Risk assessment lies at the heart of a safe and efficient workplace. From fire hazards to vulnerabilities in network security and machine malfunctions, risks are present in every industry–and they can disrupt operations, harm people, and cost money if not identified and managed.
To tackle these potential hazards in your organization, one of the best tools would be risk assessments. When you conduct risk assessments regularly, you can pinpoint various risks and implement safety measures to address them promptly. Taking this proactive approach is not just beneficial—it’s essential for the success of any organization.
Dive into our guide below to learn all about how to conduct risk assessments, including essential steps and resources.
What is a risk assessment?
Risk assessments are essential for ensuring occupational health and safety in a company. They help prevent accidents and occupational diseases.
In any risk assessment, you would ask yourself if there’s anything in the environment, whether it’s an object, situation, or task, that could pose a danger to the health and wellbeing of workers or anyone else involved. If so, what exactly are the hazards, and how severe are the risks?
Employers are required to perform risk assessments as per various laws, ordinances, and regulations, including the Occupational Safety and Health Act, the Ordinance on Industrial Safety and Health, and the Ordinance on Hazardous Substances. Since different companies face different conditions, these rules don’t define exactly how these procedures should look.
However, a risk assessment must always be complete and factually accurate. It involves conducting standardized inspections, assessing the severity and likelihood of incidents, and implementing control measures to reduce risks. After the assessment, businesses create a risk matrix to evaluate the likelihood of and assign risk ratings to hazards.
Essential steps for conducting a risk assessment
A thorough risk assessment allows you to trace risks back to their source and address the root causes of issues. It’s important to note that risk assessments differ from Job Safety Analyses (JSA), and sometimes both are necessary for comprehensive safety management.
Based on the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA), a risk assessment features these essential steps. We’ve added some practical tips for each:
1. Define work areas and activities
First, you need to get a clear picture of your workplace. Start by creating a detailed map of your workplace and marking all different areas like offices, production lines, storage spaces, and maintenance zones.
Next, list out the specific activities that occur in each area. For example, in a manufacturing plant, the production line might involve tasks like assembly, quality control, and packaging, while the storage area might involve loading, unloading, and inventory management. By breaking down the activities, you can understand the potential risks associated with each area.
This process allows you to see the big picture and identify zones that might need extra attention because of the tasks performed there.
2. Assess hazards
The next step is to evaluate the severity and likelihood of each hazard that you’ve found. This means looking at how serious the potential harm could be and how likely it is to happen.
Start by asking questions like, “What are the potential negative outcomes?” and “What is the extent of the possible harm?” If you’ve identified a slippery floor as a hazard, consider the worst-case scenario—someone could slip, fall, and get injured.
Next, think about how likely each hazard is to occur. This involves looking at past incidents, near-misses, and any existing safety measures. If that slippery floor is in a high-traffic area and has caused falls before, the likelihood is pretty high. On the other hand, if it’s in a rarely used storage room, the risk might be lower.
Combining the severity and likelihood gives you a clearer picture of which hazards need immediate attention and which ones can be monitored over time.
3. Prioritize the hazards with a risk assessment matrix
Once you’ve evaluated each hazard, rank them to determine which ones are the most critical. This way, you can focus right away on the issues that could have the greatest impact, then work your way through the list of hazards.
To prioritize risks, you can use tools like risk matrices or risk scoring systems.
A risk matrix is a common tool that plots the severity of harm against the likelihood of occurrence. It’s essentially a grid where one axis represents the severity of the hazard (ranging from minor to catastrophic) and the other axis represents the likelihood of the hazard occurring (ranging from rare to almost certain).
You can then categorize levels such as low, medium, high, or critical. A high-severity hazard with a high likelihood of occurrence would be considered a critical risk and should be addressed immediately.
Another option is a risk scoring system, where you assign a severity rating and a likelihood rating for each hazard. You’ll then multiply these to produce a risk score so you can rank the hazards. If a hazard has a severity score of 5 (on a scale of 1 to 5) and a likelihood score of 4, the risk score would be 20. A higher score means it’s a higher priority risk that needs immediate action.
Here’s a video from EPA Victoria with a quick walkthrough of the process:
4. Determine and execute corrective measures
Now that you’ve prioritized the risks, it’s time to figure out how to tackle them. The goal here is to either reduce the severity and likelihood of the risks or eliminate them altogether.
Start by brainstorming practical solutions for each high-priority hazard. Here are a few examples:
- If you’ve identified poor lighting as a risk in a warehouse, you might install brighter lights, adding more light fixtures, or even organize a regular maintenance schedule to make sure all lights are functioning properly.
- For chemical exposure risks, make sure all hazardous substances are properly labeled and protected, provide personal protective equipment (PPE) like gloves and masks, and conduct regular training sessions on safe handling procedures.
- For cybersecurity threats, implement robust firewalls, update your software regularly, and conduct employee training on recognizing phishing attempts and other cyber threats.
It’s also a good idea to involve your team in this process. Employees often have valuable insights and practical suggestions based on their daily experiences. They might point out simple fixes that you hadn’t considered or highlight areas that need more attention.
Once you’ve identified the corrective measures, document them clearly and assign responsibilities for their implementation. Everyone involved should know their responsibilities and understand the steps they need to take. Set deadlines and follow up to ensure that the actions are carried out effectively.
5. Verify effectiveness and update hazard assessments
After implementing corrective measures, you should check if the actions taken are actually reducing or eliminating the identified risks. Conduct follow-up inspections and get feedback from employees to see if the changes have made a noticeable difference. If you provided new safety training, assess whether employees are applying what they’ve learned in their daily tasks.
Regularly reviewing and updating your risk assessments is equally important. The work environment and activities can change over time, introducing new hazards or altering existing ones. Schedule periodic reviews of your risk assessments so they remain current and relevant. You might revisit areas where changes have occurred, such as new equipment installations.
Best practices for risk assessments
There are many steps involved in a risk assessment, and following the best practices below will make it much more effective. Your risk assessments will be smoother if you:
- Notify employees before conducting an inspection of the workplace. Give a brief overview of what the inspection will involve and why it’s important. This helps them understand the process and encourages their cooperation.
- Inspect the workplace and identify potential hazards. During the inspection, use a checklist so you cover all areas and activities. Pay attention to both obvious risks and subtle ones that might not be immediately obvious.
- Determine whether accidents have already occurred. Review incident reports or any other records of past accidents. Talk to employees who were involved in these incidents to get a clearer idea of what happened and how to prevent similar events.
- Develop a plan to preserve a safe work environment that supports needed corrective actions. This includes specific steps to address each identified hazard, timelines for implementation, and assigned tasks. You can involve employees in the planning process to get their buy-in and insights.
Common risk assessment mistakes to avoid
Risk assessments are prone to certain errors. Inspectors and businesses frequently make three mistakes when assessing risks and hazards:
- Not repeating the process. A hazard assessment should not be a single inspection; instead, they should be regular and based off the results of previous inspections. Hazard analyses and continuous improvement need to be organizational habits to ensure sustainable health and safety.
- Not involving outside contractors. When working with outside companies, third parties are also responsible for employee safety. Make sure your business partners perform risk assessments as well.
- Not involving enough inspectors. Risk assessment inspections should be done by several safety officers, to ensure they are as thorough as possible.
Create risk assessment checklists with workflow automation software
In order to keep track of hazards, risks, control measures, and corrective actions properly, you’ll need a good record-keeping system. Documenting your findings helps you improve and is necessary to meet legal obligations.
Instead of writing pen-and-paper risk assessment checklists, save yourself time and increase the utility of your inspections with workflow automation software like Lumiform. By digitizing inspection checklists so they can be used again and again, and creating your own custom checklists to reflect the unique risks present in your company, you’ll work more efficiently and have an easier time developing improvements.
Lumiform’s workflow automation platform:
- Lets you convert any existing safety inspections into digital forms easily, or use one of the many premade risk assessment templates to start making your workplace safer
- Lets you track everything that happens on site and monitor the tasks you’ve assigned your employees
- Guides safety inspectors through your prepared checklists step-by-step so that they don’t miss anything and there are no errors
- Empowers you to complete risk assessments about 30%-50% faster overall
- Generates automatic reports after each completed risk assessment, making it easy to follow up and to measure improvements