A hazard is any source that has the potential to cause harm and a risk is the likelihood of it happening.
Risk management involves thinking about what could happen if someone is exposed to a hazard and how likely it is to happen. The following provides general guidance on the risk management process and briefly explains how to work through the steps for conducting a health and safety risk assessment.
Under the WHS Act 2011 and WHS Regulations 2011, a PCBU is required conduct risk assessments to eliminate health and safety risks so far as is reasonably practicable, and if it is not reasonably practicable to do so, to minimise those risks so far as is reasonably practicable.
There are four steps to work through and it can often help by having another person involved as well. It will give you a second set of eyes looking over the area and they may be able to offer a different perspective.
STEP 1 – IDENTIFY THE HAZARDS
There will be some obvious or common ones that’ll be easily recognised; however there will also be others that are not so common and harder to identify.
It may require approaching a task from a different point of view and take into account other influences that could present a high risk to an activity that would otherwise be considered low under normal circumstances.
There are many ways to identify hazards, such as:
▸ think about the work you do
▸ legislation e.g. heights, chemicals, equipment
▸ annual safety assessment
▸ workplace inspections
▸ people reporting hazards
▸ incidents e.g. accidents and near misses
▸ consulting workers
▸ reading Safety Data Sheets or instruction manuals
▸ researching similar businesses to identify any issues they may have dealt with.
Look in all aspects of work, including:
▸ the physical work environment
▸ equipment, materials and substances used
▸ work tasks and how they are performed
▸ work design and management (e.g. shift work)
STEP 2 – ASSESS THE LEVEL OF RISK
Once the hazards have been identified, you need to assess the level of risk they pose.
The risk level is made up of two elements. The:
▸ Likelihood of an incident happening, and the
▸ Consequence if it did happen.
There are many factors that can influence the likelihood and consequence of an incident. Some things to consider are:
▸ How severe could the harm be? Consider what type of injuries may happen and who it will affect.
▸ How often the task is done and the frequency and duration exposed to the hazard
▸ The knowledge, experience, physical capability of those undertaking the activity.
▸ What they are doing, what they are using, and how they are doing it.
▸ Speed and mass of objects e.g. fast moving vehicles, large parts of machinery moving automatically
▸ Where will they be e.g. outdoors, near water, at height, etc.
▸ Who will be leading the activity e.g. experience, qualifications, etc.
▸ Has it ever happened before, either there or somewhere else? How often?
▸ Has it ever happened before, either there or somewhere else? How often?
You can then use the Risk Matrix below as a guide to assist with quantifying the risk level. If undecided on a risk level for an activity, a conservative approach would be to settle on the higher risk level being considered.
STEP 3 – CONTROL THE RISK
Try to eliminate the risk first, or if that is not possible, put controls in place that minimise the risk so far as is reasonably practicable.
Control measures are what we use to eliminate or lower the level of risk. The types of control measures are categorised according to the ‘hierarchy of control’ and more than one control may be used in combination to minimise risk.
The hierarchy of control is organized in order from the most effective to the least effective therefore control methods should be considered by following this order.
Higher level controls are more effective for reducing the risk and must be considered first. If lower level controls are to be implemented instead of higher level controls, it is important that the reasons are noted.
Below, your assessed inherent risk level will determine the actions (such as documented planning) and controls required.
STEP 4 – MONITOR AND REVIEW
Once a risk assessment has been completed and control measures have been implemented, it’s important to assess their effectiveness by observing the activity after completion and also during typical working conditions. It’s important that they are reviewed regularly to make sure they work as planned and they haven’t created another risk of some other form.
Not every assessment and control will be perfect the first time, which is ok, and it may be necessary to modify or add other control measures to increase safety. The important thing is to identify and address any inadequacies before an incident happens.
Record any changes to the safety measures for future reference.
If you head over to the Resources page there's a number of different templates that can be downloaded to simplify this process further.
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