How to do a Risk Assessment in Coventry
We pride ourselves in being able to offer a range of free and impartial advice to companies throughout the Coventry & Warwickshire area. There is currently a legal requirement for all types of companies to carry out a sufficient risk assessment within their business.
A business risk assessment must highlight all areas within your business which carry significant risk to your employees. JCH Safety can help your business carry out in depth Risk & Fire assessments throughout your business. If you need to find out more information about the rank of risk assessments we can carry out feel free to see our “Risk Assessments” page.
Below are some tips and advice on how to carry out an in-depth risk assessment within your business to ensure your meet all legal regulations set out by the UK Government. If you’d like to carry out your own risk assessment you can participate in the online health and safety training which JCH Safety have designed to help companies throughout the Warwickshire area.
Carrying out a Risk Assessment!
To correctly carry out a risk assessment you first need to understand what might cause impact and issues to your employees and how your business in Warwickshire can help prevent these from happening. Upon identifying these issues you need to document and prioritise how you can resolve this issues to reduce risks within your business.
To start your risk assessment simply follow the below.
- Identify key areas in your business which could impact employees in your workplace
- Evaluate risks and decide on appropriate controls to reduce these risks
- Record risks within your business
- Review & continue to update your ongoing risk assessment
Once you have identified these areas you will be able to fully conduct an in depth risk assessment to help your business.
The HSE governing body currently have a range of templates which will allow you to conduct a full Risk Assessment for your business.
Depending on how your business operates there are various ways you can fully conduct and in depth risk assessment. Creating clear and conscious guidelines will help your business conduct a straight forward risk assessment plan.
Your overall risk assessment should be focussed towards your business and how it might impact employees within your organisation. Your also need to identify key people who will be able to help implement any actions from your risk assessment.
The key takeaways from your assessment should cover:
- Clear checks and analysis of your business
- Identification of employees who might be impacted
- Risks to employees & customers
- Precautions taken within your organisation
Everyday risks which occur within every business environment do not need to be included in your overall risk assessment as common risks should already be covered within your business by your health and safety officer. If your business does not have a health and safety office you can hire a consultancy who will be able to help implement guidelines in your business.
Why does your business need to carry out an audit?
All work which is carried out within your business should be accessed before it is carried out by any employee, all employees should be fully trained in all areas of your business to ensure they are confident in working across all areas which pose a threat to employees in your business.
You only need to carry out a full risk assessment if your business has multiple employees within your business. If your business has multiple volunteers in your business then these members of staff are under no obligation to be included in your risk assessments.
If you run a completely voluntary business then you will have to follow other steps and information which you can follow without having to conduct a full assessment of your business. The HSE has a great section on information if you run a volunteer based business.
While we have touched upon the types of people your assessment should cover a more detailed analysis of this will help give you a better example of the people which should be covered in your assessment.
Firstly your need to think about your employees and who might be associated with risks within your business and the types of risks that it carries to them. While every organisation has clear training which all staff under take not all staff are familiar with common health and safety rules and the risks which are associated with these should they not be followed.
Secondly think about new works or temporary contracts who are helping cover extra work around peak times of your business. Anyone who works within your business and has a disability will also need to be accounted for when documenting and implementing a full risk assessment within your business. Disabled employees will need special training and safety especially if they are working within manual labour based industries.
Alongside all of this it is always good to seek advice from senior management within your business and see who they feel is more at risk within your business than other people.
Recording your Audit
Recording your audit in any situation can be helpful for your business in the long run however you’re only under legal obligation to record your health and safety assessment if your business has more than five employees.
What you need to record
- Findings within your Business
- Employees most at risk
- These staff will need further training so they fully understand the risks within your business
There are multiple templates which are pre created and can help you document all findings for your business and this is something JCH Safety will be looking to develop further down the line to help companies throughout the Coventry & Warwickshire area.
Ensure you have clear actionable points throughout your assessment as this will help ensure you can action any findings effectively without any delays. There is no current legal obligation to record your risk assessment in any specific way so as long as your business can action any findings then this will suffice.
Remember that you only need to record your risk assessment if you employ five or more people and any paperwork that is produced should help with communicating and managing the risks in your business.
Documenting Fire Safety
Every business within the UK is obligated to carry out a fire safety assessment and this is something JCH can help your Coventry and Warwickshire based business carry out. Carrying out a fire safety audit is a regulation under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, which applies in England and Wales, and under Part 3 of the Fire (Scotland) Act.
All fire safety assessments can be carried out in conjunction with your risk assessment or as a single document for your business. You will need to ensure your business documents all findings from both audits and created clear actions points which can be followed to improve the overall health and safety within your business.
For more information on Fire Safety Audits please feel free to contact JCH Safety and we will be more than happy to offer further advice on how your business can conduct a full fire safety audit procedure.
There are other key areas you need to follow in order for your business to have a full legal risk assessment which is why a lot of companies throughout the Coventry & Warwickshire area work with JCH Safety to create and implement these risk assessments.