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A risk assessment is simply a careful examination of your workplace, to identify what could cause harm to people, so that you can decide as to whether you have taken enough precautions or should do more to prevent harm from being caused.
Work accidents and work related ill health, can ruin lives, and seriously affect your business also, if output is lost, machinery is damaged, insurance costs increase, or you have to go to court.
You are legally required to assess the risks in your workplace.
The important thing you need to decide is whether a hazard is significant, and whether you have taken satisfactory precautions to minimize the risk.
If you are a small firm owner, and you are confident you understand what is involved, you can carry out a risk assessment yourself. You do not have to be a Health and Safety expert. If you are a larger firm, then you may want to assign a responsible employee, safety representative or safety officer to carry out the task. You can also obtain advice from outside companies, who have specialised in this type of work.
What is Hazard and Risk?
A hazard means anything that can cause harm. To give you a basic idea, think of chemicals, electricity, working at heights etc etc.
A risk is the chance, high or low, that somebody will be harmed by the hazard.
There are five steps in a risk assessment:
Step 1. Look for the hazards.
Step 2. Decide who might be harmed and how.
Step 3. Evaluate the risk and decide whether the existing precautions are adequate or whether more should be done.
Step 4. Record your findings.
Step 5. Review your assessment and revise it if required.
Do not overcomplicate matters. In the majority of firms in the commercial, service and light industrial sectors, the hazards are few, and those that do exist are fairly obvious. Checking them is mainly a matter of common sense, but also a required and necessary action.
You probably know already, whether you have machinery that could cause harm, or if there is an awkward entrance or stairway where someone could be hurt. If so, check that you have taken all reasonable precautions you can to avoid accidents and prevent injury.
Lets take a closer look at Steps 1 and 2.
Step 1. Look for the hazards.
If you are doing the assessment yourself, walk around your workplace and look at what could reasonably be expected to cause harm. Ignore the trivial (for now) and concentrate on significant hazards which could result in serious harm.
Ask your employees what they think. They are the ones who are working with the various components on a daily basis, and will therefore know where the problems are. They may have noticed things which are not immediately obvious. Manufacturers instructions or data sheets can also help you spot hazards and put risks in their proper perspective.
Step 2. Decide who might be harmed and how.
For each identified hazard you should then decide who might be harmed and how. And of course you will then be able to decide on a course or action that will prevent the hazard from causing risk.
Do not forget about young workers, trainees, expectant mothers etc who may be at particular risk.
Do not forget cleaners, visitors, contractors, maintenance workers etc who may not be in the workplace all the time.
Do not forget members of the public, or people you share the workplace with, if there is any chance they could be injured by your activity.
If you have less than 5 employees then you do not need to write anything down. Although you will find it useful to keep a written record of what you have done.
If you have five or more employees, then you must put in writing the significant findings of your risk assessment. This means writing down the significant hazards and your conclusions.
Examples might be something like:
Electrical installations: insulation and earthing checked and found OK.
Fumes from welding: local exhaust ventilation provided and regularly checked.
You must also tell your employees about your findings.
Suitable and sufficient, not perfect.
Risk assessment must be suitable and sufficient. You need to be able to show that:
a proper check was made,
you asked who might be affected (at risk),
you dealt with all the obvious significant hazards, taking into account the number of people who could be involved,
the precautions are reasonable, and the remaining risk is low.
Keep your written record for reference in the future. It will help you if a Health and Safety Inspector decides to pay you a visit and asks what precautions you have already taken. Or if you become involved in any legal action for civil liability.
It can also act as a reminder for you to keep an eye on any particular hazards and precautions.
You should also make sure that any new employees read the documentation so that they are aware of what is being done.
To make things easier, you could refer to other documents, such as manuals, the arrangements in your health and safety policy statement, company rules and regulations, working instructions, health and safety procedures, and your arrangements for general fire safety.
You may already list these procedures elsewhere. You do not need to repeat all of them, but it is up to you how you wish to present the documents. You could keep them seperately or combine them all into one document.
Step 5. Review your assessment and revise it if necessary.
Sooner or later you are going to bring in new machinery, substances or procedures which may lead to new hazards. If there is any significant change, add this new hazard to your assessment. You do not need to amend your assessment for every trivial change, or for each new job.
But if any change, or new job, brings in significant new hazards, then you should consider them in their own right and do whatever is necessary to keep the risks down.
And finally, it is a good working practice to review your assessment from time to time, to ensure that the precautions are still working effectively.