Risk assessment

What do you mean by Risk assessment?

Analysing and predicting what might cause harm or damage to the people working and how to curb that particular risk is called risk assessment. It plays a vital element in any organization and needs to be done now and then. It will protect one’s business, its environment and the people working there and needs to be done frequently and especially when someone is about to do something that involves high risk and injury. A risk assessment training is of vital importance and needs to be attended by employees of a company in order to curb any kind of risk in future.

What is risk assessment training?

A risk assessment training will help you in identifying risks that matter and find solutions to curb or prevent that in future. The risk assessment training would be highly practical, which will enable the employees to identify risks more efficiently. The risk assessment training is highly useful for supervisors and line managers of the organizations, who are primarily responsible for maintaining equipment and its usage. The risk assessment training will also help the organization to comply with the rules and regulations of the governing bodies. The risk assessment training is thus of prime importance and will also help the employees understand the practical technicalities and applications of these techniques and also the requirements that are needed to review these assessments. For more information you can visit HSE’s official website.

From legal requirements to risks and hazards involved in a business environment to practical risk assessment exercises, everything will be involved in the risk assessment training. This training also enables a business to cut down extra costs and maintain proper safety in and around the vicinity.

The 5 step process of a risk assessment

Here are the five steps that one needs to follow to make sure that the risk assessment is carried out properly, be it a small business, a start-up or a large enterprise.

• The first step is to find the problem
• The second step is to decide and find out who could get harmed
• Find out the risks and its control measures
• The next step is recording the findings and then finally implement them
• This is followed by a review
• The final step is to make any alternatives if necessary

• Find the problem: The first and foremost step is to find the problem that could be risky for the organization and its employees. The problem or the hazard could be chemical, mental, physical or even biological and needs to be identified immediately in order to reduce its complications and effect on the company. A hazard is nothing but something that needs to be identified as soon as possible in order to reduce or even eliminate its consequences shortly.

1. Chemical hazards include aerosols and another cleaning liquid used.
2. Mental hazards are also known as psychosocial hazards that occur within one’s working relationship affecting one’s mental well-being and health.
3. Physical hazards could include bodily postures while working, for instance, back problems, noise issues, problems while lifting heavy machinery and others.
4. Biological hazards include infectious diseases faced by professionals working in the healthcare industry.

• To decide and find out who could get harmed: The next step after identifying the hazards is to identify who could get harmed, whether it’s your organization’s staff or whether it is the general public. The company should not only assess the risk factor of its employees but also of its clients and customers who enter their premise. The company must make sure that they assess properly and make sure that there is no risk involved with any of its member entering the premise.

Here are a few situations where the employees can do regular review routines

1. Regular review routines could be in factories and in places where they lift a load from one place to another. These are the places where accidents often happen, and it is better to keep it under constant surveillance at all times.
2. One could have regular review routines during the evenings, where there is constant movement of people in the premise. Instances of intruding mostly happen during busy hours, and it is always advisable to have regular review routines during those times.
3. To avoid the physical hazard, the employer could make sure that the equipment used by the employees are constantly checked and supervised. Apart from that equipment such as chairs and tables needs to be checked too and the employer also needs to make sure that it is comfortable and safe enough for the employee to use it in the long run.
4. The proper working environment needs to be provided to the employees with appropriate facilities being provided at every point in time.

• Find out the risks and its control measures: After finding the problem and deciding on who might get harmed, the next step is to find the exact risk and its control measures that need to be applied in order to curb it. One needs to predict the intensity of the risk and either try to completely remove or prevent it depending on its intensity. If the risk is of high intensity, then it is better that is removed at any cost, and if the risk is of low intensity, then preventive measures can be taken in order to reduce the effect of it. After following all the preventive measures, one needs to again assess whether the risk is of high, low or medium intensity.

• Record the findings and then finally implement them: In this stage, one prepares a proper working document of how they carried out the risk assessment and what were their findings, followed by the measures taken to avoid or eliminate it. This serves as a major proof of the risk assessment and needs to be done with due diligence. This document can be used in future to refer and implement the things mentioned.

• This is followed by a review: Situations are dynamic in nature. Thus, one needs to make sure that they keep on updating and reviewing their risk assessment methodologies from time to time.

• Make alternatives if necessary: The final step after reviewing the risk assessment document is to update it and make changes as and when required.

What is the key aim of risk assessment?

The key aim of risk assessment is to prioritize the risk according to its intensity, followed by cutting down the risks in size as much as possible.

• Prioritization: The first aim would be to prioritize the risk as per its intensity. Risks with higher levels of danger involved could be tackled first, and risks with lesser levels of danger could be tackled next. A rank order system could be used to rank the risks and decisions could be taken accordingly.
• Cutting of risks: One could either eliminate the hazard completely or reduce its intensity one by one.

One can also follow the hierarchy of control method, which helps employers to approach risk assessment in a more optimal manner.

• One could swap or substitute or a less intensity option with a more intensity one.
• Preventive measures could be employed in order to reduce the intensity of the hazard.
• Work could be reorganized in such a way that there is lesser exposure to risk.
• Proper training needs to be given to the staff on how to use the equipment.
• Proper safety equipment needs to be provided to the staff along with proper protective gears and clothing such as gloves and others.
• Basic information on hazards and its preventive measures needs to be provided to the employees.
• The premise needs to be maintained properly with proper sanitation and ventilation facilities.

But how often should on do the risk assessment?

It’s safe to conduct risk assessments now and then and especially when there’s any installation of any new equipment or application. One should also remain alert and look out for signs such as frequent leave and others, to understand the problem better.

For the safety of the employees, of the employer, of the company’s clients and its staff working there, it is mandatory to conduct a risk assessment now and then following the steps mentioned above. Apart from the steps mentioned, one also needs to understand the aim of the assessment and act accordingly to curb the risk as soon as possible.

About the author

Sumit Agarwal
Sumit Agarwal (ACMA ACA India), the Managing partner of dns accountants is a highly respected accountant with expertise in helping owner-managed businesses.