Management

Risk Assessment

Risk Assessment

Introduction

A risk is a potential harm which an event or object can cause to individuals. A risk assessment is a careful examination of what could cause harm to the individuals at a workplace. It is significant for the management in an organization to take necessary precautions or permanently remove the harm. The workers have the right to get protected from various risks at work. The management must ensure a sound risk plan which includes the policies and guidelines regarding all possible risks. There are legal requirements of assessing risks at workplace to ensure a risk control plan is in place.

Analysis

Risk assessment is a process of evaluating the consequences of hazards and their probabilities of occurrence. The risk assessment indicates that what can go wrong and how likely are the chances of risks consequences at workplace. The risk assessment consists of a five stage process (HSE, 2011, pp. 3-5).

Identify the Hazards

In order to make the process of risk assessment effective, it is necessary that one conducts a critical analysis on the ways in which people could be harmed. When one works in a professional environment, there is a huge likelihood that people overlook different types of hazards.

Decide who might be harmed and how

It is highly significant for the risk assessment personnel to be aware of the specific people that could be affected due to the hazards. Specifically identifying different types of groups and targeting them according to the severity of the hazard would go a long way in successfully managing the risk in an appropriate manner. For instance people working in the store room or fire department would be most likely to be exposed to different hazardous materials. Thus, identifying such a group would be highly significant in the case of successful risk assessment. Appropriately, identifying the exact nature of injury and specific ill health concerns associated with different hazards, would specifically get the process of risk assessment in action. For instance, personnel involved in shelf movement might suffer back injuries in the context of lifting different boxes (HSE, 2011, pp. 3-5).

Evaluate the risks and decide on precautions

Once the hazards have been identified, there is a need to take mature decisions on successfully adopting frameworks for tackling these hazards. The law allows you to do everything that;s in your reach which falls under the category of being 'highly practicable' in order to protect people from hazards. The most effective way for this step to be performed is to compare your practices against the best practices. One way of comparing best practice would be to have a look at the official website of HSE. The essence of this step is to look at what you are currently doing as well as ascertaining the nature of controls that are employed (HSE, 2011, pp. 3-5).

Record your findings and implement them

Successfully converting the risk assessment results into implementation would portray a significant difference when dealing with the bsuienss and people. By successfully writing the results of risk assessment and ...