This site Dyman & Associates Projects
provides guidance and tools to help businesses understand what they need to do
to assess and control risks in the workplace and comply with health and safety
law. Although written with small businesses in mind, the site is relevant to
all businesses.
Five
steps to risk assessment
This is not the only way to do a risk
assessment, there are other methods that work well, particularly for more
complex risks and circumstances. However, we believe this method is the most
straightforward for most organizations.
How
to assess the risks in your workplace?
Follow
the five steps in our leaflet:
Don’t over complicate the process. In many organizations,
the risks are well known and the necessary control measures are easy to apply.
You probably already know whether, for example, you have employees who move
heavy loads and so could harm their backs, or where people are most likely to
slip or trip. If so, check that you have taken reasonable precautions to avoid
injury.
If you run a small organization and you are
confident you understand what’s involved, you can do the assessment yourself.
You don’t have to be a health and safety expert.
If you already have a health and safety
policy, you may choose to simply complete the risk assessment part of the
template. We also have a number of example risk assessments to show you what a
risk assessment might look like. Choose the example closest to your own
business and use it as a guide for completing the template, adapting it to meet
the needs of your own business. [See this Cyber Security]
If you work in a larger organization, you
could ask a health and safety adviser to help you. If you are not confident,
get help from someone who is competent. In all cases, you should make sure that
you involve your staff or their representatives in the process. They will have
useful information about how the work is done that will make your assessment of
the risk more thorough and effective. But remember, you are responsible for
seeing that the assessment is carried out properly.
When
thinking about your risk assessment, remember:
§ a
hazard is anything that may cause harm, such as chemicals, electricity, working
from ladders, an open drawer, etc.; and
§ the
risk is the chance, high or low, that somebody could be harmed by these and
other hazards, together with an indication of how serious the harm could be.
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