Module 2

Risk Management
Chapter 7- Principles of Risk
Assessment
By Dr. N P Rantsatsi
 Learning outcome
Student should be able to:

• Understand processes of safety risk assessment.

• Demonstrate an understanding on types of risk assessments.
• Identify two stages of basic risk management process.
• Identify knowledge areas for successful implementation of risk management.
• Identify various stakeholders and describe their involvement in safety risk assessment.
• Discuss the implementation of safety risk assessment.
 1. TYPES OF RISK ASSESSMENTS
 Baseline risk assessment

 Issue based risk assessment

 Continuous risk assessment

 1. TYPES OF RISK ASSESSMENTS
 Baseline risk assessment

▪ Focuses on a broad overview in order to determine the safety risk profile to be use
in subsequent risk assessments.
▪ Quantitatively determine the baseline health and safety risks in the specific work
areas.
▪ Determine the controls for employees and the environment based on the health
and safety risks identified.
▪ Comply with applicable legislation and other requirements.
❑ Examples of baseline risk assessment
❖ HIRA (Hazard Identification Risk Assessments)
❖ Hygiene and Health Surveys (Noise, Lighting, Ventilation, Temperature Extremes)
❖ Environmental Impact and Aspect Registers
❖ Fire Risk Assessments
 1. TYPES OF RISK ASSESSMENTS
 Issue based risk assessment

▪ is normally focused on operational activities, processes and systems based business

functions
▪ It focuses on the identification of the Safety Risks within a certain task, process or activity
and is usually associated with MOC e.g.:
❑ new machines
❑ new procedure or system of work
❑ new substances
❑ after an accident or “near miss incidents”
❑ Examples of issue based risk assessments
❖ Process Hazard Analysis
❖ Environmental Impact Assessments
❖ Major Hazardous Installations Risk Assessments
❖ HAZOP (Hazard And Operability Study)
 1. TYPES OF RISK ASSESSMENTS
 Continuous risk assessments

▪ It is a powerful and important form of assessment

▪ and should take place continually as an integral part of day to day management.
▪ It is performed at an operational level
▪ It must not be sophisticated and should mainly be conducted by first line supervisors
❑ Examples of continual risk assessment
❖ Potential Deviation Analysis
❖ Inspections
❖ Behavioural Based Safety Programs
❖ Critical Task Observations
❖ Work Permits
❖ Toolbox talks
❖ Personal risk assessment
 1.1 Safety Risk Assessment
 Basic processes for proactive safety risk assessment

• Determine the scope and objectives of the assessment.

• Identify all workplace hazards.
• ID all employees and other stakeholders, resources, equipment and the environment which may
be exposed or effected by these hazards.
• Evaluate the significant Safety Risks to which employees and others stakeholders, resources,
equipment and the environment are exposed.
• Recognize the likelihood of foreseeable accidents, injuries, impacts or near misses occurring.
• Select realistic and practical precautions and control measures. Evaluate the Safety Risks and
decide whether the existing precautions are adequate or whether more should be done.
• Control Safety Risk
• Monitor Safety Risk
• Communicate Safety Risks to stake holders
• Review and revise if necessary
 1.2 Basic process for risk management
 divided into two distinct stages:
• concerns with understanding of the "problems" (fact finding)
• concerns with the "solutions" to the problems.
 basic risk management process comprise of the following
 Hazard identification
 Risk Estimation Stage 1
 Risk Evaluation

 Control measures establishment Stage 2

 Implementation of control measures
 1.3 Knowledge for successful
implementation of risk assessment
 Stakeholder Involvement and Commitment
 Stakeholder identification
 Determining the scope of the risk assessment
 Hazard identification
 Participants in the risk assessment process
 Entities and persons exposed
 Evaluating risks
 Control measures
 Recoding findings from the risk assessment
 Communication
 Monitor and review
1.4 Stakeholder Involvement &
Commitment
 Management Commitment
• Provide resources and motivating forces
• Without their commitment the programme will likely fail
• Implementation of SRM Programme that include RA demonstrates management
commitment
• Visible tool to show line managers and employees the business commitment
 Safety Professionals and Risk Assessment Team
• control, to facilitate the process and not to conduct the process
• advise management on the selection of the team
• the gathering and interpretation of data
• the development of the Risk Assessment process
• advise and guide the team in the process
• assist management to develop & implement controls, codes of practices, training
programmes etc.
 Stakeholder Involvement & Commitment ...

 Safety Professional continue

• Evaluate databases of company/mine/plant to assess past causes of incidents/accident
• Review accidents reports & investigations log books and audit reports
• Gather information externally from government, industry, publication and databases
 Employee involvement
• As critical as a management involvement
• Both parties should be involved, breaks walls of “us” and “them” when dealing with SHE
involvement rather “we” to show both parties are working as a collective
• Management must always encourage employee involvement through clearly defined
policies and procedures
 Public involvement
• Form continual part of RA process especially in specialised RA are conducted MHI
• Public participation process ensures public awareness
1.5 Stakeholder Identification
 To aid this process the following questions may be asked

• Who will potentially be affected by the Safety Risk and the

consequences of any management decision?
• Which parties or individuals have knowledge and expertise
which may be useful to inform any discussion or decision?
• Which parties or individuals have expressed an interest in this
particular, or a similar type of, Safety Risk Management
problem?
• Which stakeholders will be prepared to listen, respect diverse
viewpoints and be prepared to negotiate?
1.6 Ten basic processes of safety risk
management

1.6.1 Determining Scope of the RA

 In general the risk assessment concentrates on one of
three different scopes

• Geographically based – e.g. production line,

dispatch, workshop
• Functionally based – e.g. trucking & tramping,
storage, delivery etc
• “Hazard” based – e.g. electricity, machinery,
ventilation
1.6.2 Hazard Identification

 Formal structured methods for hazard identification

• FMEA - Failure Mode and Effect Analysis
• TOR - Technique of Operations Review
• HEA - Human Error Analysis
• RCA - Root Cause Analysis
• FTA - Fault Tree Analysis
 It is essential that those you consult are knowledgeable about the activity
you are reviewing.
Hazard Identification cont.…
 Practical methods for hazard identification

• Conduct inspections of the work facilities

• Analyse incidents and injuries
• Look at the records of previous activities
• Interview employees and Safety representatives
• Interview other stakeholders
• Analyse the results of personal, local or overseas experience
• Directly observe the activity
• Analyse specific scenarios
• Medical reports and results
 Hazard Identification cont.…
 Conduct inspections of the work facilities
❑ touring the entire work premises to complete a comprehensive visual inspection.
❑ use a preliminary checklist of hazards if you identified any in your preparation.
❑ be systematic - look at all areas of the workplace one at a time; where possible also look at places
where work is going on away from the main premises.
 Analyse incidents and injuries
❑ Data may be used in formalised Safety Risk analysis to
❑ Give input to frequency rate or occurrence of incidents/accidents
 Look at the records of previous activities
❑ Monthly health and safety inspection lists
❑ Incident reports
❑ Financial records
❑ GAR, Annexure 1 Forms (General Administrative Regulations of the Occupational Health and Safety
Act)
❑ WCL 1 (Reporting of Occupational Diseases) and WCL 2 (Reporting of Occupational Injuries) Forms
❑ Medical reports and results
❑ Health and Safety Committee meeting minutes
❑ Management Review meeting minutes
 Hazard Identification cont.…
 Interview employees and Safety representatives
❑ asking employees and health and safety representatives what hazards they are aware
of.
❑ use of suggestion boxes
❑ Internal reports and complaints from workers.
 Interviews with other stakeholders
❑ interviews and discussions with stakeholders;
❑ distribution of surveys and questionnaires to stakeholders,
❑ reports and complaints
 Analyse the results of personal, local or overseas experience
 Directly observe the activity
 Analyse specific scenarios
 Medical reports and results
 1.6.3 Participants in the risk assessment
process
 Why?
• ensure their ‘ownership’ of the work and thereby
• help bring about a Safety cultural change.
 Who?
• front line supervisor and the team from that particular workplace.
• When necessary, specialist expertise should also be brought in, for example, in the
area of human factors or ergonomics.
 What?
• the Safety professional presenting the existing data,
• describing the scope of work and
• discussing the hazards and their Safety Risk potential the team might encounter
• encouraging the team to consider not just the superficial but also the underlying
causes, thereby increasing their awareness and scope of the Safety Risk Assessment.
 1.6.4 Entities and Persons exposed
 Persons exposed
• employees (full time and part time),
• any temporary, voluntary or work experience people,
• unions,
• contractors,
• cleaners, or
• any maintenance personnel;
• visitors,
• customers or clients,
• government organizations,
• suppliers and service provider’s,
• the community and
• even the environment
 Entities and Persons exposed
 Research has identified the following variables to have contributed more to injuries and
illness at the workplace on the part of employees:
• The age of the employee (Younger workers have higher incident rates).
• The length of time on the job (new employees have higher incident rates).
• The size of the organisation (in general medium size organisation have higher incident
rates than small or lager organisations).
• The type of work performed.
• The use of hazardous substances.
 People that are at the workplace all the time include the following
• New and expectant mothers
• Young workers, trainees and inexperienced employees
• Staff with disabilities
• Lone workers
 People that are not at the workplace all the time include the following
• Cleaners, contractors, visitors, suppliers and the public
 1.6.5 Evaluating Risks
 Factors that might influence safety risk assessment

 Safety Risks which are involuntarily imposed (e.g. pollution from an incinerator)
tend to be seen as less acceptable than voluntary ones (e.g. driving a car or
undertaking dangerous sports).
 Unfamiliar Safety Risks (e.g. genetically modified organisms) tend to cause
greater concern, particularly if they are considered to be poorly understood
by science.
 Activities which pose a threat of a dreaded form of death, injury or illness (e.g.
cancer) are viewed with alarm and are less acceptable.
 Man-made or ‘technological safety risks’ (e.g. pesticides, nuclear power
stations) are less acceptable than natural ones (e.g. floods and radon)
 A Safety Risk which may cause a single large-scale consequence (e.g. civil
aviation accident) causes more concern than Safety Risks which result in
numerous small-scale consequences (e.g. car accidents).
 Evaluating Risks
 Factors that might influence safety risk assessment cont..

 Alarm may be caused by Safety Risks when the consequences of

exposure are delayed and causes hidden or irreversible damage
(e.g. exposure to ionizing radiation).
 Inequitable distribution of Safety Risks and benefits as a result of a
particular activity is likely to make a Safety Risk less acceptable.
 Activities which pose a Safety Risk to certain groups such as
children and future generations are generally more worrying.
 Safety Risks which are the subject of controversy and contradictory
information generally cause concern.
 (Adapted from Department of Health (1998) and summarizing key
findings from Safety Risk perception research)
 Evaluating Risk
 Safety Risk ratings should include the following aspects:

• It should always be conducted in methodological manner.

• Set methods should be used.
• Simplest methods should be used.
• Safety Risk ratings should be reflected in the executive
summary.
• Safety Risk ratings after interpretation forms the basis of your
continuous improvement program/plan.
 1.6.6 Control Measures
 Control is one of the essential functions of effective management (POLC)
 Terminate/avoid – avoid risk altogether, e.g. not purchasing chemical, discontinuing
product, shutdown production line etc.
 Treat - safety risk can be treated, treated by reducing risk level to acceptable e.g.
install a trip switch to stop machine is something is wrong
 Transfer –
• Insuring – buy insurance to recover loss,
• leasing – temporary transfer of property (contractual)
• Contracting – transferred to a third party by contracting it out
 Tolerate –
• Risks that fall into negligible/low
• Further reduction not justified
 Principles of Controlling Risk
 Try a less Safety Risk option. (Use a less hazardous chemical)
 Always try to combat Safety Risks at their source.
 Prevent access to the hazard.
 Organize work to reduce exposure to the hazard.
 Provided adequate information, instruction or training and
constant supervision for all persons exposed to Safety Risk.
 Implement and maintain adequate systems or procedures for the
identification, measurement, evaluation and control of Safety Risk.
 Principles of Controlling Risk

• Placing people in a suitable work.

• Adapt work to the requirements of the individual
• Take advantage of the technological progress.
• The proper selection, provision, assessment of suitability,
maintenance and use of personal protective equipment.
(Clothing, footwear, etc.)
• Give priority to measures which protect the whole workplace.
• Consideration of the ergonomic aspects of tasks and activities.
 Principles of Controlling Risk
• Ensure all workers understand what they must do.
• Provide welfare facilities.
• First aid arrangements. (Including the training of first aiders and
the provision of emergency services in the event of serious injury)
• Provide treatment services.
• Counselling.
• Medical surveillance.
Hierarchy of Controls
Eliminate (Most effective)
Contain
Reduce exposure
Training & supervision
Personal Protective Equipment (Less
effective)
Monitoring risk

Contain
Reduce exposure
Training & supervision
Personal Protective Equipment (Less
effective)
 1.6.7 Recoding findings from the risk
assessment
 Proper records of a risk assessment will indicate if the assessment are:
• valid,
• up to date and
• applicable to the work environment and activities

 Risk assessor to record findings, which are judged to be significant. These

include:
• The major hazards identified in the assessment.
• A review of the existing Safety measures and the extent to which they
work in controlling the Safety Risks
• Those affected by the significant Safety Risks or major hazards including
those groups and employees who are especially at Safety Risk.
Recoding findings from the risk assessment
 Reasons for Record keeping for Risk Assessment
❑ may be asked by an inspector or a judge.
❑ might be asked to provide H&S information for the insurance
company.
❑ helps to avoid repetition or missing anything out.
❑ help when civil liability becomes involved.
❑ help to monitor particular hazards and precautions.
❑ to monitor certain hazards in the workplace and reviews for the
future,
❑ helps to show that have been done and what the law requires.
❑ useful for getting information across to employees, which are
legally required to do after a Safety Risk Assessment.
 1.6.8 Communication
 Employees should always be:
• aware of what action is being taken to reduce the Safety Risks and
• how they are expected to work with any measures introduced
 The various functions of Safety Risk communication are to:
• ensure compliance with statutory requirements to warn or inform individuals
about certain Safety Risks encourage desired changes in knowledge,
attitudes, opinions and/or behaviours;
• ensure that information aimed at encouraging desired Safety Risk reducing
behaviour is available,
• create trust and confidence in Safety Risk decision;
• ensure that experts and regulators discuss all issues relevant to the decision-
making process for a particular Safety Risk ,
• engage stakeholders in two-way communication, thereby ensuring that
decision-making reflects broad social values.
 1.6.9 Monitor and Review
 1.6.9.1 Monitoring is a central role
• After and incident occurs it is important to go back to your RA
• Check whether incident was predicted
• If predicted, and risk tolerated, was the decision valid
• Whether incident was decided to be prevented
• If so, why preventative measures failed?
• If not predicted, review RA
• What should be done to prevent recurrence?
 Regular monitoring will help ensure
• Regular inspections of the workplace.
• Records of all incidents, illnesses as well as near miss incidents.
• Planned maintenance and routine inspection of machinery and equipment.
 Monitor and Review
1.6.9.2 When to review
• When new employees or workers are employed,
• If new machinery or equipment is introduced.
• If an accident or a near miss occurs, it's
important to determine the root cause of the
incident or accident.

Remember not to aim assessment for every trivial

change or new job.
Implementation of Safety Risk
Assessment
 forms a vital part of Enterprise Safety Risk Management (ESRM)
 Risk assessment be made an integrated and accepted part of all daily
work activities
 by including it risk assessment during the decision-making process.
 Process can be expensive (resources and time) therefore scale needs to be
defined
 Risk assessment is as good as hazards identified, evaluation and estimation
process and the competence of the assessor
 Risk assessment is enhanced by use of risk models
Implementation of RA
 Becomes a continuous process,
 Constitutes an integral part of normal activities,
 Is embedded within the existing management
processes,
 Makes maximum use of the existing elements and
procedures,
 Is implemented at each level of the organisation or
business,
 Support to the establishment of a Safety Culture within
the organisation or business.
Key points
 Risk assessments are classified into three main types.
 Safety risk assessment process needs to be systematic,
structured, repeatable, inclusive and transparent.
 Safety risk assessment constitutes an integral part of
operations.
 Identification of relevant stakeholders is key.
 Conducting effective safety risk assessment requires
multi-stakeholder approach.
 Variety of methods exist for conducting safety risk
assessment.