Whether you work on site or in an office there are various precautions you must take to ensure your safety whilst at work. We’ve covered the ‘Who, What, Why, Where and When’ of the risky business to keep you safe and sound at work.

Who

Who needs to carry out a risk assessment? And who should it cover?  Ultimately you are responsible for the risk assessment if you own or manage a business. You can delegate the task; however you must ensure whoever you delegate to is competent and understands the process.

The risk assessment should cover all staff that you employ to prevent them coming to any harm. You must pay special attention to staff with disabilities, lack of experience, expectant mothers and poor literacy skills.

What

What do you need to include in your risk assessment?

Your risk assessment should take in to consideration the industry you are in, your employees and the activities that are carried out. The industry you work in will affect your risk assessment hugely; you need to check what legal requirements are needed for your risk assessment to meet with standards. Any activities that staff carry out that pose a risk must be recorded, their risk assessed and any precautions put in place to ensure the risk factor remains low.

Why?

Why do you need a risk assessment?

First and foremost you need a risk assessment to keep you and your staff safe. The risk assessment takes note of any factors that could harm a member of staff and records how these risks can be avoided or the risk lowered. Secondly, you need a risk assessment by law, if you don’t have a risk assessment in place and a member of staff is injured you can be prosecuted.

Where?

Where should my risk assessment cover?

If you work in an office, you risk assessment must cover in and around the vicinity. If you or your staff work ‘off location’, your risk assessment must take in to account the alternative place of work, this means if you are working in a different location daily your risk assessment must reflect this.

When?

When should you carry out your risk assessment?

You should carry out your risk assessment whenever there is threat of risk or injury. If you’re working in the same location/office you may only need to carry out one risk assessment and review it at select periods to ensure it is up to date. If you are working in alternate locations you will need to carry out a risk assessment for each place of work. 

Author Bio: Leah Jarratt is a regular guest writer for Ainscough Vanguard, specialising in industrial machine movals.

p.s.  Following the risk assessment, management should determine what type of industrial safety equipment meets the requirement for protection for the particular risks of the job. pb