Risk Assessment

Risk assessment is a fundamental component of health and safety management system.

Risk assessment can be defined as “evaluating and analyzing the risks arising from hazards and checking the existing control measures and identifying additional controls if needed”. As per Health and Safety Executive (HSE) it is a legal duty for employer to assess the risks to the health and safety of employees (and risks to the health and safety of persons not in employment) to which they are exposed while they are at work.

The ILO consider the risk assessment as following:

“A workplace risk assessment is one of the key tools for improving occupational safety and health conditions at work. Thus, it plays an important role in protecting workers and businesses, as well as complying with the laws in many countries.

It helps everyone focus on the risks that really matter in the workplace – the ones with the potential to cause real harm”.

For effective risk assessment program organizations need to have detailed arrangement for delivery of effective risk assessment program- this is not as the result of a single activity but as the result of a sustained and planned efforts over a prolonged period. RRC International Diploma for Occupational health and safety management professional book

The risk assessment process should provide good practical analysis of the current control measures. The practical nature of the risk assessment process can help to identify the degree to which the control measures are effective and where additional technical, procedural or behavioral controls are required.

The outcome from the risk assessment should therefore provide a basis for the selection of appropriate additional risk controls. Where further risk controls need to be developed, the outcomes of the risk assessment will often indicate sensible improvements to risk controls or options for new controls.

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The risk assessment is very essential for effective health and safety management system at workplace and the benefits of risk assessment as per ILO shown as following “A well conducted workplace risk assessment will contribute to the protection of workers by eliminating or minimizing work related hazards and risks. It should also benefit businesses through better organization of working practices potentially increasing productivity”

Moreover, the outcomes of the risk assessment can improve the decision-making process and provide a strong basis for allocating resources to manage risks in the most effective manner.

The risk assessment mechanism can be understood from the overview of risk assessment in Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in the following three steps:

Identify what could cause injury or illness in your business (hazards)

Decide how likely it is that someone could be harmed and how seriously (the risk)

Take action to eliminate the hazard, or if this isn't possible, control the risk

Also ILO 5 step guide for risk assessment can explain the risk assessment

in 5 steps as following

Step 1 Identify the hazards

Identify out how workers and visitors could be harmed. This is achieved by surveying the workplace and identifying the hazards.

Step 2 Identify who might be harmed and how

For each hazard identified, and there may be many, assessors need to be clear about who might be harmed and how; this will help ascertain the best way of managing the risk.

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Step 3 Evaluate the risk – identify and decide on the safety and health risk control measures

Having spotted the hazards, assessors then have to decide what to do about them. The law in many countries requires employers to do everything possible to protect people from harm. This can be achieved by comparing what is being done with good practice.?So first, look at the controls already in place and how the work is organized. Then compare this with good practice and see if there’s more that could be done to improve the standard in the workplace

Step 4 Record who is responsible for implementing which risk control measures and the timeframe

If assessors have decided on additional control measures action has to be taken to ensure they are implemented. It is good practice to allocate responsibility of this to named individuals, as well as assigning a time frame for implementation. The date of implementation should also be recorded. Completing the risk assessment is an important step, but it is acting on the findings of the risk assessment that will make the difference in eliminating or minimizing work related hazards and risks.

Step 5 Record the findings, monitor and review the risk assessment and update when necessary

Record and display the findings, writing down what assessors have identified and decided in Steps 1 – 4. This record should be made available to workers, supervisors and labor inspectors. There is no set format for recording the findings. The template given as an example in this guide is designed to show the logical steps in a risk assessment and it is also convenient for recording the findings in a simple and readily accessible format. Arrangements will be needed to monitor the effectiveness of the control measures and one way of doing this is through workplace inspections.

Based on the above the risk assessment is not only a legal requirement but also is one of the most important needed factors for effective health and safety management system, the outcome of effective risk assessment in not only workplace safety and injury prevention but also effective risk assessment can improve the workplace in other terms such as productivity and quality even more in businesses if other risks exist, the risk based thinking concept if understood by the management of organization it will allow the management to capture other operational and business risks (non-health and safety risks) and the management can mitigate these risks in similar approach of dealing with health and safety risks.

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References:

International Labour Organization (ILO) Guidelines on Occupational Safety and Health Management

Systems ILO-OSH 2001

ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_protect/---protrav/---safework/documents/normativeinstrument/wcms_107727.pdf

A 5 step guide for employers, workers and their representatives on conducting workplace risk assessments

ilo.org/safework/info/publications/WCMS_232886/lang--en/index.htm

Risk assessments

hse.gov.uk/involvement/riskassessments.htm

Managing risks and risk assessment at work

hse.gov.uk/simple-health-safety/risk/index.htm