Risk management in the workplace
The general purpose of safety at work is to anticipate, identify, analyze and control hazards in order to prevent and protect people from harm, damage to assets, the environment and the reputation of the company.
It is important that the term “hazard” is properly explained and understood so that efforts to manage its effects and consequences result in the desired success. Risk management in the workplace goes beyond knowing what the hazards are, it involves the classification, evaluation and control of hazards. The lack of clarity in risk management terminology and methodology has often created confusion for both workers and management. This article offers a solution to this problem and provides the tools and techniques to perform risk assessments.
The meaning of danger
Hazard has been variously defined as follows:
“A potential source of harm to a worker”
Source: CSAZ1002, Occupational Health and Safety: Hazard Identification and Elimination, Risk Assessment and Control (CSA – Canadian Standard Association)
“A situation, condition, or thing that may be dangerous to the safety or health of workers”
Source: Alberta Occupational Safety and Health Code, Part 1 – Definitions and General Application
“The potential for harm. Hazards include all aspects of technology and activity that produce risk. Hazards include the characterization of things (equipment, dust) and actions or people’s inactions”
Source: Accident Prevention Manual for Companies and Industry Engineering and Technology, 13th Edition. Philip E. Hogan, John F. Montgomery, James T. O’Reilly.
“HAS opportunity It can be anything, be it work materials, equipment, work methods or practices, that has the potential to cause harm.”
Source: European Agency for Health and Safety at Work.
“A hazard is any source of potential harm, harm or adverse health effects to something or someone under certain conditions at work. Basically, a hazard can cause harm or adverse effects (to people such as health effects or to organizations such as property or equipment losses).
Source: Canadian Center for Occupational Safety and Health (CCOHS)
The consistent message from these definitions is that a hazard has two main characteristics:
It can be anything like: a situation, equipment, behavior, condition, substance, process, energy source, practice, or material.
Has the potential to cause harm or harm.
This knowledge not only helps to understand what a hazard is, it also helps to control it.
Risk Management Program
When establishing a hazard management program, a company can get it right using this three-step approach:
Hazard identification
Risk analysis
hazard control
The review of the literature shows a lack of consensus and consistency in the categorization of these steps. Some describe the entire process as “hazard assessment,” while others call it “hazard and risk assessment” or “hazard identification, evaluation, and control.” Whichever name is chosen, the result should remain the same: an inventory and description of all workplace hazards, their sources, along with their rating/classification and recommended control measures.
Hazard identification
Hazard identification is a process of systematically reviewing the workplace and taking note of what can cause harm or harm. There are a number of tools and techniques used to achieve this, some of which are:
List of roles and positions in the company (obtained from the organization chart),
List of task(s) for each position/discipline (obtained from organization chart and job/task analysis report),
Hazard Identification (HAZID) – a structured brainstorming technique,
Use of hazard identification checklists,
Use of WHMIS (Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System) classification,
Use of the TDG classification (transport of dangerous goods),
HAZOP study (hazard operability),
SAFOP (safety and electrical operability),
design reviews,
PHA (Process Hazard Analysis)
JHA (occupational hazard analysis),
Hazard reports (also called unsafe acts/unsafe conditions audit)
incident reports,
safety meetings,
Pre-job plans and planning exercises,
secure work permits,
inspection reports,
Safety meeting (concerns expressed by workers)
Equipment operation manuals,
PHA (Preliminary Hazard Analysis),
FMEA (Failure Mode and Effects Analysis),
And if the analysis
It should be noted that the selection of the appropriate tool or technique to identify hazards depends on the phase of the project or maturity of the operation, type and nature of the facility, and training/experience of the people involved in the exercise. While there are various methods, tools and techniques to identify hazards, it is always important that those selected are documented as evidence that the company has been thorough in performing this exercise.
Risk analysis
Hazard analysis involves a process of reviewing the hazards that have been identified to determine their potential and the extent to which they may cause unintended effects. The technique for this process is called: risk assessment. Note that this is also called a hazard assessment.
A risk is simply the chance that a hazard will cause an undesirable effect and the extent of the effect. A risk assessment is the process of evaluating workplace hazards to determine risks to: worker health and safety, the environment, and damage to equipment.
There are few, if any, tools and techniques that are limited solely to hazard identification. Most tools and techniques include both assessment and identification and vice versa.
Key specific risk (hazard) assessment tools include:
Risk assessment matrix (presenting probability or possibility and seriousness or consequence),
HRA (health risk assessment),
EA (environmental assessment) and EIA (environmental impact assessment),
SIA (social impact assessment),
HFA (human factors analysis),
PEM (Physical Effects Modeling),
FLHA (field level hazard assessment),
FEA (fire and explosion analysis),
QRA (quantitative risk assessment).
As with any tool or technique, the quality of the results obtained will largely be a factor in the user’s competence. Therefore, it is important that where there is no in-house expertise, the services of trained external staff are sought to carry out or facilitate the carrying out of these assessments.
hazard control
Once identified and analyzed, risks must be controlled to reduce the potential for the hazard to cause undesirable effects. Tools to control hazards include:
Disposal
substitution
Use of engineering controls.
Use of administrative controls
Use of personal protective equipment (PPE)
It is management’s responsibility to ensure that appropriate risk control measures are in place, are effective and comply with all legal requirements and industry standards.
As stated above, training and experience will be required in all steps involved in a hazard management program. The hazard assessment process must be documented and the information must be kept active throughout the life of the organization taking into account changes in equipment, people, work environment, work methods, industry standards and legislation.