An occupational health and safety risk (or hazard) is a combination of the likelihood of occurrence of a work-related hazardous event or exposure(s) and the severity of injury and ill health that can be caused by the event or exposures.
An occupational Health and Safety opportunity is a (set of) circumstance(s) which can lead to improvement of OH&S performance.
%The_Company% is committed to the identifying, understanding and controlling risks in the workplace, including the active management of any existing risks and risks associated with any new or modified equipment, materials or work processes. This is to be done with the aid of relevant/affected staff, management, suppliers of equipment and contractors (where applicable).
Where specialist advice is necessary, they will be contacted to aid in the process (e.g., noise level monitoring, hazardous substance management). With the aid of these relevant people, significant risks are to be controlled and the process to either Eliminate or Minimise the risk is to be actioned.
The Risk Management Process:
- The top section of the Risk ID form on Page 10.2 is to be completed by whomever first identifies the risk. Fill in the Name, Location and Description of the risk and your Recommendation on what needs to be done (if any), and your Name, Signature and Date.
- Either give the form to the Health and Safety Representative or put in the company’s designated place for completed Risk ID forms. If you consider this to be potentially serious, discuss with your H&S Rep., Manager or PCBU immediately, to determine if immediate action is required.
- The H&S Rep. and/or Manager then investigate the Risk, first assessing the Initial Risk Rating and adding this to the original Risk ID form. The Risk Rating is calculated by considering the likelihood of the incident occurring again and the potential consequences, as illustrated by the formula on page 10.6
- A meeting is required with appropriate staff in attendance, for this Risk ID:
- An action plan is to be made and added to the Risk ID form, outlining what will be done, by when and by whom. This section is signed off and dated by each person as each action point is complete.
- Discuss whether this risk shows that new or increased Health Monitoring is required.
- The meeting also needs to assess whether the issue and any machinery/process changes must be added to the Risk Register. Or any new ones.
- The Residual Risk Rating is assessed once any changes have been made, and this new rating is added to the register.
- Signed and dated by the Senior Manager at the meeting, approving the action plan.
- From then until the Risk has been addressed and any permanent changes made, progress on this risk is to be discussed at each staff meeting. And the action points signed off as done.
- The Risk Management Process for this Risk ID form is only complete when the bottom section Risk Management Process Complete has been signed off by a Senior Manager/PCBU.
- All Risks are to be reviewed annually.
Initial and Residual Risk Ratings Initial Risk Rating Assessed on first identifying a risk/change to a risk
Residual Risk Rating Assessed after the controls have been applied
The aim is to reduce the risk rating with this process, however we must always consider the unexpected. For example, with a Traffic Management control, we initially rate it at Extreme, then this reduces to Moderate after controls have been put into place. This is because we need to allow for uncontrollable events in traffic management situations e.g., drunk driver, so cannot rate it as Low.
Disclaimer
While all professional care has been taken in the preparation and production of this Risk Register, Industry Standards are continually changing, and Risk Controls used in your industry may alter over time.