A risk assessment is a systematic process of evaluating the potential risks that may be involved in an activity, especially in terms of workplace health and safety.There are generally three major questions which are asked when conducting a risk assessment:
- What hazards exist that may cause harm?
- How severe would the harm be?
- How likely is the harm to occur?’
Once this evaluation is made, the next step is to consider what could be put in place to either eliminate or reduce the risk as much as possible.
Why is risk assessment important?
A risk assessment ensures that you are able to identify all hazards in the workplace which may lead to an injury or illness. Once risks are identified, the business is then able to review the best measures to eliminate the risk completely or implement control measures to minimise the likelihood of an injury/illness occurring.
Risk assessments are highly important as they can assist to:
- create awareness of hazards and risks
- identify who may be at risk
- determine whether there are existing and adequate control measures in place
What is the purpose of a risk assessment?
The purpose of a risk assessment is to identify hazards in the workplace in order to implement control measures that can eliminate or minimise risks as much as possible. This, in turn, will help with providing a safer working environment.
Risk assessments should be completed in consultation with workers. This will assist in identifying hazards which may normally go unnoticed.
What are the benefits of a risk assessment?
The greatest benefit of a risk assessment is ensuring safety within your workplace. A comprehensive risk assessment may prevent, or in the very least minimise, workplace injuries or illnesses. Other benefits of risk assessments may include:
Cost-saving
The right control measures should reduce injuries or illnesses occurring in the workplace, which will cause a reduction in workers compensation claims, absenteeism, and reactive measures.
Employee loyalty
Placing a strong emphasis on risk assessments may convey to your employees that you take their safety seriously. This can result in greater loyalty from their end.
How to conduct a risk assessment?
While there are many different ways to capture risk in the workplace, generally a risk assessment will have four steps:
Step 1: Identify Hazards
Thoroughly assess the workplace to identify hazards – both existing and potential. This can be completed by creating a list of hazards and current control measures the business has in place.
It is always good practice to consult your employees in this stage. Your employees are directly encountering these hazards – consulting them can shed invaluable and in-depth insights.
Step 2: Assess the risk
Once the hazards have been identified, the degree of risk they present needs to be determined. This entails pre-empting how these hazards can cause potential injury in different situations and conditions.
During this step, the business should consider how likely it is that someone will be harmed and how serious the resulting injury may be. In this stage, we should also consider if the current control measures the business have in effect are reducing risk.
Step 3: Control the risk
After conducting a thorough assessment of the risk, the business should then look at processes to eliminate or reduce the risk as much as possible. The business should use the hierarchy of control measures to do this.
This starts with elimination as the first option and works through the different options to the lowest control which is personal protective equipment (PPE). It should be noted that the PPE should be one of the last considerations when reviewing risks.
Step 4: Review
The business should review the effectiveness of the control measures once it has been implemented. In this step we should consider if the measure is fit for the purpose it is used for; is it suitable for the nature of the work? Or if something has been installed, has it been set up correctly?
Review is an ongoing process, in the event something new is introduced into the environment the business may need to consider if their control measure is the most effective for their business.