What is Risk Assessment Software?
A risk assessment software helps you systematically identify, evaluate, and eliminate risks and hazards within an organization. With a digitized means of assessing harmful exposures at the enterprise and operational level – you can help your organization implement a proactive safety program that protects workers, minimizes losses, and endure wide-scale credibility and productivity.
Request a 14-day free trialSchedule a Demo No credit card required
Why is a risk assessment software important?
The importance of a risk assessment software is its integral attribute to seamlessly pinpoint a risky or hazardous condition prevalent in your workspace, evaluate cumulative data at one go, and take timely preventive measures to suppress the risk before it becomes a threat.
Any incident is oblivious to time and space. Risk assessment software with its fully-automated capabilities enables you to save valuable time spent on paperwork and other latency delays caused due to manual data management. By digitizing the risk management cycle – you can act quickly to reduce the time barrier before any risk or hazards escalates into an incident.
Hazard Identification and Risk Analysis (HIRA) is an essential part of an Environment, Health, and Safety program. In some countries, implementing a risk assessment program is a mandatory part of your EHS setup. A risk management software simplifies the complexities posed in risk reporting, analyzing metrics, and data sharing throughout your organization.
Defining risk assessment
“Risk assessment is a term used to describe the overall process or method where you: Identify hazards and risk factors that have the potential to cause harm (hazard identification). Analyze and evaluate the risk associated with that hazard (risk analysis, and risk evaluation.”
- CCOHS (Canadian Center for Occupational Health & Safety)
When should a risk assessment be done?
While the best approach is to conduct risk assessments consistently when carrying out any activity or task, these are a few instances where assessing risk becomes obligatory. They are:
Uncover the challenges and risks posed before commencing work activities in a new environment or a new way of working.
Changes to existing process or activities
Carry out risk assessments when there’s a change to an activity or existing processes including machinery, tools, equipment change, or when new information concerning harm becomes available.
After an incident takes place
Review risks or make amendments to your previous risk evaluation following an accident or incident to place relevant or new control measures to eliminate the incident.
Looking for a digital Risk Assessment Software?
Safetymint helps in easily identifying and eliminating risks at your workplace.
Request free trialHow to carry out a risk assessment?
According to most HSE establishments, you need to consider these 5 steps when carrying out a risk assessment. Ensure you have competent, accredited safety professionals to find risks, complete audits, and deliver the right corrective action to steer clear of any unwarranted incident in the workplace.
Identify the hazard
Examine the workspace for all potential hazards or risks that may transpire in activities, processes, equipment, and people. Dwell deep into manufacturer instructions and data sheets to unravel visibly prominent hazards. Find risks in previous records of incidents and near-misses and also examine risk in non-routine tasks, taking into account long-term hazards that can have a mental and physical strain due to daily harmful exposures.
Decide who might be harmed and how
Identify the impact that a risk or hazard might have on a particular group of individuals based on their demographics, vulnerabilities and present condition. Take into account visitors, contract workers, and the impact of your activities on the public. Most importantly, identify vulnerabilities or risks that may be invisible to you by taking the feedback of field workers.
Ensure that your control measures are proportionate to the level of risk that you find. Utilize a risk index system to measure the severity of your findings and take appropriate action that balances the level of risk against control measures.
Record your findings
Utilize a simple and control-focused risk template to record your significant findings. Ensure that your template collects all the vital details that include legible details of the hazards and who it could affect, precautions to take, employee feedback, and level of risk.
Review your assessment and update if necessary
Assess your workplace for risk and hazards under evolving conditions or circumstances brought about by new equipment, substances, and procedures. Amend your previous risk evaluations by taking into account the change in environment, change in process and the way employees work.
How to evaluate risk using a risk index?
A risk matrix helps organizations ascertain the dangers posed by each risk based on their severity and probability. It helps you prioritize on risks by measuring the damage caused by the potential impact and likelihood of the risk manifesting. Utilizing a risk matrix enables your organization to set control parameters by mapping out every risk-based on priority and probability.
Using a color-coded matrix, you can rank a recorded risk based on 2 dimensions – probability and severity.
Probability helps to evaluate the frequency of a hazard and how likely it could cause damage or injury.
Severity indicates the level of damage a hazard or risk could create.
Ratings based on severity
Insignificant
Risks that may cause small or reversible damage that would not have a significant human or business impact.
Minor
These are risks that pose a minimal threat and cause no real damage or consequence on people and processes.
Moderate
Risks that may pose a moderate threat, yet could potentially lead to negative consequences – causing damage that may lead to injury and time off work.
Major
Risks that lead to serious damage to health… requiring substantial medical attention to remedy the situation.
Catastrophic
Risks of the highest priority, capable of causing death and severe impact on human lives and business.
Ratings based on probability
Rare
Risks that could happen, but possibly may never occur.
Possible
Risks that are relatively uncommon, but have a seldom chance of manifesting.
Likely
Risks that can be seen as occasional with a 50/50 chance of occurring.
Often
Risks that have a definite possibility of occurrence consistently.
Certain
Risks of the highest priority, capable of causing death and severe impact on human lives and business.
How to implement control measures?
OSHA recommends following a hierarchy of control that helps you choose the right action to control a hazard or risk.
Elimination
Take all measures to immediately remove or restructure a process or job so that the serious hazard can be removed or eliminated instantly.
Substitution
Replace the identified hazard or risk with safer alternatives. This can be applied to physical hazards and processes.
Engineering controls
Choose additional equipment, machinery, and other engineering solutions to control risks that are based on the application of "Prevention through Design" (PtD) principles. Focus on control measures that put a check on hazards collectively than individually.
Administrative controls
Create rules and regulations as control measures that workers are required to follow during any specific operations. Example: prohibiting the use of mobile phones in hazardous areas; increasing safety signage, etc. Be wary of introducing measures that may directly or indirectly introduce new hazards into a process or procedure.
Personal protective equipment (PPE)
If all reasonably practicable control measures are found to be ineffective in controlling risks, you must acquire personal protective equipment (PPE) to be used as a primary or secondary protective option. For example, you can control the risk of a fall using PPE equipment like helmets or fall arrest systems like lanyards to minimize the distance and consequences of a fall (should one occur). If chosen, PPE should be selected and fitted by the person who uses it. Workers must be trained in the function and limitation of each item of PPE.
