How to Perform a Risk Assessment

Every work environment, every task, every piece of equipment, and every single worker are different. 

It would be foolish to think that a company could plan for safety with a one-size-fits-all process.  Yet, many companies still attempt to do just that – provide a one-size-fits-all solution. 

For instance, many safety programs require that people exposed to falls ensure that they are “tied-off” without even determining if “tying-off” – most often referring to the use of personal fall arrest systems - is the proper, or even an effective, method of fall protection for the work they are performing.  What if there are no sufficient anchor points?  Is a 6’ lanyard with a deceleration device good or do we need an SRL?  Are neither of these acceptable and only travel restraint or rail systems would work? 

Without performing a risk assessment, the only answer you can give to any of these questions is, “Who knows?”. Clearly, that’s not an acceptable answer.  In order to properly determine the means and methods of mitigating hazards in the workplace, you first need to assess just what those hazards are.  

So, what are the keys to performing an effective risk assessment?

Understand the Work

You can’t produce an assessment that is going to be useful to anybody if you don’t truly understand the work.  Do you know, in detail, how the work is performed?  Do you know what equipment is used and how it is operated?  Are you aware of any training that the workers need to have in order to perform their duties?  Do you know what the steps of the process are? 

If you don’t have answers to these questions, then you need to start there.  Review existing procedures, if any, then sit down with the people doing the work.  Let them explain exactly what is done, and why, then observe them in action. 

Don’t try to assess from a desk, you’ll miss important elements.

Be the Right Person

Are you the person that should be doing the assessment in the first place? 

The person tasked with this should be knowledgeable in the means and methods of the work, safe work practices, and regulatory requirements.  Is there somebody in the organization who meets that description better than you do?  If so, then that person should at the very least be working with you on the assessment. 

Don’t be afraid to get other people involved to make the assessment more robust.  There’s nothing that says that this can’t be a group project, but like any other group project, ensure that you stay on-task.

Break Down the Work into Simple Tasks

Once you assemble the team and have a good understanding of the work being done, the assessment can begin.  However, it can seem like a daunting task. 

The trick is to break the task down into a series of manageable steps.  For each of the steps, take a look at the work being done, the environment in which it is being done, and what equipment is being used.  Determine for each of those things where the hazards exist.  If one of your steps can be broken down into further steps, do it. 

You don’t want to miss a hazard because you didn’t take the time to look at the process, the equipment, or the work area in enough detail.

Don’t Shy Away from Worst Case Scenario

If the only thing that ever happened was the best-case scenario, safety professionals wouldn’t have jobs.  The fact of the matter is that you need to look for the worst-case scenario to prevent it.  Those crazy, yet possible, things that people say will never happen, happen all the time. 

True, you could take this too far.  There is probably no need to have a contingency plan just in case the International Space Station crashed into your work site. But if your reason for not including something is, “Come on, they’d never do that,” then you may not be looking at this the right way. 

Human behavior is only predictable in the sense that it’s unpredictable. 

You’ve Determined the Hazards, Now Determine the Solutions

Once you’ve got the work broken down and feel you have compiled a comprehensive list of hazards associated with the work, start to determine the solutions.  Some will be obvious, while others will require collaboration and creativity.  Remember, the goal is to keep people safe and stay in compliance.  In order to do this, you must also be considering the hierarchy of controls: elimination, engineering controls, administrative controls, and, finally, personal protective equipment (PPE). 

In other words, if there is a respiratory hazard, you can’t just say, “respirators” and wash your hands of it.  First, you must ask yourself if the respiratory hazard can be eliminated through a change in process or substitution of materials.  If it cannot, can you engineer it out, perhaps with ventilation or other engineered method?  If you can’t, can you reduce exposure through administrative controls such as job rotation?  Only then, when all of these have been exhausted – or as an additional precaution – can you resort to PPE.

Are Your Solutions the RIGHT Solutions?

Listen, you may not get this right on the first try.  Your hazard assessment may have to be revised numerous times as new information comes to light, processes or materials change, or as solutions that you thought would do the trick don’t appear to be working.  That’s fine and is, to some extent, to be expected.  But you can help ensure your solutions are the right solutions from the start by asking yourself if the solutions are compliant, practical and cost-effective. 

Now, I know there are some safety professionals out there who operate purely on ideology and would be upset to see that we are taking practicality and cost-effectiveness into account, but it’s necessary.  We need to give our solutions the absolute best chance of success.  Nobody is suggesting selecting a less-safe solution over a safer one to save money. However if there are two equally efficient and compliant solutions and one is more cost-effective than the other, then we should be taking that into account because it gives the solution the best chance of success.  If one solution is easier than another equally efficient and compliant solution, then that matters.  The workforce will be more likely to follow through with it. 

Make Sure You Didn’t Trade One Hazard for Another

Just because you recognized a hazard and determined a solution doesn’t mean you’ve made the process or environment safe.  It is extremely important that you evaluate your solution to ensure that you haven’t created new hazards.  For example, determining that personal fall arrest systems (PFAS) are the necessary solution while failing to realize that the anchor point you’ve selected creates a swing hazard for the worker hasn’t produced an effective solution.  You may have eliminated the fall, but you’ve created a different hazard altogether.  Keep refining or go back to the drawing board.

You’re Finished…Sort Of

A hazard assessment will never truly be finished.  It may be that you hit the nail on the head and it never needs to be changed, but that would mean that the process, the equipment, the materials, and the technology never change.  Don’t forget to periodically review your assessments to make sure they are as up-to-date as possible and always be open to feedback.  Improvement is a never-ending process.