How can occupational safety and health be managed?

Controlling the Risks

Risk assessments

As part of managing the safety and health of the organization, the employer must identify the hazards and control the risks in their workplace. To do this they need to think about what might cause harm to workers and others and decide whether they are doing enough to prevent that.

This process is known as risk assessment.

Risk assessment is about identifying and taking sensible and proportionate measures to control the risks in the workplace, not about creating huge amounts of paperwork.

Organizations are probably already taking steps to protect their workers, but the risk assessment will help them decide whether they should be doing more.

Employers should think about how accidents and ill health could happen and concentrate on real risks – those that are most likely and which will cause the most harm.

For some risks, national legislation may require particular control measures. The organization’s assessment will help identify whether it needs to look at certain risks and these particular control measures in more detail.

Mandated control measures should be assessed as part of the overall risk assessment.

Identify the hazards

One of the most important aspects of the risk assessment is accurately identifying the potential hazards in the workplace. An unidentified hazard cannot be controlled.

Employers in conjunction with their workers can start by walking around the workplace and thinking about any hazards. In other words, what is it about the activities, processes or substances used that could injure workers or harm their health?

When people work in a place every day it is easy to overlook some hazards, some tips to help employers and workers identify hazards include

Check manufacturers’ instructions or data sheets for chemicals and equipment as they can be very helpful in explaining the hazards and putting them in their true perspective.
Carefully review accident and ill-health records, as well as near-misses and other incident reports – these often help to identify less obvious hazards.
Take account of non-routine operations (e.g. maintenance, cleaning operations or changes in production cycles).
Remember to think about long-term hazards to health (e.g. high levels of noise or exposure to harmful substances).

There are many hazards with a recognized risk of harm, for example working at height, working with chemicals, unguarded machinery, and asbestos. Depending on the type of work conducted, there may be other hazards that are relevant to the organization.

Who might be harmed?

Then think how workers (or others who may be present such as contractors or visitors) might be harmed. Asking the workers what they think the hazards are is essential, as they may notice things that are not obvious and may have some good ideas on how to control the risks.

For each hazard employers need to be clear about who might be harmed – it will help them identify the best way of controlling the risk. That doesn’t mean listing everyone by name, but rather identifying groups of workers/people (e.g. ‘people working in the storeroom’ or ‘passers-by’).

Remember:

Some workers may have particular requirements, for example new and young workers, migrant workers, new or expectant mothers, people with disabilities, temporary workers, contractors, homeworkers and lone workers.
Think about people who might not be in the workplace all the time, such as visitors, contractors and maintenance workers.
Take members of the public into account if they could be harmed by the work activities.
If the workplace is shared with another business, consider how each organization’s work affects their own workers and others. Organization’s should talk to each other and make sure controls are in place.
Ask workers if there is anyone that may have been over looked.

Evaluate the risks

Having identified the hazards, organizations then have to decide how likely it is that harm will occur, i.e. the level of risk and what to do about it.

Risk is a part of everyday life and organizations are not expected to eliminate all risks. What they must do is make sure they know about the main risks and the things they need to do to manage them responsibly. Generally, they need to do everything ‘reasonably practicable’ to protect people from harm.

The risk assessment should only include what could reasonably be expected to be known – organizations are not expected to anticipate unforeseeable risks. They should look at what they are already doing and the control measures already have in place ensuring that the OSH hierarchy of controls are followed namely;

avoiding risks
evaluating the risks
combating the risks at source
adapting the work to the individual
adapting to technical progress
replacing the dangerous by the non- or the less dangerous
developing a coherent overall prevention policy
prioritizing collective protective measures (over individual protective measures)
giving appropriate instructions to the workers.

Improving safety and health need not cost a lot. For instance, placing a mirror on a blind corner to help prevent vehicle accidents is a low-cost precaution considering the risks. Failure to take simple precautions can cost organizations a lot more if an accident does happen.

Organizations must involve their workers, so they can be sure that what they propose to do will work in practice and won’t introduce any new hazards.

If organizations control a number of similar workplaces containing similar activities, they could produce a ‘model’ risk assessment reflecting the common hazards and risks associated with these activities.

In some cases ‘model’ assessments are developed by trade associations, employers’ bodies or other organizations concerned with a particular activity. Employers may decide to apply these ‘model’ assessments at each workplace, but should only do so if they:

are satisfied that the ‘model’ assessment is appropriate to their type of work;
adapt the ‘model’ to the detail of their own work situations, including any extension necessary to cover hazards and risks not referred to in the ‘model’.

Record the findings

It is good practice if organizations make a record of their significant findings – the hazards, how people might be harmed by them and what is in place to control the risks. Any record produced should be clear, practical and focused on control measures.

The paperwork produced as part of the risk assessment is intended to assist organizations to communicate and manage the risks in their business. For most this does not need to be a complex exercise – just note the main points down about the significant risks and what was concluded.

In many, but not all instances e.g. for complex processes, when writing down results it can be kept simple, for example ‘fume from welding – local exhaust ventilation used and regularly checked’.

The risk assessment must be appropriate for the activity being assessed, i.e. it shows that the organization:

conducted a proper check;
they asked who might be affected;
they dealt with all the obvious significant hazards, taking into account the number of people who could be involved;
that the precautions are reasonable, and the remaining risk is low;
they involved their workers or their representatives in the process.

Where the nature of the work changes fairly frequently or the workplace changes and develops (e.g. a construction site), or where workers move from site to site, the risk assessment may have to concentrate more on a broad range of risks that can be anticipated.

If the risk assessment identifies a number of hazards, they need to be put in order of importance and the most serious risks should be addressed first.

Organizations should identify long-term solutions for the risks with the biggest consequences, as well as those risks most likely to cause accidents or ill health. They should also establish whether there are improvements that can be implemented quickly, even temporarily, until more reliable controls can be put in place.

Remember, the greater the hazard the more robust and reliable the control measures to control the risk of an injury occurring will need to be.

Regularly review the risk assessment

Few workplaces stay the same. Sooner or later, organizations will bring in new equipment, substances and procedures that could lead to new hazards. So it makes sense to review what is being done an ongoing basis, the risk assessment ought to be reviewed and organizations should ask themselves:

Have there been any significant changes?
Are there improvements still needed to be made?
Have workers spotted a problem?
Have we learnt anything from accidents or near misses?

Organizations must make sure the risk assessment stays up to date.

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