Conducting a Health and Safety
Risk Assessment
Increasingly, business leaders are becoming aware of their obligation to conduct a Health and Safety Risk Assessment within their organizations, in compliance with The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, which state that "Every employer shall make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to the health and safety of his employees to which they are exposed whilst they are at work". However, one of the main challenges they still face is the "blank page syndrome," particularly when it comes to actually drafting the assessment.
What format should be used? Who can complete the Health and Safety Risk Assessment? What should it include in terms of risk evaluation and prevention? These questions are commonly asked by business owners and are entirely legitimate. In this article, we will guide you on how to conduct your Health and Safety Risk Assessment, establish appropriate preventive measures, and draft your Health and Safety Risk Assessment document accordingly, all while adhering to current best practices in health and safety.
To draft the Health and Safety Risk Assessment, it's essential to define work units, catalog each hazard, evaluate them from most to least critical, and list the associated risks. This will make up your Risk Assessment. Above is a risk assessment for a restaurant.
1) What Medium Should Be Used to Draft the Health and Safety Risk Assessment?
In the United Kingdom, The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 regulations don't specify any particular medium or format for conducting your Health and Safety Risk Assessment. However, it is essential that the document be updated regularly. While Regulation 3 doesn't set a minimum frequency for these updates, it states "Any assessment ... shall be reviewed by the employer if—
(a)there is reason to suspect that it is no longer valid; or
(b)there has been a significant change in the matters to which it relates; and where as a result of any such review changes to an assessment are required."
What this means is that your Health and Safety Risk Assessment needs to evolve to always reflect the actual conditions within your business. In other words, whenever you change your processes of creation, transformation, or manufacturing, or change your working tools (machines, components, raw materials), and it potentially impacts the health and safety of workers (employees, apprentices, interns), you need to update your Health and Safety Risk Assessment. The document should, therefore, be adaptable and evolve as necessary.
2) Who Should Complete the Health and Safety Risk Assessment?
In accordance with The management of Health and Safety at Work 1999 - Regulation 3, "Every employer shall make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to the health and safety of his employees." In other words, business leaders are accountable for conducting Health and Safety Risk Assessments for their employees, implementing appropriate risk prevention measures, and documenting these in a Health and Safety Risk Assessment.
While the employer must ensure that this work has been adequately performed within the organization, it's not necessarily their responsibility to personally conduct this assessment. And for a simple reason: the business leader may not have the requisite knowledge to perform this specialized task. This is why competent individuals are required to conduct these assessments. This could be a trained and qualified employee, the business owner if they have received the proper training and/or are competent, or an external organization recognized as competent in the field of occupational health and safety, such as Easy Occupational Risk Assessment.
This need for competence becomes especially crucial given that the purpose of the Health and Safety Risk Assessment is to enact concrete prevention measures to reduce both the exposure and severity of risks to employees. If these preventive actions are ineffective and/or stem from an incorrect risk assessment, then any subsequent measures will be unproductive.
3) What Should a Health and Safety Risk Assessment Include?
To be relevant and comply with United Kingdom regulations set forth by The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, your Risk Assessment should contain three major elements:
_ A Collection of All Potential Hazards for Each Employee: This is what is commonly referred to as "hazard" in the field of health and safety. It includes anything in your business that could cause harm to employees. Some of these hazards will be clearly visible and widely understood (e.g., risks associated with using knives for butchers or electrical hazards for electricians), while others may be less visible and only become apparent over the long term (e.g., dangers associated with prolonged exposure to lead in the construction industry, or the risk of inhaling flour in the baking profession).
This collection should reflect the realities of both your business and the broader profession. It will likely require bibliographic research to identify the chemical agents and hazardous materials employees are exposed to daily, as well as the short- and long-term effects on health.
_ A Collection of All Potential Damages Affecting Your Employees: This is commonly referred to as "risk" in the field of safety and health. It includes the actual harm that might occur to an employee exposed to a hazard. Some of these risks will be clearly visible and understood by all (e.g., the risk of cutting oneself when handling knives for a butcher or the risk of electrocution for an electrician), whereas others may only become apparent over the long term (e.g., the risk of lead poisoning due to repeated exposure to lead, or respiratory issues caused by continuous inhalation of flour by bakers).
This collection should reflect the realities of both your business and the broader profession. It will likely involve bibliographic research to identify recognized occupational diseases in your industry, as well as the distribution of workplace accidents by percentage in your sector, if available.
_ A Collection of All Preventive Measures to Mitigate Risk: This is the final and most crucial step in drafting your Risk Assessment. The goal is to determine the effective preventive measures that will improve employee well-being by reducing risks. There are several approaches to tackle risk:
First Approach: Targeting the frequency of risks. In the automotive industry, for instance, replacing hand tools with power screwdrivers can help reduce repetitive motions, thereby decreasing the risk of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) during the removal of protective coverings or casings.
Second Approach: Targeting the severity of risks. An example would be replacing products classified as CMRs (Carcinogenic, Mutagenic, and Reprotoxic Substances) with less harmful equivalents.
4) Bonus Step for Further Progress
In addition to the previous points, it's also possible to establish a Health and Safety Risk Prevention Calendar. In this calendar, you can specify the status of each preventive measure—whether it's already in place, partially in place, or not yet implemented in your organization. Furthermore, you can set deadlines for enhancing or implementing each of these measures. Creating such a calendar is the first step in moving from "conceptual" to "practical" in terms of risk prevention within your company.
By adding this extra layer of planning, you are adopting health and safety best practice, actively fostering a culture of continuous improvement in health and safety within your organization.
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