UNDERSTANDING RISK MANAGEMENT Risk management has become a fairly common phrase in New Zealand workplaces, but what does it actually look like in a health and safety context? Greg Dearsly outlines the steps.
1 Identification
AUTHOR: GREG DEARSLY, FIRST 4 SAFETY
DI
YOU KNO
W?
D
6
The FIRST thing you need to do to understand the health and safety risk profile of your workplace is to identify HAZARDS that can contribute to risk. There are a variety of ways to do this: Work with your workers to identify existing or known hazards Implement a way to enable workers to report new hazards Analyse feedback from investigations or audits about how hazards are being managed Engage with your industry association or client about hazards and ways they can be managed.
Risk management is a key principle of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015. The Act requires workplaces to have a risk and hazard management process to identify potential and actual sources of harm.
Chronic (long-term) harm hazards When looking for hazards in your workplace, don’t forget to consider those that might cause chronic harm—ie, occur over a longer period of time—such as cancers. These hazards might include hazardous substances, hazardous respirable dust, fumes or other particles, or hazardous levels of noise. We know that significantly more people die early due to the effects of work-related health exposures than due to acute exposures.
When looking for hazards in your workplace, don’t forget to consider those that might cause chronic harm. Health harm hazards in specific situations or environments Also consider the health risks (see figure 1) that workers might have should they be exposed to specific scenarios when conducting a work task, or that, in a specific work environment, might contribute to harm (see examples on the right side of figure 1).
6
Figure 1: Effects of work on health and effects of health on work.
Effects of work on health
Two-way relationship
Effects of health on work
Effects of work on health
Two-way relationship
Effects of health on work
WORK-RELATED HEALTH RISKS (‘EFFECTS OF WORK ON HEALTH’) Biological risks
Chemical risks
Impairment risks
Blood borne Asbestos handling Noise WORK-RELATED HEALTH RISKS (‘EFFECTSManual OF WORK ON HEALTH’) viruses (eg Hep C) Biological risks Chemical risks Ergonomic risks Physical risks Animal bacteria Solvents Shift work Vibration Blood borne Asbestos Manual handling Noise (eg Leptospira) viruses (eg Hep C) Bacterial infection Pesticides Job design UV radiation (eg Animal bacteria Solvents Shift work Vibration sun exposure) (eg Leptospira)
Bullying and work behaviours Psychosocial risks Excessive Bullying and work workload behaviours Lack of autonomy Excessive workload
Fatigue Poorly controlled Physical frailty vision HEALTH-RELATED SAFETY RISKS* (‘EFFECTS OF HEALTH ON Colour WORK’) diabetes deficiency Impairment risks Incapacity risks Mobility risks Sensory risks Stress or mental Poorly controlled Bone and/or joint Reduced visual Fatigue Poorlydisease controlled Physical frailty Colour vision distraction heart conditions acuity diabetes deficiency Severe obesity Reduced hearing Drugs/alcohol Poorly controlled Stress or mental Poorly controlled Bone and/or joint Reduced visual capability consumption high blood distraction heart disease conditions acuity pressure
Bacterial infection
Lack of autonomy
Drugs/alcohol consumption
Job design
Physical risks
HEALTH-RELATED SAFETY RISKS* (‘EFFECTS OF HEALTH ON WORK’) Psychosocial risks
Pesticides
Ergonomic risks
UV radiation (eg
FIGURE 3: Examples of work-related health risks and health-related sun exposure) safety risks
Incapacity risks
Poorly controlled high blood pressure
* Health-related safety risks are specific to the tasks, situation and work environment that they exist within and are not a risk in all circumstances.
FIGURE 3: Examples of work-related health risks and health-related safety risks
68 nzplumber * Health-related safety risks are specific to the tasks, situation and work environment that they exist within and are not a risk in all circumstances.
Mobility risks
Severe obesity
Sensory risks
Reduced hearing capability
