Although a risk assessments of hazards in the workplace should be conducted regularly, they should never become routine.
Identifying hazards takes some effort but, if done properly, can save you possible serious trouble later.
To identify possible hazards successfully means health and safety practitioners will have to go out and assess a workplace physically. They are expected to walk around and see what it is that could cause harm.
The inspection should also include talking to employees or their representatives to find out what problems they normally encounter. Especially employees involved in the activity that is being assessed know best if, and if so, what short cuts are normally taken, what normally is done have difficult tasks completed and what precautionary actions they take.
Often employees are unaware or not interested in the consequences some of these actions could have. To determine the risk they can, information from instruction manuals from manufacturers and suppliers can be used, as well as public sources like OHS websites, legal and technical standards and information provided by national bodies, trade associations or trade unions.
Health and safety practitioners should take time to look what is actually happening in the workplace during the activity. They also should take non-routine and intermittent operations in consideration, like maintenance operations or changes in production cycles. Unplanned, but foreseeable events, such as interruptions in the work activity, should also be considered as is the considering of long-term hazards to health.
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