Risk assessment is a term used to describe the process of identifying hazards and risks that have the potential to cause harm in and around your workplace.
Managing risks is not just a legal requirement for large companies, whether you are a large or small employer or you work on your own, you should carry out a risk assessment for your business. The steps involved are straightforward and worth getting in your calendar soon than later!
Before attempting risk assessment, try to identify the hazards or dangers that you believe may cause harm to you or your employees. An easy way to do this is by simply walking around your workplace or worksite and noting down potential hazards.
How to identify hazards
You should take some time to ask yourself a few questions before taking a look at the risk associated with the business like:
- What may be some of the workplace risks that could harm someone?
- Who is most at risk as a result of these risks?
- How easily can this harm happen, and what can I do to prevent any occurrence of this harm?
Here are some of the other considerations when thinking about risk assessment.
- How is the equipment necessary for the job used?
- What type of chemicals are used at the worksite?
- Are they adequately stored and contained?
- Are they used in compliance with health and safety standards?
- What are the everyday work practices used?
- Do they pose a threat to safety?
- What is the condition of the building?
- Are there any objects or structures that are unstable and could cause bodily harm?
Some of the more common dangers that you can look out for include exposed high voltage wires, including equipment and machinery, slippery sections of your worksite, poor lighting and computer or equipment cables that are not correctly secured and trail across the floor.
Another critical aspect of risk assessment is ensuring that all your instruction manuals for various types of equipment and chemicals that you use are made clear. This ensures that new employees can easily follow instructions and protect themselves from any harm.
It is also good practice to look at your company or business’ past record to see if it can help you further determine risks.
These could include ill-health records, non-routine operations, how often maintenance on equipment had to be implemented, and any sudden changes in production cycles. Once identified, consider how you can protect staff, external contractors, visitors, and public members from injuries.
You then need to implement a sensible plan to mitigate these threats. This is required under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.
Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999
These regulations make it a legal requirement to find sensible measures to control the hazards that you have identified. Some of the jobs that fall under regulations include construction, agriculture and working with gas. If the job poses any risk to the health and safety of staff or others, a risk assessment plan is required.
If you are self-employed and not sure how the law applies to you can check the Health and Safety Executive. You’ll find they provide several examples for self-employed job scenarios.
Who is at risk?
After you’ve identified the potential risks at your company, try to figure out who the risks pose the most threat to. For example, consider which risks are more dangerous for your employees as opposed to customers.
In the case of employees, you can create groups to determine which section of employees access different parts of the workplace environment and the different risks each group faces. When you have assessed the various risks, log them down and discuss your findings with your staff so that they also understand the dangers in the workplace.
What’s next?
After you and your staff are on the same page, the next step of your assessment should be to determine and evaluate the levels of risk to all the people mentioned above.
To do this, you can look at frequent scenarios and how often you think they may play out. An example of this could be how likely someone is to fall on a very slippery floor. Is it high risk or low risk? What about if an employee needs to access heights to do their job. Are the ladders or other devices safe for the employee to climb? Is it considered high risk or low risk?
By asking these types of questions, you will be better able to determine risks and eliminate them as well. While we know that risks are part of everyday life, you may avoid serious injury to an employee, customer, or visitor if you can identify them.
How do I prevent the risks that have been identified?
One of the most effective ways that you can do this is to use safety signs around your workplace that are clear and easy to see locations. Safety signs are inexpensive visual aids that help staff (and visitors who may be unfamiliar with the environment) of safe practices.
You can also ensure that your staff are not overworked by creating a reasonable shift schedule.
Another proven safety method is providing the necessary PPE protective equipment for your staff and visitors who may interact with hazardous parts of the building. It is also always advisable to have an easily accessible first aid kit and a trained first-aider in the event that someone suffers injury despite your best efforts.
