What is a risk assessment?

“….a careful examination of what, in your work, could cause harm to people, so that you can weigh up whether  you have taken enough precautions or should do more to prevent harm….”

Why do a risk assessment?

A risk assessment will protect your workers and your business, as well as complying with law

A person from your organisation needs to attend risk assessment training as it will ensure that this person is competent within your organisation and will gain abilities such as hazard identification, ability to categorise and evaluate risk(s). These abilities will allow a ‘suitable and sufficient’ risk assessment to be conducted within your own organisation.

 How to do a risk assessment

There are no fixed rules on how a risk assessment should be carried out, but there are a few general principles that should be followed.

Five steps to risk assessment can be followed to ensure that your risk assessment is carried out correctly, these five steps are:

1.     Identify the hazards

2.     Decide who might be harmed and how

3.     Evaluate the risks and decide on control measures

4.     Record your findings and implement them

5.     Review your assessment and update if necessary

Step 1: Identify the hazards

In order to identify hazards you need to understand the difference between a ‘hazard’ and ‘risk’. A hazard is ‘something with the potential to cause harm’ and a risk is ‘the likelihood of that potential harm being realised’.

Hazards can be identified by using a number of different techniques such as walking round the workplace, or asking your employees.

There are many “assets” at risk from hazards. First and foremost, injuries to people should be the first consideration of the risk assessment. Hazard scenarios that could cause significant injuries should be highlighted to ensure that appropriate emergency plans are in place. Many other physical assets may be at risk. These include buildings, information technology, utility systems, machinery, raw materials and finished goods. The potential for environmental impact should also be considered. Consider the impact an incident could have on your relationships with customers, the surrounding community and other stakeholders. Consider situations that would cause customers to lose confidence in your organization and its products or services.

As you conduct the risk assessment, look for vulnerabilities—weaknesses—that would make an asset more susceptible to damage from a hazard. Vulnerabilities include deficiencies in building construction, process systems, security, protection systems and loss prevention programs. They contribute to the severity of damage when an incident occurs. For example, a building without a fire sprinkler system could burn to the ground while a building with a properly designed, installed and maintained fire sprinkler system would suffer limited fire damage.

The impacts from hazards can be reduced by investing in mitigation. If there is a potential for significant impacts, then creating a mitigation strategy should be a high priority.

Step 2: Decide who might be harmed and how

Once you have identified a number of hazards you need to understand who might be harmed and how, such as ‘people working in the warehouse’, or members of the public.

Step 3: Evaluate the risks and decide on control measures

After ‘identifying the hazards’ and ‘deciding who might be harmed and how’ you are then required to protect the people from harm. The hazards can either be removed completely or the risks controlled so that the injury is unlikely.

Step 4: Record your findings

Your findings should be written down it’s a legal requirement where there are 5 or more employees; and by recording the findings it shows that you have identified the hazards, decided who could be harmed and how, and also shows how you plan to eliminate the risks and hazards.

Step 5: Review your assessment and update as and when necessary

You should never forget that few workplaces stay the same and as a result this risk assessment should be reviewed and updated when required.