By Joanna Weekes

Why do you need to conduct risk assessments in your workplace? You have to do it – it’s a legal requirement, and there is no getting around that. But sometimes, knowing why you’re doing something helps motivate you to do it.

Hazard identification and risk assessment will help you:

1. Recognise and control hazards in your workplace.
2. Create awareness among your employees – and use it as a training tool.
3. Set risk management standards based on acceptable safe practices and legal requirements.
4. Reduce incidents in the workplace.
5. Save costs by being proactive instead of reactive.

Effective management control will raise the standard of your health and safety measures.

People often think that incidents occur due to negligence or employee mistakes. Still, most incidents in the workplace occur due to insufficient management controls.

Your proactive effort to implement risk management systems can prevent the majority of incidents that may occur in your workplace. The following are examples of systems to put into place in your workplace to reduce the likelihood of a health and safety incident:

• Training;
• Inspections;
• Work procedures;
• Employee fitness;
• Planned maintenance of equipment and structures; and
• Ensuring sufficient and competent supervision.

A hazard identification and risk assessment process is a proactive one. It is more cost-effective to complete this process and implement a risk management system than to have an incident on-site and then create the risk management systems retrospectively.

Never stop encouraging safety in your workplace…