Risk Assessment Templates

A risk matrix is used to assess the consequence, likelihood, and overall risk rating of a safety hazard. The first measure of the risk matrix, consequences, determines the severity of injuries, while likelihood determines the probability of a person getting injured in the event of hazard exposure. Consequences are categorized as fatality, major or serious injury, minor injury, and negligible injury. For likelihood, the indicators are very likely, likely, unlikely, and highly unlikely. Keep in mind that likelihood doesn’t measure the possibility of hazards but the injuries they can inflict upon a person.

In this article

• What are the 5 Types?
• Importance of Conducting an Assessment
• Top 3 Reasons You Should Perform In-house Operational Risk Assessments  
• Creating a Report with Risk Assessment Templates
• FAQs About Risk Assessment Templates
• What is SafetyCulture (formerly iAuditor) and how can it be used for Risk Assessments?
• Featured Risk Assessment Templates

What are the 5 Types?

Risk assessment can be used for different purposes. Depending on the scope and goals of your assessment, you can decide on the following types for the most suitable approach:

1. Qualitative Risk Assessment

This is the most common form of a risk assessment. It is carried out by an experienced assessor, and uses their personal judgement or get the consultation of others in identifying hazards around the workplace, assessing risks, and creating a plan of action to control or reduce the identified risks. In a qualitative risk assessment, the goal is to determine the severity and likelihood of harm of a risk. Risks will then be categorized into levels of high, medium, or low to help the organization prioritize what to address first.

2. Quantitative Risk Assessment

In a quantitative risk assessment, risk level is measured by assigning numerical values. It uses quantitative tools and techniques like the 3 x 3 or 5 x 5 risk matrix. With the risk matrix, values are then calculated using the equation: Risk = Severity x Likelihood. Judgements are then made based on the result of the calculation.

3. Generic Risk Assessment

This type of risk assessment covers the common hazards found in a work task or activity. It is flexible in a sense that it can be widely used in any location, department, or company. The role of a generic risk assessment is to serve as a template to reduce the effort put in duplication in the risk management process. However, do put in mind that every workplace and activity will be slightly different so it is best practice to review and update them accordingly to ensure that its results are accurate and relevant.

4. Site-Specific Risk Assessment

As the name implies, this type of risk assessment is carried out for a specific location. It assesses a specific work task while taking into account the environment and people doing the work in a specific location. A site specific risk assessment can either be qualitative or quantitative or be used with a generic risk assessment template, as long as it is suitable and sufficient in eliminating or controlling risks that may harm people in that location.

5. Dynamic Risk Assessment

A dynamic risk assessment is carried out on the spot when sudden unknown risks arise that can harm your workforce, the business, or the general public. This type of risk assessment is usually used by emergency services, or care workers to gauge whether it is safe to continue, or determine what the best course of action is in dealing with the situation. For dynamic risk assessments, workers need to have the right set of skills and awareness to be able to deal with the danger appropriately.

Importance of Conducting an Assessment

Hazard identification utilizing risk assessment tools ensure a healthy and safe work environment. Conducting risk assessments properly prevents and reduces workplace injuries and, for severe cases, the likelihood of death. It assesses the risks across the entire workplace, unlike a job safety analysis which is job-specific and limited in scope. 

In the UK, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) requires businesses to conduct and create a written risk assessment report. Information that needs to be included in the report are persons that can be harmed due to the hazard, protocols set by a company to protect and control risks, further action to keep hazards at bay, person in charge of implementing risk assessments, and schedule of risk assessments. Businesses are required by law to create risk assessment reports as specifically as they can. Guidelines set by HSE can change anytime, so it’s vital to stay updated to avoid problems or overlooked hazards.

Top 3 Reasons You Should Perform In-house Operational Risk Assessments  

Operational risk assessments can be outsourced to risk professionals or done internally. While outsourcing can save your team time and effort, performing in-house operational risk assessments can bolster your company’s culture in a number of ways:

#1 Enable workers to be proactive rather than reactive

When improving overall safety in the workplace falls on the shoulders of your workers instead of a contractor, workers are motivated to be more vigilant and careful. A proactive approach to safety pays dividends in the long run since the majority of workplace injuries are actually preventable only if they know the possible risks and how to handle the situation.

#2 Reinforce responsibility and accountability within the company

When workers are obligated to look out for one another’s safety through in-house operational risk assessments, the habit and culture of responsibility and accountability is reinforced. This can then spill over to other aspects of operations, impacting productivity and transparency between employees.

#3 Promote transparency and collaboration against operational risks and beyond

In order to identify, evaluate, and control operational risks, teams need to be open, honest, and transparent with their activities and processes. Only by getting an accurate picture of your day-to-day operations, can effective and realistic risk control measures be implemented.

Creating a Report with Risk Assessment Templates

Creating a risk assessment report can be a daunting task considering life and limb may rely on its implications. By knowing where to start, you can make the process of creating risk assessment reports easier. One of the main things to keep in mind is the format of your report. The format will serve as the outline of the risk assessment.

What is the Correct Format of the Template?

There is not a single risk assessment format that will fit all use cases. Risk assessment templates may vary widely depending on factors such as the nature of operations, its size, and in some cases, specifications set by official governing bodies. Regardless of your risk assessment format, however, the following information should always be present:

• Who is at risk
  It is important to specify the demographic that is at risk of an identified hazard. Is it the plant workers? the workers in the assembly line? The engineers? Knowing which party is at risk gives you a good starting point to come up with an effective risk reduction initiative.
• Current control measures
  Find out and include what the organization is currently doing to lower the risk of injury for identified demographics.
• Necessary improvement/changes to control measures
  After going over the current control measures, come up with ideas on how they can be improved or replaced to further lower the risk of injury for identified demographics.
• Assignments and deadlines
  Finally, once decisions have been made to improve and/or replace control measures, include the names of personnel who will be responsible for the updates along with clear deadlines. This simple practice helps improve accountability and diligence.

Writing the Title Page

The title page should include the preliminary details of a risk assessment report. The essential details to include are outlined below:

• Who prepared it?
  This could refer to the name of an individual risk assessor, or the company/team working on the risk assessment report. Including this information helps with accountability.
• Who is it for?
  This helps ensure that the report reviewer is reading the correct file. Indicating what or who the risk assessment is for aids in evaluating the validity of its contents.
• Done on
  The date in which the risk assessment and the report were completed. It should be indicated if the actual assessment and the completion of the report were done on separate dates.
• Review date
  This indicates a specific date set for reviewing risk assessment protocols. Time frames may vary, with some choosing to review their risk assessment protocols every six months and others doing it annually. As a general rule, a risk assessment review must be done whenever significant changes are made to operations such as the introduction of a new process, or the acquisition of new machinery and equipment.

Writing the Main Body

The two types of risks are physical, and substance risks. Slips, trips, falls, getting caught in between machinery, and injuries due to falling objects all fall under physical risk. Injuries due to toxic, flammable, and caustic materials are covered under substance risks. You may choose to list these risks separately or in the order in which they were identified.

Here’s a sample basic risk assessment template to help get you started. Download and customize according to your business needs.