RA :- Guide to Risk Management : The 5 Steps Approach

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Chapter : Risk Management 

Guide to Risk Management - The 5 Steps Approach

A hazard is anything that may cause harm, such as chemicals, electricity, working from ladders, an open drawer, etc;

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.

In many organizations, the risk are well known and the necessary control measures are easy to apply.

How to access the risk in you workplace

Risks in your workplace can be managed via 5 simple steps:

The 5 Steps Approach

Step 1  -  Identify hazards :- Identify what might cause harm

Step 2  -  Assess the risks :- Evaluate the risks

Step 3  -  Control the risks :- Implement measures to control the risks

Step 4  -  Record findings :- Communicate and educate employees

Step 5  -  Review and update :- Review risk assessment regularly

Step 1: Identifying the hazards that may cause harm

One of the most important aspects of your risk assessment is identifying all foreseeable hazards in your workplace. A good starting point would be to walk around the workplace and observe the processes, operations and work activities. Think about how they could harm your employees or affect their health. Risk management should be holistic in nature, addressing both safety AND health hazards.

Hazard is something that has the potential to cause harm or ill-health.

Examples of workplace hazards are (not exhaustive):

1. Physical
• Fire
• Noise
• Ergonomics
• Heat
• Radiation
2. Mechanical
• Moving parts
• Rotating parts
3. Electrical
• Voltage
• Current
• Static charge
• Magnetic fields
4. Chemical
• Flammables
• Toxic
• Corrosives
• Reactive materials
5. Biological
• Pathogens such as viruses and bacteria
6. Psychosocial
• Mental stress and fatigue
• Remote or isolated work

It is important to consider other work-related factors when identifying hazards:

1. Proximity of hazardous activities to one another
• Examples : Stamping machines are noisy. Workers doing assembly work beside the stamping machines are also exposed to excessive noise.
2. Incompatibility of work activities
• Examples : Hot work and spray painting are incompatible and can lead to fire if they are carried out near to each other.
3. Non-routine work activities and situations
• Examples : Non-routine activities such as maintenance and shut downs may have additional hazards, compared to routine work.
4. Environmental conditions
• Examples : Working outdoors during adverse environmental conditions such as haze, may pose respiratory problems for workers.

Involve persons familiar with the operations during risk assessment so that all work activities will be considered. In addition, recollect instances of accidents and ill-health to identify if there are other areas missed out in hazard identification.

• Walk around your workplace and look at what could reasonably be expected to cause harm.
• Ask your fellow colleagues what they think.  They may have noticed things that are not immediately obvious to you.
• Check manufacturers’ instructions or data sheets for chemicals and equipment as they can be very helpful in spelling out the hazards and putting them in their true perspective.
• 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

Next, think about who will be harmed by the hazard. People who may be affected are:

• Employees
• Customers
• Contractors
• Maintenance personnel
• Neighboring companies

Additional considerations are needed for people who may be more susceptible to the hazard, such as new or young workers, migrant workers, pregnant women, people with disabilities, etc.

Step 2: Evaluate the risk

Having identified the hazards, the next step is to evaluate the risk based on the likelihood of the hazard causing harm and severity of the harm. The greater the likelihood and/or severity, the higher is the risk level.

Likelihood is the chance that the said accident, incident or ill-health will happen

Severity is the degree or extent of injury or harm caused by the hazard (e.g. death, permanent disability, injury requiring first aid treatment)

Some factors to consider when determining likelihood and severity:

Likelihood

• Duration / Frequency of work
• Occurrence of such incidents
• Exposure level
• Existing control measures

Severity

• Inherent hazard
• Impact force
• Contact pressure
• Stored energy

Example: Employee is tasked to cut metal sheets using a cutting machine, which does not have machine guarding.

• Likelihood: Chance of employee’s fingers being cut by rotating blade is high.
• Severity: Amputation of fingers resulting in permanent disability.
• Risk level: High

For evaluation of health hazards (e.g. toxic substances and noise), it is necessary to conduct exposure assessments and compare the levels with established permissible exposure limits.

Decide who might be harmed and how

• For each hazard you need to be clear about who might be harmed. 
• It will help to identify the best way of managing the risk.
• This doesn’t mean listing everyone by name, but rather identifying groups of people.

• In each case, identify how they might be harmed.

• What type of injury or ill health might occur.
• e.g. Shelf stackers may suffer back injury from repeated lifting of heavy boxes.

Human factors

It is important to consider human factors in workplace risk assessment as they could compromise the health and safety of employees. Human factors can be classified into the following 4 categories (examples are not exhaustive):

Individual

• Physical fitness
• Medical condition
• Competency

Example: Employees who are on drowsy medication are not as alert, hence it would be dangerous if they were to operate machinery or equipment.

Job

• Work shift design
• Physical working environment
• Equipment design and condition

Example: Equipment with poorly designed control and display may result in employees activating the wrong controls, causing damage to machinery or giving rise to accidents.

Organisation

• Workload
• Training
• Work instructions design

Example: Excessive overtime work may cause employees to be fatigued, compromising their ability to respond to emergency situations.

Wider context

• Weather conditions
• Legislation requirements
• State of economy

Example: New employees from temperate countries are more prone to heat strain if they are not acclimatized to working outdoors under the hot sun.

 

Step 3: Selecting measures to eliminate or minimize the risk

After evaluating the risks, reasonably practicable measures shall be taken to protect people from harm. Selection of risk control measures should be based on the Hierarchy of Control. Upstream risk controls viz elimination, substitution and engineering controls are more effective in reducing or controlling the risk, and should be considered first.

Please click here to find out what are the upstream risk controls that local workplaces have implemented.

Elimination : Remove hazard from the workplace

Substitution : Substitute (replace) the process / machine / material with less hazardous ones

Engineering Controls : Design or modify the process / machine to reduce the risk

Administrative Controls : Safe work procedures, instructions, training

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) : Equipment donned on the employee to protect themselves.

Control measures in the Hierarchy should not be taken as isolated or single solutions. A combination of control measures is usually more effective in controlling the risk. For example, engineering controls work better with administrative controls like training and safe work procedures.

Personal protective equipment should be looked into only after upstream risk controls are considered. Level of protection using PPE is greatly dependent on whether the PPE is being chosen and fitted correctly, worn at all times and maintained properly.

Evaluate the risk and decide precautions

• Having spotted the hazards, decide what to do about them.
• The law requires to do everything ‘reasonably practicable’ to protect the people from harm.
• Compare what you are doing with best practices.
• Consider
• Can the hazard be eliminate altogether?
• If not, how to control the risks so that harm is unlikely?
• When controlling risk, apply the principles below.
• Try less risky option – e.g. switch to use less hazardous chemical.
• Prevent access to hazard – e.g. by guarding.
• Organize work to reduce exposure to the hazard – e.g. put barriers between pedestrians and traffic.
• Issue PPE – e.g. clothing, footwear, goggles, etc.
• Provide welfare facilities – e.g. first-aid and washing facilities for removal of contamination.
• Involve staff ensure the proposal will work in practice and won’t introduce new hazards.

For hazards that cannot be controlled immediately, interim control measures should be implemented while longer term measures are being established to reduce the risk level. Work should not start if the risk remains high.

Step 4: Communicate to all persons affected and document for future review

Communication and consultation should take place throughout all functions and levels within the organization, during all stages of the RM process. This ensures that stakeholders accountable for implementation of various processes understand the basis on which decisions are made, and the reasons why particular actions are required.

Record findings and implement them

• Write down the results of the risk assessment. 
• Share them with the staff.
• Keep the record simple, suitable and sufficient.
• Plan for implementation.  
• Immediate containment actions until more reliable control are in place.  
• Long-term solutions to risks most likely to cause accidents or ill health.  
• Long-term solutions to those risks with worst potential consequences.  
• Arrangement for training.  
• Regular checks to ensure control measures stay in place.

All persons at the workplace should also be informed of the risks they face and the control measures available to manage those risks. This can occur via training's, staff dialogues, electronic means etc.

Step 5: Constant review

You should review your risk assessment once every 3 years or when necessary.

Conditions to review risk assessment and update

• Why review? 
• Few workplace stays the same. 
• upon the occurrence of accidents or of bodily injury to any person at work
• where there is a significant change in work practices, procedures, facilities, equipment or workplace environment condition
• whenever new information on the safety and health risks relevant to the work carried out becomes available
• when existing control measures are no longer effective or valid
• Review assessment to determine if there have been changes or need improvements. 
• Ensure the assessment stay up to date.

Procedures should also be documented and reviewed regularly, with feedback from the workers to ensure that the procedures stay relevant and