What Clients Say About Formal Hazard Assessments
I have many clients who believe that completing Formal Hazard Assessments are a waste of time and add nothing meaningful to their health and safety management systems. They believe that site-specific hazard assessments are of much more value in protecting workers from harm. I offer the following thoughts regarding Formal Hazard Assessments and their usefulness.
Reasons for Completing a Formal Hazard Assessment
- Help management to meet regulatory (Occupational Health and Safety) and Industry (Certificate of Recognition) standards.
- Distinguish work site hazards and control measures based on established processes.
- Save money and resources by being proactive rather than reactive regarding health and safety issues.
- Reduce incident frequency and severity in the workplace.
- Classify risk management standards based on acceptable industry and legislative requirements.
- Engage employees and create a sense of well-being and awareness among the workforce.
Terminology
The use of interchangeable terminology, regarding hazard control methods is where, I think, most people-safety professionals included, get into trouble. Hazard assessment is not difficult subject matter, but it is confusing. In this article, I will be using the terminologies established by the Alberta Partnerships in Injury Reduction, Certificate of Recognition Program.
Types of Hazard Assessments
There are several ways that safety practitioners identify, assess and control hazards, the most common being: Formal Hazard Assessments, Site-Specific Hazard Assessments (PJHA, FLHA, etc.), Hazard IDs, and Management of Change/Deviation.
In this article, I am only going to discuss Formal Hazard Assessments. Formal Hazard Assessments should be the first step used by organizations to identify, assess and mitigate hazards faced by employees. These appraisals should be completed for every job/position, whenever a new position/job is added to the organization, when there are significant changes to work scope/operation/equipment, etc., and when an investigation or inspection has identified deficiencies in work processes. All too often, I have witnessed Formal Hazard Assessments being completed as a last step in the process, only required by Certifying Partners to satisfy Partnerships in Injury Reduction (PIR) standards, and as such, many managers and safety professionals deem them at best, of little use, and at worst, unnecessary and unworthy of their time and effort.
Steps to Completing a Formal Hazard Assessment
- Identify all jobs/positions within the organization i.e., President, Administrator, Welder, Truck Driver, etc.
- Determine all tasks completed for each position, i.e., powered mobile equipment operation, computer work, welding, stock shelves, working with power tools, etc.
- Pinpoint health (bacteria, air quality, pesticides, stress, etc.) and safety (working at heights, working with powered equipment, sharp edges, rotating equipment, etc.) hazards for each task.
- Classify all hazards using a risk assessment system of your choosing. The most common and accepted standard is severity, frequency and probability.
- Once all hazards have been prioritized, i.e. evaluated according to risk, distinguish and implement control measures based on the hierarchy of controls (engineering, administrative, and PPE), legislative standards for your jurisdiction, industry requirements, and manufacturer obligations.
When Completed The Following Should Have Been Learned:
- Which jobs/positions present the most threat to employees.
- Which tasks pose the most risk to employees.
- Wherein specific tasks lie the most risk.
- What types of inspections and frequency standards are required.
- Are employees adequately trained to competently complete their job assignments.
- Are supervisors appropriately trained to oversee operational processes.
- Are adequate engineering, administrative and personal protective equipment controls in place.
- Have suitable and compliant equipment and building preventative maintenance programs been established.
- Has the risk to workers been lowered to acceptable levels.
What Do We Do Now?
- Develop job/position specific training standards for all employee groups based on proven facts.
- Establish a company and job specific on-the-job training program to enable new or untrained workers to learn from senior personnel.
- Install a training regimen for middle managers and supervisors to ensure they can get the best performance out of subordinate workers.
- Determine how often site-specific hazard assessments and inspections should be completed based on validated truths.
- Distinguish and develop Safe Work Procedures (SWPs) based on identified high risk factors. Once completed, SWPs can be added to the formalized on-the-job training program.
- Budgets can be established so the management team knows in advance the resources required to run the safety program, i.e., training, purchasing, maintenance, man hour cost, etc.
Conclusion
I hope this article has helped you to realize the benefits of completing a Formal Hazard Assessment. Formal Hazard Assessments are arguably the best way to determine, assess and control hazards faced by workers. Most importantly, used in conjunction with other hazard assessment processes, Formal Hazard Assessments can and will effectively engage workers, promote positive behaviour, increase health and safety awareness, strengthen efficiency, while consequently reducing the number of and severity of incidents. Therefore, this will reduce costs associated with incidents, boost profitability and viability of the organization, and can also be used as a promotion tool aimed at attracting more customers.