How to Write a Risk Assessment in 5 Simple Steps

Creating a risk assessment might seem like a daunting paperwork exercise, but it's a fundamental part of managing health and safety in your workplace. In the UK, if you have 5 or more employees, you are legally required to have a written risk assessment.

Here is the Health and Safety Executive's (HSE) recommended 5-step approach to risk assessment.

Step 1: Identify the Hazards

A hazard is anything that may cause harm, such as chemicals, electricity, working from ladders, an open drawer, or stress.

Walk around your workplace and look at what could reasonably be expected to cause harm. Ask your employees what they think—they may have noticed things that are not immediately obvious to you.

Step 2: Decide Who Might Be Harmed and How

For each hazard, you need to be clear about who might be harmed. This helps you identify the best way of managing the risk.

• Employees: Cleaners, visitors, contractors, maintenance workers, etc.
• Members of the Public: If your work affects them.
• Vulnerable People: Young workers, new mechanics, new or expectant mothers, people with disabilities.

Step 3: Evaluate the Risks and Decide on Precautions

Having spotted the hazards, you then have to decide what to do about them. The law requires you to do everything 'reasonably practicable' to protect people from harm.

Ask yourself:

1. Can I get rid of the hazard layout altogether?
2. If not, how can I control the risks so that harm is unlikely?

Step 4: Record Your Findings and Implement Them

If you have fewer than 5 employees, you don't have to write anything down, though it is useful to do so so you can review it later. If you have 5 or more employees, step 4 is mandatory.

You need to be able to show that:

• A proper check was made.
• You asked who might be affected.
• You dealt with all the significant hazards.
• The precautions are reasonable.
• The remaining risk is low.

Step 5: Review Your Assessment and Update if Necessary

Workplaces stay the same. Sooner or later, you will bring in new equipment, substances, and procedures that could lead to new hazards. It makes sense, therefore, to review what you are doing on an ongoing basis.

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