Every workplace has unique hazards and associated risks. Once hazards are identified, conducting a risk assessment is crucial. A risk assessment not only safeguards the health and wellbeing of your employees, it also ensures that your business stays compliant with health and safety legislation.
In this post, we walk you through what a workplace risk assessment is, why it matters, and how to conduct one in five simple steps. Plus, we’ll introduce you to our handy workplace risk assessment form to help streamline the process.
What is a workplace risk assessment?
A workplace risk assessment is a systematic process to evaluate the likelihood and severity of an illness or injury associated with an identified hazard. This allows you to determine appropriate measures needed to reduce or eliminate workplace hazards, and to prioritize the hazards that require immediate attention. Ultimately, the goal is to prevent accidents, injuries, or illnesses to employees. There are always hazards present in any workplace, and risk assessments are essential in all industries, whether you’re in construction, healthcare, retail, or an office environment.
Why is it important?
Workplace risk assessments are more than just a way to comply with your legal obligations under occupational health and safety legislation, they’re a proactive step towards safeguarding your employees and your business. Here are a few reasons why conducting a risk assessment is so important:
- Protects employees: By identifying hazards and associated risks in the workplace, you can implement appropriate controls to reduce the likelihood of injury or illness, thereby creating a safer workplace for everyone.
- Reduces costs: Workplace accidents can be expensive. A risk assessment helps minimize these costs by reducing the likelihood of incidents that lead to lost time and productivity.
- Legal compliance: You may have an obligation under your jurisdiction’s occupational health and safety legislation to identify and address potential hazards and the associated risks in the workplace. In some jurisdictions, like Ontario’s Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA), the legislation may not specifically require businesses to conduct risk assessments, but doing so helps employers comply with their obligations under the OHSA and its regulations. Failure to comply with obligations under the OHSA and its regulations can put an employer at risk of legal penalties, fines, or even shutdowns.
- Promotes a safety culture: Regularly conducting risk assessments encourages a culture of safety in your organization.
- Enhances business reputation: Businesses that prioritize health and safety are often viewed more favourably by customers, clients, and potential employees.
Preparing for a risk assessment
Before diving into the process, you should start by gathering all relevant information about your workplace, such as previously completed hazard and risk assessments, incident reports, and any specific regulations that apply to your job or industry. It’s also necessary to define the scope of the assessment. Are you assessing the whole workplace, certain areas of the workplace, or just new equipment or processes? This choice helps you understand the scope of the assessment and allocate the appropriate time and resources effectively.
How to conduct a workplace risk assessment in five steps
Now that you’re prepared, it’s time to conduct your workplace risk assessment. Follow these five steps to ensure a comprehensive evaluation.
1. Identify hazards
The first step in any risk assessment is to identify potential hazards. A hazard is anything that could cause harm, and hazards often categorized in these types:
- Physical hazards: Substances or activities that can affect the physical safety of employees. These include things like machinery, slippery floors, temperature and air quality, radiation, or heavy lifting.
- Chemical hazards: Substances that can cause harm through ingestion, inhalation, or physical contact, such as cleaning agents or industrial chemicals.
- Biological hazards: Agents in the workplace that can cause employees short-term or long-term health conditions. This includes bacteria, viruses, mould, or other biological agents.
- Ergonomic hazards: Workplace design and considerations that can cause harm to an employee. This includes issues related to physical strain on employees, such as repetitive movements or poor workstation setup.
- Psychosocial hazards: Factors that can affect an employee’s overall wellbeing, such as stress, mental health, harassment, or even fatigue.
Walk through your workplace and note anything that could cause damage, harm, or adversely affect the health of someone in the workplace. Don’t forget to consult your staff, as they often have valuable insights into the hazards they face daily. Our Performance Management tool makes it easy for employers to gather updates from their workers through regular short surveys, helping capture how they feel and any concerns they might have. Also consider the geographical location of your workplace, as the location of your organization can bring insight into potential natural disasters that are common in the area.
2. Analyse the risks
Once you’ve identified the hazards, the next step is to analyse the risks associated with each one. This involves determining the likelihood that the hazard will cause injury or illness and the severity of it.
For example, if a chemical spill is a potential hazard, consider:
- Who or what is at risk? For example, are all employees at risk, or just one? Are non-employees, such as third-party cleaning staff, at risk? Is company property or equipment at risk of damage?
- How might workers be harmed (for example, skin irritation, respiratory problems), and would the injury or illness be major, moderate, or minor?
- How long and frequent is the exposure? Daily, weekly, seasonally, or occasionally?
- How likely is it that the spill will happen? Low, medium, or high?
Remember, there are a wide variety of factors that can affect the severity and likelihood of risk. This analysis helps you prioritize which risks need immediate attention and which ones require less urgent measures.
3. Implement control measures
After identifying and analysing the risks, it’s time to implement control measures. These are actions taken to eliminate or reduce the risks to an acceptable level. Control measures can be categorized into the following hierarchy of controls, from most effective to least effective:
- Elimination: Remove the hazard entirely (for example, replacing equipment with something that is not noisy).
- Substitution: Replace the hazard with something less dangerous (for example, replacing a hazardous chemical with a safer alternative).
- Engineering controls: Isolate people from the hazard (for example, installing safety guards on machinery).
- Administrative controls: Change how people work (for example, implementing safety protocols or providing training).
- Personal protective equipment (PPE): Provide protective gear (for example, gloves, helmets, masks) to reduce exposure.
Ultimately, choose the most effective controls based on the risk analysis. Consider whether a variety of controls can be implemented to further reduce or eliminate the risk altogether and ensure that the control methods used do not create new hazards.
4. Record your findings
Recording your findings helps ensure that the risk assessment is thorough and that all necessary control measures have been implemented.
Your record should include:
- The hazards identified;
- The risks associated with each hazard;
- Control methods implemented or expected time to implement the hazard control;
- The names of the people involved in the assessment; and
- The date of the assessment.
Keep this documentation in an accessible place, as you’ll need it for future reviews and updates. To help you, we have an easy-to-use workplace risk assessment form for members in our library.
5. Review and update your risk assessment
Risk assessments are ongoing tasks. Workplaces are dynamic environments where changes to staff, processes, or equipment can bring new risks. The pandemic is a good example of how unexpected events can quickly alter workplace safety requirements. Therefore, it’s important to conduct a hazard and risk assessment regularly, ensuring it remains relevant, especially after an incident or near miss occurs.
Get ready for your next risk assessment with Citation Canada
Conducting a thorough workplace risk assessment can be daunting, but Citation Canada is here to help. We offer HR software, HR content, HR compliance, and HR support, including hundreds of online training courses for businesses, a flexible and accessible platform towards skill enhancement in health and safety.
Don’t wait for an accident to happen! Book a free demo at a time that fits your schedule. Our HR experts will provide a free, no-obligation quote tailored to your needs in as little as one business day.
Also, check out our FREE toolkit: your go-to resource for everything on workplace health and safety!