How to assess the risks in your workplace:
Follow the five steps
Step 1 Identify the
hazards
First you need to work out how people could be harmed. When you
work in a place every day it is easy to overlook some hazards, so here are some
tips to help you identify the ones that matter:
■ Walk around your workplace and look at what could reasonably be
expected to cause harm.
■ Ask your employees or their representatives what they think. They
may have noticed things that are not immediately obvious to you.
■ get some information of how to assess the risks from workplace
from the best organization which had a wide experience, such as HSE
organization.
■ Have a look back at your
accident and ill-health records – these often help to identify the less obvious
hazards.
■ Remember
to think about long-term hazards to health (e.g. high levels of noise or
exposure to harmful substances) as well as safety hazards.
Step 2 Decide who might be harmed and how
For each hazard you need to be clear about who
might be harmed; it will help you identify the best way of managing the risk.
That does not mean listing everyone by name, but rather identifying groups of
people. In each case,
identify how they might be harmed, in example, what type of injury or ill
health might occur. For example, ‘shelf stackers may suffer back injury from
repeated lifting of boxes.
Step 3 Evaluate the risks and decide on precautions
Having
spotted the hazards, you then have to decide what to do about them. The law
requires you to do everything ‘reasonably practicable’ to protect people from
harm. You can work this out for yourself, but the easiest way is to compare
what you are doing with good practice. So first, look at what you are already
doing, think about what controls you have in place and how the work is
organised. Then compare this with the good practice and see if there is more
you should be doing to bring yourself up to standard.
Step 4 Record your findings and implement them
Putting
the results of your risk assessment into practice will make a difference when
looking after people and your business. Writing down the results of your risk
assessment, and sharing them with your staff, encourages you to do this. If you
have fewer than five employees you do not have to write anything down, though
it is useful so that you can review it at a later date if, for example,
something changes.
Step 5 Review your risk assessment and update if necessary
Few
workplaces stay the same. Sooner or later, you will bring in new equipment,
substances and procedures that could lead to new hazards. It makes sense,
therefore, to review what you are doing on an ongoing basis. Every year or so
formally review where you are, to make sure you are still improving, or at least
not sliding back. Look at your risk assessment again. Have there been any
changes? Are there improvements you still need to make? Have your workers
spotted a problem? Have you learnt anything from accidents or near misses? Make
sure your risk assessment stays up to date. 
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