Implementing a Risk Assessment Program in Your Workplace

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A risk assessment defined is a planned procedure in which all health and safety hazards are identified in the workplace.  They are necessary in order to comply with Occupational Health and Safety legislation and  can make incident and work-related illness prevention easier by identifying hazards and improving workplace morale by showing that you care for your workers’ welfare.

There is a Canadian film out called, “The Corporation”.  In this film the corporation is treated as a person (and legally it is).  The premise of the film is that if the corporation was a person they would be a psychopath as they are devoted to the relentless pursuit of the bottom line at all costs!  Now, I disagree.  I believe that Marie Antoinette was correct:  “ One can eat their cake and have it all”.  ( Hopefully, I do not share her fate).  Why?   Risk assessment, silly! You can have a stellar bottom line and make a difference in the lives of your employees by showing that you care and are concerned about them.  Losses cost! Risk assessments prevent losses….positive impact on the bottom line!

The biggest blockage to performing a risk assessment is the following corporate negative talk that goes like this: “ I have over  five hundred tasks at my company and  you expect me to perform a risk assessment on each one of them?  Think of the considerable resources in staff and/or consultant’s time in order to undertake it thoroughly and they need to be updated every time a new piece of equipment or machinery or new process is introduced.  As well, they should be examined each time an injury or work-related illness is reported (groan). I’ll never be able to do this.  Maybe if I mimic the ostrich it will go away!”

Not so fast…..think about what a famous philosopher said…the longest journey begins with but a single step.  Break it down into manageable chunks as follows:

1. Create a Health and Safety Committee

2. Define the Scope and Coverage of the Risk Assessment

3. Design or borrow a Risk Assessment Form

4. Train Assessors to Identify Risk

5. Communicate the Risk Assessment to all Employees

6. Draw Up a Plan for the Assessments

7. Carry out the Risk Assessment

8. Record the Results.

9. Report Back to Your Employees

10. Take the First Step!

A Health and Safety Committee is essential in any well operating company.  It serves to facilitate the flow of information and communicate the commitment workers and management have to creating a healthy and safe environment.  The Health and Safety Committee members need time away from their regular jobs as they will be implementing and running the risk assessment process.  Appoint a team leader-- preferably but not necessarily from senior management.  This person should command respect and have a proven track record of managing projects…because ultimately risk assessment implementation is a project.  Use the collective experience of the Health and Safety Committee members and then determine the scope and coverage of your risk assessment.  Ultimately, all risks will have to be covered.  Start small. Start with your most critical jobs: those with risks that have the greatest potential for loss or  those jobs that have actually hurt people.  Identify and concentrate your assessments on these tasks and their Health and Safety risks.  At this stage decide what departments and/or personnel will be involved whether it will be all departments or just one that has the most risk exposure.  In a small company one person can do this with input from workers and other employees.

The third critical step is the design of the risk assessment form.  It should fit the needs of your corporation.  There are many of them out there on the Internet or through courses at Health and Safety associations you can adapt your own or contact me at firstbesafe@shaw.ca for several, free “nice examples”

Use simple and unambiguous wording and include a rating scale for the severity of risk, the probability of  risk i.e. how likely it is to happen and the exposure (daily, weekly, monthly) either in words “low”, “medium” “high” or in numbers (1=low risk, 2=medium risk, 3=high risk).  Identify what employees are at risk and if the general public or other outside individuals like contractors are at risk.  Leave space for suggestions from your workers on how to minimize the risk.  As a suggestion examine the following areas:

Working with forklifts: traffic, pedestrians, blind corners, impact on racking, condition of the racking, speeding, training.

Power tools and equipment:  guards in place, training of operators, are safety precautions in place?

Fire:  any flammable materials near sources of ignition, do you check your fire extinguishers regularly, signage.

Manual handling:  have you followed the hierarchy of controls.  Did you eliminate lifting through powered equipment, do you have administrative controls like two person lifts in place and as a last resort what is your personal protective equipment like…are workers wearing steel toes?

Chemicals:  are all hazardous products stored properly.  What is your ventilation and spillage procedures in place?  Handling process?  Are employees trained to use, handle, store and dispose of chemicals safely?

Office furniture: are chairs and desk ergonomic.  Do they meet health and safety requirements?  Are offices checked/inspected regularly?

As well, use actual examples from near hits, incidents and inspection reports.

If the assessor does not have a health and safety background, train them!  Don’t leave them hanging.   I have an excellent course specifically for training Health and Safety Committee members and/or key employees assigned this task at firstbesafe@shaw.ca  or for general information on hazard assessment there are electronic learning courses at www.whs.gov.ab.ca    Your suppliers of equipment, machinery and chemicals can also be a good source of advice.  It is most important to train risk assessors in using the rating scale and a team approach is good as “group think” occurs and the risks assessed will be affected by the various experience of the team members and their familiarity with the operations.

Before you undertake a risk assessment let your employees know using newsletters, bulletin boards and e-mail that a workplace risk assessment will be occurring and who the assessors will be.  Ensure that employees feel part of the process: invite their participation in the identification of hazards  in their work area and pool their results to assist the investigation team.  Always inform your workers that if they find uncontrolled hazards they are to immediately inform their supervisor or the risk assessor in their area.

Next plan a schedule: what areas will be assessed when and by whom.  Give a completion date for the assessment to ensure all are aware of the timelines.  Ensure that the schedule takes into account “busy” times so that the necessary numbers of risk assessors are always available.

The seventh step is for the Health and Safety committee to collect all of the completed risk assessment forms and analyze the results.  Look for problem areas such as one department with frequent, reoccurring incidents, or areas of high risk.  Create a list of all the risks and incidents in order of severity and report them to senior management.  This list should be kept as documentation for an internal check to ensure changes are made and to assist your Health and Safety Committee in performing their job(s).  Also, it provides a valuable guide to Occupational Health and Safety officers as to whether your company is practicing, “Due Diligence”.

If any employees are having trouble completing their assessments extra training may be needed or a reallocation of their time and company resources may be necessary.  Examine the risk assessment form to make sure it is easy to use, standardized and consistent.  The problem may not be with them, but the process.  Check and recheck your form.  Make sure it works.

Let your employees know the results of the assessment.  Notify employees of any proposed changes to reduce the risk of incidents and decide what action will have the biggest bang for the buck.  Ensure that you perform the necessary planning and allocation of resources before you take this critical first step: your aim is to eliminate or minimize the Health and Safety risks identified and draw up a plan for implementing the necessary changes including the impact of budgets….make your first step a big one!