RISK MANAGEMENT

Risk Management process

Risk assessment planning process

'HealthyWorkingLives.com'(2013) explains that a Risk Assessment is 'is basically a method to closely look after the work activities and risk involved in it, considering what could go wrong, and deciding on suitable control measures to avoid loss, harm or injury in the workplace.' We have developed a Risk Assessment for an event we are holding at a near-by venue. This venue will be our 'workplace' for the evening, so we must ensure we cover all areas where people may be in risk of injuring themselves or others, and we must make actions and plans for if any of these possible risks causes harm to others, as well as preventative measures we will enact to lower the chance of these happening (Shone, et al. 2004).

The HSE website states that there are 5 steps to creating a full risk assessment. These are:

Identify the risk

Decide who can be affected and how

Assess the risks and decide on safety measures

Record your findings and execute them

Review your evaluation and update if necessary

We used this theory when drawing up our own Risk Assessment. First deciding on what could be a hazard- by asking venue staff, seeing the venue for ourselves as well as common risks linked with similar events. Risks that we found to be applicable to our event included, performers not showing up, power cuts and tripping hazards. We then added a column for who would be harmed by this risk, looking at what areas of the building these risks were at their highest, and who would be involved in dangerous activities. This for our event is mainly our audience, anyone on stage, including sound technicians and performers, and bar staff. We then decided how we could create precautions and who was responsible for making sure these precautions were implemented, i.e. no drinks allowed near electrical equipment on stage (risk= electrocution). We put all of this into a table that we will keep with us during the event so that we can update it if we spot / people report any other potential risks.

The definition of risk according to the Oxford Dictionary is, 'a situation involving an exposure to danger'. We agree with this definition as the risks we noted were only potentially dangerous, and need a catalyst in order for someone to get hurt- they are not something we know is definitely going to cause harm to someone.

Use of Risk Assessments

According to HSE, one of the main reasons for Risk Assessments is that over time, people have become more and more careful but also observant for risks, and potential risks. We believe this may be a result of growing numbers of Civil Cases, such as accidents at work, where employers have to pay out large sums of money for not being vigilant of their employees' safety. Therefore employers introduce strict monitoring of potential risks to cover themselves.

Another reason for using Risk Assessments according to HSE is to weigh up the costs vs. benefits of implementing preventative ...