Risk Management

The Health and Safety in Employment Act requires the management of significant workplace hazards. One of the core principles of the Act is that the workplace must be modified to suit employees, rather than employees having to adapt to suit the workplace.

Effective workplace health and safety means preventing injury, illness, or death to staff and visitors. Your organisation must identify, assess, and control anything that could cause harm. Good hazard management will reduce the number and severity of workplace injuries.

An action plan should include these three steps:

1. Identify. Hazards must be identified and assessed. Assessment includes knowing the impact on the business and prioritising the hazards. This is particularly important if there are new or changed processes, machinery, or equipment.
2. Isolate. Significant hazards must be controlled. During a hazardous incident this may mean isolating the hazard to prevent it causing further harm.
3. Eliminate. Remedial action must be taken to eliminate the risk or hazard and to investigate injuries. Hazards and their controls must be recorded in a regularly updated hazard register. Staff need to know when and how to report hazards. The hazard needs to be monitored.

Management need to have a commitment to preventing injury. They must communicate this effectively to staff. They need to plan, review, and evaluate their risk management processes and procedures. Measuring the effectiveness of the organisation's risk management should also improve performance. Staff training and supervision are also important.