Generic Risk Assessments: Hero or Villain?

Risk assessments are one of the pillars of a health and safety management system and in some industries, due to high hazardous tasks, you may have an entire library of them. They are one of the basics and first things you learn about when it comes to health and safety and so their importance cannot be ignored.

And there is of course a legal duty to assess the risks to the health and safety of employees (and those persons not in your employment) to which they are exposed. It forms an integral component of your overall risk management strategy, so much so I could spend an entire article just on risk assessments. However, that is not what I will be doing. Instead, I am looking at generic risk assessments, documents that can be bought/purchased from an external provider, to help fill the void in your system or simply make things easier for you.

Do they work?

First of all, let’s take a look at the two groups of risk assessments that you will come across.

Site/Task Specific Risk Assessments

Site specific risk assessments have been developed to a specific site and task and will generally only contain information for that particular site, task and project. It will include specific hazards to that location such as the surrounding environment and site conditions i.e. high winds, nearby river course, low ceilings, nearby busy roads.

It also makes provision for change. Often, risk assessments change as the nature of the environment or task can change. An example of this could be how sites or sections of sites can sometimes be quite transient, like fencing and barriers. These sometimes change position depending on what is happening at the time. Therefore, risk assessments may need to be updated to reflect these changes. This can be a useful moment to review and reflect on the assessment to make sure it is still suitable and sufficient.

The site-specific risk assessment is also a useful tool to engage with the individuals that will be carrying out the work. You can speak to them about the area and the task, to make sure all hazards are identified, and control measures are suitable. I cannot stress enough, the importance of talking to those individuals who are at risk. They will often have good ideas and will provide you with key information on how tasks are done which may present hazards to you, that you would not have previously considered or known about.

In my personal opinion, there isn’t a negative aspect to this approach other than, the potential for reviewing and changing documents frequently, if necessary. It can be time-consuming but if changes are needed, then it is needed.

Generic Risk Assessments

Generic risk assessments have not been adapted to a specific site or project. You may get a generic assessment form something like roofing, but it won’t be specific to the roof and environment you are going to be working on.

You may obtain generic risk assessments that contain some hazards but not all, they may have some control measures but not necessarily ones that are suitable for you and the project you are working on. My general concern with these however, is when they are purchased but never adapted. The purpose of these generic risk assessments is to provide you with a template, they are not the finished article. They will certainly not pass any type of scrutiny or review.

You can use these templates and make them specific to your project and site. They can provide some efficiency, consistency and even prompt you to include hazards you may not have considered. But I would still advocate not completing these from the comfort of your desk. Risk assessments should all be done having seen the site and task. Take photos, speak to the people doing the job and do not for one moment think that an entirely desk-based risk assessment for a job or site miles away will be adequate.

Conclusion

I don’t think I am old school (partly because I’m not old) when I say that I prefer building a risk assessment from scratch. Generic risk assessments have a place, so long as they are used correctly. Having said that, I’ve seen site-specific risk assessments that were terrible. Either way, both approaches still require going to the location the risk assessment will be used for. Take your time to understand what is happening, what are the hazards, how are they managed. Speak to those at risk, get involved. Just from these conversations, you will actually learn so much practical knowledge and increase your understanding not only of risk management but the industry you are working in.

One of the advantages in building your own risk assessments from scratch is the capability you are teaching yourself and the experience. Generic risk assessments do have a place, but for me, they will always be a distant second.

?

EOS Health, Safety, Quality and Environmental Consultancy.

You can contact us on LinkedIn or at [email protected].