Some people think that a risk assessment is a complicated process, requires pages and pages of paperwork and demands a significant time investment… but it doesn’t have to be that way.
What is a risk assessment?
A risk assessment is a tool used to methodically identify situations and activities that may cause injury or illness to people. Risk assessments can help you proactively manage the risks that your employees, contractors, and the broader public may be potentially exposed to in the course of running your business.
Why should l document a risk assessment?
It is important to document risk assessments for a number of reasons. Primarily, documenting a risk assessment can support your business to demonstrate compliance to various laws and regulations.
Additionally, it shows that your business has made efforts to go through a consultative and logical process to remove or minimise risks.
In the case that the unfortunate does happen, you may be able to utilise your risk assessments to validate that you have demonstrated due diligence.
How do l complete a simple risk assessment?
The first step of any risk assessment should be to form a small team. The team must include at least one person who is intimately involved in, and understands the steps relating to the activity/process that you are about to analyse.
Rather than getting caught up in the various definitions and differences of such terms as hazards, risks, probabilities and consequences, you can simplify a risk assessment by asking and thinking through the following questions:
- “What could go wrong?”
This question prompts you to identify the things that could cause an injury or illness while undertaking the process/task.
- “How could it go wrong?”
This question triggers you to consider the circumstances which could lead to someone being hurt or suffering ill effects.
- “What are we currently doing to stop that from happening?” and “What can we do further to stop that from happening?”
These questions help you define what your business is already doing to protect its employees, and what further actions it could take to eliminate or minimise the possibility of injury and illness.
It doesn’t really matter what you title the headings of each step, it’s the process you undertake that is important.
During the process of determining additional controls, it is important to assign responsibilities and set timelines. This will help in ensuring that people are held accountable. It’s important to recognise that there are legal expectation that you will work through the hierarchy of control and not default to the ‘cheapest’ fix (unless this happens to be the best option).
The last step of the risk assessment process is to check that the ‘fixes’ you have implemented are actually working as you intended.
There are many templates you can download for free from the web. An example has been included on the next page for your reference.
As always, feel free to call, or send us an email with any questions you may have.
