Risk assessment – who to involve? – Risk assessment is a framework of principles, practices and criteria for implementing best practice in managing environmental and occupational health and safety risks. This is a very wide scope which can never be attended to by a single health and safety official alone.
In one of my previous blogs earlier this year, I pointed out that you will find a wide variety of employees in every workplace. Each labour force can easily be broken down into smaller groups of employees. And each group could face a different hazard. New or young employees, new or expectant mothers, people with disabilities or migrant workers could each have their own specific requirements, as do people who are not in the workplace regularly. The latter could include visitors or contractors. It is important to engage with each group that has been identified to find out what it is that they feel is important or would like to be addressed.
Depending on the level of risk assessment that is conducted, be it a baseline risk assessment, issue-based risk assessment or continuous risk assessment, the health and safety official also has to consider the responsibilities of the various management levels involved. To them, any disruption of normal practice (read: productivity) is considered an annoyance or even 'unacceptable'. They will do whatever it takes to make health and safety officials feel like they must walk on eggs when they want to conduct an assessment.
A system to manage risks should consider:
- Commitment to law and legislation
- Planning of activities
- Implementation of solutions
- Measurement and evaluation
- Monitoring and reviewing
This involves everyone and is never just the responsibility of (top) management, individual managers or the organisation's consultants or OHS specialists.
The line between the interests of employers and interest of employees is very thin and each party can rely on the input, approval or even the backup of various stakeholders and institutions.
Health and safety officials are advised to consult and include the comments of as many people as possible (or needed) before a risk assessment is conducted, simply in order to safe-guard themselves or avoid unnecessary discussions later. But that doesn't mean that each risk assessment should be turned into a massive event or massive gathering nor should this mean that it should be turned in an 'official event'.
Following a company's protocol is the first requirement. But by simply being present on the work floor regularly and being willing to take any comment or remark into consideration, health and safety officials can tackle and, often, receive the blessing to go ahead from many more.
An effective occupational health and safety risk management culture requires that every person has a genuine belief that it is important to identify and control aspects, hazards and risks. It requires a culture in which people work together to identify potential problems and deal with them before any loss occurs.
Health and safety officials have every right to be the elephant in the room to serve the interests of the company. It is likely that they will step on many toes in the process of doing so, as many others may feel that they too could be the elephant too. That's why it is important that health and safety officials should be first to identify typical characteristic of the elephant: their willingness to follow their natural leader. Don't worry about being the elephant in the room, but make sure you are the natural leader.
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