cost solutions if they are your only option. Spending money on precautions is a better choice than having to take care of an injured worker.
4. Read model assessments developed by trade associations and employer organizations. Many of these groups come up with risk assessments for particular activities, like working with heights or working with chemicals. Look at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and websites that focus on a certain sector, like mining or administration.
   • Try to apply these model assessments to your workplace and adapt them as necessary. For example, a model assessment may have suggestions on how to prevent a fall from a ladder in the workplace. Or a suggestion on how to make loose wires in the office more safe for employees. You can then apply these suggestions in your own risk assessment, based on the specifics of your workplace.
5. Ask your workers for feedback. It’s important to involve your workers in the process of evaluating the risks and coming up with possible precautions. This will ensure that what you propose will work in practice and won’t introduce any new hazards into the workplace.

Recording Your Findings in an Assessment

1. Keep the assessment simple and easy to follow. The assessment should cover the hazards, how people might be harmed by them, and what you have in place to control the risks.
   • If you have fewer than five employees, by law you do not have to write down a risk assessment. But it’s useful to do this so you can review it at a later date and update it.
   • If you have five or more employees, you are required by law to write down the assessment.
2. Use a template to make the assessment. There are several templates available online, based on the type of workplace you work in. A basic risk assessment should show that:
   • A proper check of the hazard was made.
   • You asked who might be affected.
   • You dealt with the obvious, major hazards, and took into account the number of people who could be involved.
   • The precautions taken are reasonable and practical.
   • The remaining risk is low and/or manageable.
   • You involved your employees in the process.
   • If the nature of your work changes often or the workplace changes and develops, such as a construction site, your risk assessment may have to concentrate on a broad range of risks that can be anticipated. This could mean the possible state of the site your workers will be building on that day, or the possible physical hazards in the area, like fallen trees or rocks.
3. Rank the hazards from more serious to least serious. If your risk assessment identifies a number of hazards, you need to rank them in order of importance. For example, a chemical spill in a chemical plant will likely be the most serious risk, and a back injury from lifting a barrel in the chemical plant may be a less serious risk.
   • The rankings of the hazards are usually based on common sense. Consider the hazards that could lead to serious injuries like death, the loss of a limb, or a serious burn or cut. Then, work down from the most serious to the least serious.
4. Identify long-term solutions for the risks with bigger consequences, such as ill health and death. This could mean better spill prevention for the chemical plant, or a clear evacuation procedure in the event of a spill. You could also provide high quality PPE for workers to prevent exposure to the chemicals.
   • Note if these improvements or solutions can be implemented quickly, or even with temporary fixes, until more reliable controls can be put in place.
   • Remember that the greater the hazard, the more robust and reliable the control measures will need to be.
5. Note any employee training that is needed. Your risk assessment may include the need for employee training on a safety practice, like picking up a box from the ground properly, or for training on how to deal with a chemical spill.
6. Create a risk assessment matrix. Another approach is to use a risk assessment matrix, which helps you determine how likely or unlikely a risk may occur in your workplace. The matrix will have a column for “Consequence and Likelihood”, which is divided into:
   • Rare: May occur only in exceptional circumstances.
   • Unlikely: Could occur at some time.
   • Possible: Might occur at some time.
   • Likely: Will probably occur in most circumstances.
   • Almost Certain: Is expected to occur in most circumstances.
   • The top column will then be divided into sections for:
   • Insignificant: Low financial loss, no disruption to capability, no impact on community standing.
   • Minor: Medium financial loss, minor disruption to capability, minor impact on community standing.
   • Serious: High financial loss, some ongoing disruption to capability, modest impact on community standing.
   • Disastrous: Major financial loss, ongoing disruption to capability, major impact of community standing.
   • Catastrophic: Mission critical financial loss, permanent disruption to capability, and ruinous impact on community standing.
   • A copy of an example risk matrix can be found here: https://intranet.ecu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/207080/how-to-write-a-risk-assessment-and-management-plan.pdf.
7. Share the risk assessment with your employees. You are not required by law to share the risk assessment with your workers but it may be a good practice to share the completed document with them.
   • File a hard copy of the risk assessment and keep an electronic copy on the company's shared drive. You want to have easy access to the document so you can update it or adjust it accordingly.
8. Review the risk assessment on a regular basis. Few workplaces stay the same, and sooner or later, you will bring in new equipment, substances, and procedures that could lead to new hazards. Review your employee’s work practices on a daily basis, and update the risk assessment. Ask yourself:
   • Have there been any changes?
   • Have you learnt anything from accidents or near misses?
   • Set up a review date for the risk assessment in a year’s time. If there is a significant change at your workplace during the year, update the risk assessment as soon as possible.

Sources and Citations

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