Why Do We Need Risk Assessments?

Human nature compels us to do what we can to protect the safety and wellbeing of others. As such, overtime, risk assessments have become a critical part of all workplace operations to minimise potential hazards that could cause a serious incident, and have negative repercussions, for a business.

In all industries and fields, workplace risk assessments continue to play a significant role in keeping work environments, and their employees, safe. The likes of engineering, healthcare, and social care companies all implement risk assessments to analyse every aspect of their operations and procedures. 

With industries across the globe continuing to evolve and technological advancements taking place, it’s becoming increasingly crucial that the importance of risk assessment in the workplace is recognised and effectively implemented to ensure hazards are managed or mitigated. As such, we’ve explored the topic of workplace risk assessments in further detail to paint a clear picture of their purpose, and to answer the all important question: why do we need risk assessments in organisations?

What is a Risk Assessment? 

A risk assessment is a process that is implemented in workplaces to help identify risks or potential hazards and what may have caused them. Once identified, risk assessments follow several steps to evaluate the extent to which these hazards could have caused an incident or accident, and how likely they are to do so. This often involves some element of either quantitative or qualitative evaluation. 

Finally, a risk assessment will take the necessary steps to mitigate the impact of these risks to a safe or manageable level, or eliminate them entirely if possible. This often involves much discussion and decision-making to conclude what the best course of action will be for these hazards in a specific workplace setting.

Nowadays, these risk assessments typically take a digital format, and are carried out by a designated or competent individual within the company. Sometimes, companies will also manage their risk assessment documentation physically. If something were to happen to this documentation though - whether digital or physical - it’s important to consider having a back-up copy of your risk assessment records.

What Are Some Types of Risk Assessment?

The nature of your organisation and the industry in which you work will determine what types of risk assessments are essential for your workplace. Various different industries will have specific requirements, which are often enforced by law, that determine which workplace risk assessments are necessary. 

For example, industries that work regularly with hazardous substances will no doubt require a COSHH assessment (Control of Substances Hazardous to Health). For employees and workplaces that use laptops, computers, and other devices with display screens, a DSE risk assessment (display screen equipment), is required. 

However, there are often several different types of workplace risk assessments that a variety of industries will have to consider. These include: 

• Manual handling risk assessment: Carried out to flag potentially hazardous manual handling tasks and put in place measures to help reduce their risks of causing injuries. 
• Lone working risk assessment: Used to identify risks that could be present when people are carrying out their roles alone. 
• Fire risk assessments: Identifying risks in a workplace or undertaking tasks during a role that could cause a fire, and putting in place measures to eliminate them. 

What Are the Aims and Steps of a Risk Assessment?

Risk assessments in the workplace have several aims to ensure that any hazards are mitigated or eliminated. These steps are each essential to make sure no hazards can have a severe impact on any employees or people within a work environment. These are as follows: 

Identifying Risks

The first port of call is recognising where potential risks and hazards are within a workplace environment. Often, employees will have to inspect the premises and people performing their roles to see where these hazards might be present. But, this insight can also be gained during discussions with employees or by looking at where previous accidents or incidents might have taken place. 

Identify Who Could Be Harmed By Risks and How

The next step involves identifying who in a workplace is at immediate risk of being affected by a potential hazard, how they could be harmed, and the extent of their injuries if an incident were to take place.

Mitigating or Reducing Risks

Once it’s known where risks in the workplace lie and the extent to which they could cause an incident, measures need to be implemented to reduce these risks or mitigate them entirely. Once these controls are in place, you’re ensuring the safety of all who come into your workplace. 

This might include briefing employees about risks, providing employee training on relevant risks in the workplace, or using personal protective equipment when undertaking certain tasks. 

Keeping Up to Date Records of Risk Assessments 

Make sure that you keep records of all elements of your risk assessments in the workplace, from the identified hazards to the measures that have been implemented to mitigate or eliminate them. These records need to be well written and clear as well as accessible to all employees who may need to refer to them. 

Reviewing Risk Assessments Regularly 

It is essential that all risk assessments in the workplace are reviewed regularly to ensure that they still address all risks and hazards that could arise. If there are changes to workplace routines, roles, or processes, risk assessments should be reviewed sooner to make sure there’s no chance that unidentified hazards could cause an incident.

Why Are Risk Assessments Essential In Workplaces?

Now for the all important question - why do we need to do risk assessments in the workplace? There are several reasons why risk assessments must be undertaken in a work environment, regardless of industry. We’ve explored these reasons in more detail below.

Increase Awareness of Hazards

Risk assessments in the workplace help to identify hazards that employees and organisations may not have been aware of, and raise awareness of them to decrease the likelihood of injuries occurring in the future. If more workers are conscious of the hazards in their workplace environment, this significantly decreases the chances of anyone being involved in accidents or incidents. 

Reduce Incidents of Accidents

Workplace risk assessments are one of the most critical strategies to ensure that workplace accidents and injuries are significantly reduced. Without them, there would undoubtedly be more cases of significant accidents taking place in workplaces, because of a lack of measures implemented to manage risks and hazards.

Not to mention that the extent of these accidents caused by a lack of risk assessment could be more severe than people think, leaving workers or customers hospitalised, or even dead.

Help Managers Act In Response to Potential Risks

Workplace risk assessments can provide the insight and guidance that managers need to act appropriately to protect workers’ health and wellbeing. Without risk assessments, managers might be unaware of the specific hazards that could injure their employees.

Implement Additional Measures to Protect People in the Workplace:

While workplaces may already have measures in place to protect people’s wellbeing, workplace risk assessments can highlight hazards that may not have already been flagged by teams. Therefore, this encourages a team to put in place additional safety measures to protect all those within a work environment. 

Given risk assessments should be conducted regularly as work environments change overtime, this also ensures that workplaces are adopting an attitude focused on continuous improvement to ensure their workplace is as safe as it can be. This also promotes a culture of protecting and enhancing health and safety.

Protect From Financial Loss

Workplace risk assessments are critical to ensure that businesses are protected from financial losses. If any serious incidents or accidents were to occur in a workplace, it may be that businesses are likely to have to pay compensation if it is deemed to be their fault, or foot medical expenses caused by avoidable injuries.

Risk assessments in the workplace work to minimise these hazards in advance, therefore reducing the likelihood of serious injuries occurring that could lead to businesses having to pay for expensive claims. 

Evaluate Any Existing Control Measures: 

Risk assessments in the workplace not only work to identify all hazards and put measures in place to mitigate them, but they can also evaluate and analyse the efficacy of existing hazard control measures. This means that no current control measures which may require significant improvements are overlooked, reducing the likelihood of accidents or injuries from occurring. 

Comply With Legal Restrictions and Requirements: 

Risk assessments are not only carried out to protect people within a workplace, but they are also implemented to ensure businesses meet legislative requirements for their industry. In the UK, there are several risk assessments that are required to be carried out on a regular basis in order for businesses to be meeting basic legislation that is in place for the protection of the public, employees, and businesses. 

A failure to comply with legislation will likely lead to consequences including fines or even additional sanctions. Risk assessments in the workplace are therefore essential to avoid penalties or prosecution and to demonstrate that businesses are dedicated to the protection of people’s health and safety. 

FAQs

Why Do We Need Risk Assessments in Health and Social Care?

Health and social care has its own set of unique hazards and risks in workplace settings that need to be identified and addressed. These include moving and handling, violence, slips and trips, and challenging behaviour, to name but a few. 

As such, risk assessments are a necessary aspect of working in health and social care as a way of minimising these risks to protect health and social care staff and users equally. 

Who is Responsible For Ensuring That Risk Assessments Are Undertaken?

According to UK law, it is the responsibility of every employer across all industries to ensure that risk assessments are conducted in their businesses. This is necessary if companies employ more than five employees. The details of these risk assessments should be recorded for these organisations, as well as the details of any employees themselves who may be more vulnerable. 

When Should Risk Assessments Be Reviewed?

Risk assessments should ideally be reviewed on an annual basis. However, there are no legal requirements or minimum periods as to when risk assessments should be reviewed. In order to protect your employees and service users, it is essential that you are regularly conducting risk assessments in the workplace and are reviewing your risk assessment process at least every year in line with advice from the Health and Safety Executive.

Summary

In order to mitigate and eliminate potentially serious hazards within work environments, workplace risk assessments are a crucial system to protect everyone that is involved with a business and its operations. Without them, there would be more cases of avoidable workplace accidents and incidents, and businesses would undoubtedly be facing more legal and financial repercussions, as well as an unsafe place to work for employees.

We hope we’ve explored the reasons why risk assessments are an essential part of any workplace to help you realise their importance and to encourage you to implement and build a company culture around undertaking risk assessments regularly.

Our Risk Assessment Training Course is a CPD approved and designed training programme for anyone within a business who undertakes risk assessments and those who take responsibility for the safety of others at work. This training illustrates how to identify hazards, implement control measures, and carry out a risk assessment properly.