Profiling the risk

Every business will have its own risk profile: this is the starting point for determining the greatest health and safety issues to the organisation. In some businesses the risks will be tangible and immediate safety hazards, whereas in other organisations the risks may be health-related and it could be a long time before the illness becomes apparent.

A risk profile examines the nature and level of the threats faced by an organisation, the likelihood of adverse effects occurring, and the level of disruption and costs associated with each type of risk and the effectiveness of controls in place to manage those risks. The range of risks normally include quality (of product or service), environmental, people injury, people ill health and asset damage. Quite often failings in one will indicate failings in another, so poor service quality (say customer complaints) will have a health and safety dimension (damage to goods because of poor forklift truck driving). The pure health and safety risks generally range from low hazard high frequency, such as slips on floors, to high hazard low frequency events, such as an oil refinery explosion, or a self employed window cleaner falling from a ladder. Clearly the latter events could destroy the business. These would merit being at the top of the risk profile priority.

The outcome of risk profiling will be:

• The right risks have been identified and prioritised for action
• Minor risks will not been given too much priority
• The level of risk will be reduced to acceptability
• Paperwork and bureaucracy will be to the minimum necessary
• Performance will be reviewed and lessons learned

Further information on risk profiling:

• For small/medium and new to health and safety
• For larger/more mature businesses
• British Standard Risk management Code of practice BS31100:2008