Back to the Basics Series: FAQs on Risk Assessments and Safety Audits
One of the most common questions our clients ask us is, “Are we legally obliged to conduct a health and safety audit for our business?” The short answer is “No.” You are not legally obliged to conduct a safety and risk assessment audit. However, it’s highly recommended that you do.
Health and safety audits are a necessity for businesses of all types and sizes. It’s more than an exercise that you do to comply with legal requirements. Risk assessments and safety audits provide your business with innumerable benefits.
Here, in this guide, we answer some of the common questions about risk assessments and safety audits, helping you understand it without any doubts.
Risk Assessment and Safety Audits FAQ
1. What is the risk assessment?
Risk assessment, also known as safety audit, is a process that helps to identify:
- Potential workplace hazards
- The severity of workplace hazards
- Frequency of workplace hazards
- Strategies to minimize workplace hazards
2. What is NOT Risk Assessment?
Risk assessment is not a quick cure to tackle all the safety issues at your workplace. Nor is it a guarantee to make your workplace 100% free from accidents and injuries.
Rather it is a diagnosis and safety prescription that identifies risks and hazards in your workplace, thereby minimizing overall risks in the workplace.
Risk assessment suggests the right course of action to reduce risks in your workplace.
3. What are the steps involved in a Safety Audit?
The actual list of steps varies from one organization to another. However, here, we list out the fundamental steps that are common to all:
- Identification of hazards and risks in the workplace
- Assessing the severity of the hazards and their probability
- Reducing the harms of the identified hazards, via various safety measures
- Documenting the overall process and noting down the results
4. Can you explain the procedure of the safety audit in detail?
The safety audit begins with interviews with managers, department heads, and other personnel who are involved in the day-to-day operations of the company. The team in charge of carrying out the audit collects valuable information from the employees. The team then does a top-to-bottom risk assessment of the company identifying the various hazards in the workplace and their probabilities.
Hazards are charted using the following tabular column:
|
Likelihood |
The severity of the Hazard | ||||
| Insignificant (1) | Minor (2) | Moderate (3) | Major (4) | Catastrophic (5) | |
| Almost certain (5) | Moderate Risk (5) | High Risk (10) | Extreme Risk (15) | Extreme Risk (20) | Extreme Risk (25) |
| Likely (4) | Moderate Risk (5) | Moderate Risk (5) | High Risk (12) | Extreme Risk (16) | Extreme Risk (20) |
| Possible (3) | Low Risk (3) | Moderate Risk (5) | Moderate Risk (5) | High Risk (12) | Extreme Risk (15) |
Once the risks and hazards have been identified and charted according to their severity and probability, the audit team drafts a safety policy that aims to minimize or eliminate identified hazards. This is followed by documentation that lists all the safety measures are taken and more.
5. Who should be involved in the Risk Assessment Process?
Start by choosing a diverse team of employees. This should include machine operators, electrical and mechanical engineers, maintenance operators, shift managers, supervisors, management team, and more. This team should be guided by a team leader who would ideally belong to top management.
6. Should Risk Assessment be done by an in-house team, or should you hire external experts?
You can take either one of the approaches. However, we highly recommend that you hire a team of competent external safety experts like Safix to carry out the process to enhance the efficiency of the process.
External safety experts have the required tools and knowledge to handle the process efficiently. They can also provide training to your employees to recognize hazards in the workplace and take the right safety measures to eliminate it.
7. When should risk assessments be conducted?
Ideally, risk assessments should be carried out once a year. Additionally, it’s highly recommended that you carry out a safety audit when new machinery, systems, or processes are introduced. While making any change to workplace operations, you have to evaluate the probability of hazards caused by the change.
8. What must be assessed in the workplace?
To phrase it simply – everything must be assessed. You have to start by identifying all the elements in the work environment – machinery, operations, ergonomics, noise, processes, and more.
9. How to begin the Risk Assessment process?
Start by interacting with front-line employees. Let them know that you have embarked on a task to make the workplace free of hazards. Ask them for any safety drawbacks they come across while performing their daily routines. Once you have collected the inputs, it’s time to start working on what needs to be done to eliminate these hazards and risks.
10. How to prioritize risks identified?
Risks must be prioritized based on their likelihood and severity. Use the tabular column given above to order risks. Priorities must be given to eliminate or reduce high-risk hazards. To give an example, a poorly designed work station gets lesser priority than an unguarded forklift.
11. Do small businesses require Risk Assessments and Safety Audits?
Yes, it’s highly recommended that businesses of all sizes conduct a formal safety audit. Workplace accidents can happen anywhere, irrespective of the size of the company. Hence, you must conduct a formal safety audit.
12. Why should we partner with Safix?
Safix is India’s leading workplace health and safety audit company. We have a large team of experienced and qualified senior safety auditors who customize the safety audit to suit the needs and size of your business.
Once the risk assessment is complete, we produce a prioritized action plan that gives you a detailed insight on how to minimize and eliminate workplace hazards. Additionally, we also train your team members on workplace health and safety, so that you build a safety culture at work.
For further information regarding our services, get in touch with our team.