4 Essential Risk Management Steps

Every workplace has a certain amount of risk.

Whether your workplace be a factory or an office, there is still a level of risk of injury to people. The process of managing that risk can be distilled down to a systematic process for addressing hazards in the workplace.

The four essential steps to managing risk are:

1. Identify all foreseeable hazards in the workplace that have potential to harm anyone. That might include handling of hazardous chemicals, unguarded machinery, poorly designed workstations, or manual handling tasks.

2. Assess the amount of risk from the hazard. The goal here is to find out how much impact the risk would have on people exposed, and then establish the chance of this risk actually happening. For example, how significant the risk is will depend on its potential to cause a serious injury, illness or death and how likely is this to occur?

3. Control the hazard or, if possible, remove the risk completely. This is done by introducing systems and implementing strategies to eliminate or control the hazard. Good examples are to design equipment differently, fit machine guards, introduce lifting devices to minimize manual handling, or use personal protective devices.

4. Review risk assessment to monitor and improve ‘control measures’ and find safer ways of doing things. A regular system of auditing the workplace to ensure controls are in place and working, is the last step to managing risk. Many companies outsource this step to separate responsibility from those working in the business with independent third parties who can provide industry impartiality to the process.

Follow these steps for best practice compliance in risk management.