Work Health Safety Risk Assessment: Steps, Template, and Recommendations

Steps to Conducting a Work Health Safety Risk Assessment

Each state in Australia has legislative requirements that govern work health safety. Australian workplaces are obligated to conduct work health safety assessments and provide methods by which safety incidents can be reported. Work health safety has significant implications for public health, but all workplaces are required to put work health safety policies and procedures in place to promote safety in the workplace. 

1. Locate a suitable environment for conducting a work health safety risk assessment. This may be your own workplace, the workplace of a friend or family member, or a home office space. Make sure that you seek permission to conduct an assessment in a professional environment.

2.Download the work health safety risk assessment template. 

3.Review the resources at the Health and Safety Handbook website, and the steps to undertaking a Work Health and safety assessment

To complete your work health safety risk assessment:

1. Work through the steps of completing a work safety risk assessment and use the template provided to record any hazards identified, existing controls in place, the relative risk level, and any controls that are needed to further reduce risk. Remember that the purpose is to reduce risk and mitigate the effects of risks where risk is inherently present.

2. In a diverse workplace there may be subpopulations that are more vulnerable to the effects of a safety risk than others. Identify and describe any vulnerable populations, and propose solutions for mitigating risks for these groups.

To write up this case study:

1. Identify and describe any key agencies or institutions that govern work health safety in this type of working environment, and any policies that are relevant to maintaining a safe work environment (policies can be organisational, discipline-specific and/or national).

2. Summarise the findings of your work health safety assessment, including details relevant to managing risk for vulnerable populations, and provide recommendations to resolve the work safety risks identified.

a.. Describe key agencies, institutional structures, political processes, influences on and challenges for environmental health.

b.. Understand the way in which globalisation and the social, economic and political determinants of health influence disease, including identification of vulnerable groups.

c.. Understand the concept of sustainable development.

d.. Identify and critique ethical elements relevant to environmental health protections, policies, and industry practices, from global to local scale.

e.. Critically analyse the relationships between environmental risk factors and social, economic and political determinants of illness and injury from global to local scale.

f. Apply skills in conducting an environmental health assessment and designing an intervention to mitigate environmental health risks