Health and safety risk assessment

You know the ins and outs of every aspect of your organisation, how it works, the staff you’ve hired, its weaknesses and strengths. But understanding the hazards present in the workplace is a different matter. All it takes is overlooking one seemingly insignificant hazard and you’ll be in breach of health and safety legislation. A health and safety risk assessment is really the only way to make sure you’ve identified and managed each of the hazards employees in your organisation face day-to-day.

Know your hazards

Broadly speaking there are 2 kinds of hazards: acute hazards that have a clear and immediate impact and chronic hazards that have a cumulative, long-term impact and are often not so obvious.

Drilling down further, hazards fall into 6 categories:

• Physical, such as slippery floors, unsafe machinery, obstructed walkways, excessive noise, poor lighting and fire

• Chemical, including gases, fumes, vapours, liquids and dust

• Biological, such as risk of infection by bacteria, viruses, fungi or parasites through exposed cuts, contaminated objects or contact with an infected person

• Radiation, which covers microwaves, x-rays, gamma rays, infrared and ultraviolet lasers

• Ergonomic, which refers to poor or improper design of equipment, workstations or workflow, as well as repetitive movements and manual handling such as lifting

• Psychological, which addresses a wide range of issues from shift work and harassment to constant low-level noise and stress.

Irrespective of which industry you’re in, you will most definitely have several of the above types of hazards to contend with in your organisation. As an employer, it is your job to take reasonable measures to protect your employees from these hazards, as laid out in The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. More detail on what this involves can be found in The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. Translating legislation into a to do list of what you actually need to make happen in order to secure the safety of your work environment takes a level of expertise most organisations don’t have, this should be done by experienced and competent people or companies.

Get your health and safety risk assessment

At Bison Assist understanding health and safety is our bread and butter. We carry out health and safety risk assessments nationwide with our teams of fully trained assessors. With extensive experience across a range of different industries we’ll identify all hazards, existing protective measures and required protective measures within your organisation so you can make sure you are compliant with the very latest health and safety legislation.

Get a free quote for your health and safety risk assessment and leave your compliance worries behind.