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A risk assessment is how you evaluate how serious a risk is to help determine what controls are necessary to manage the risk. But risk assessments aren’t one-size-fits-all. There are 2 main types, so let’s explore their differences.
A qualitative risk assessment relies on judgment, experience, observations, and feedback to rate a risk’s severity. These assessments commonly follow a simple formula: severity of risk times the likelihood of the risk to get the overall consequence.
Severity × Likelihood = Consequence
Risk matrixes are often used in conjunction with qualitative risk assessments to help prioritize and address more severe workplace risks, assigning a risk rating such as “Low,” “Medium” or “High.”
There are many examples of qualitative risk assessments, including:
While they make it simple to see which risks require the most attention, qualitative risk assessments do rely on judgement and the discretion of the evaluator, making them subject to bias and inconsistencies. For this reason, it’s best not to use qualitative risk assessments as the end point for a hazard: the best organizations use these assessments as a starting point for managing risk and incorporate other critical risk management practices into the mix.
A semi-quantitative risk assessment use hard data to help practitioners make a judgement about a given risk.
Unlike qualitative risk assessments which assign a subjective rating or score to a risk, semi-quantitative assessments give a value, percentage, or specific measurement to a risk. These are best used in situations where an organization needs to justify financial allocations or assess high-stakes hazards, like chemical or fire risks.
Two good examples of a semi-quantitative risk assessment are a Business Impact Analysis and a HAZOP analysis.
Since they deal with hard data, qualitative risk assessments often take longer to perform and collect the necessary data.
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To ensure that your risk assessment is effective and comprehensive, it should encompass the following six key steps:
Good planning is integral to ensuring you get your risk assessment off to a strong start. Before conducting your risk assessment, consider these four elements noted by OSHA:
What are you assessing? (A piece of equipment, process or workplace area?)
What resources do you need to carry out the assessment? (Tools or equipment?)
Who is involved? (Workers, managers, supervisors or suppliers?)
What laws, regulations and internal policies do you need to comply with?
This involves a walkthrough of your workspace to identify anything that could reasonably be expected to cause harm. Involving other employees in this stage could be helpful, as they may have noticed things that don’t immediately stick out at you.
While assessing the workplace, ensure you consider long-term hazards to health (like high noise levels or exposure to harmful substances) and safety hazards.
Once you’ve identified each hazard, make sure you understand how it could harm someone or the environment – as this will help you identify the most impactful way of managing the risk further down the line.
Now that hazards have been identified, it’s time to decide how to handle them.
Under the OSH Act, employers are obligated to maintain workplaces that are free from known hazards that could pose risks to their employees. One of the most effective strategies to achieve this is by benchmarking your current practices against industry best standards.
First, assess the controls you currently have in place and how they’re implemented. Compare these controls against identified best practices to see if there’s room for improvement.
Once you’ve identified specific areas for improvement to reduce risks, it’s time to act. HSE suggests applying the following principles:
Try a less risky option (for example, switching to a less hazardous chemical)
Prevent access to the hazard (such as guarding)
Organize work to reduce exposure to the hazard (for example, by placing barriers between pedestrians and traffic)
Issue personal protective equipment (gloves, goggles, etc)
Provide emergency areas (like first aid or eye wash stations)
At this stage, you should write down the risk assessment results and share them across your organization to encourage all employees to put these new actions into practice.
Write down your results as simply as possible, for example: “Fire door blocked: area cleared, staff instructed, weekly checks.”
While recording your risk assessment findings, you should be able to demonstrate:
That you’ve identified the hazards
That you’ve decided who could be harmed
How you plan to eliminate/minimize the risks and hazards
Workplaces are constantly evolving, with new processes introducing new risks and hazards. Therefore, it’s essential to regularly review your practices and update the relevant risk assessment forms as needed.
The specific type of risk assessment depends on the data you have available and the situation. For routine tasks and day-to-day operations, a qualitative assessment is typically the easiest choice. For more complex processes or high-consequence hazards, a semi-quantitative assessment can provide a more detailed analysis.
Yes, qualitative and semi-quantitative risk assessments can be used together. In fact, many organizations use multiple assessment methods as part of their overall risk management process.
Regardless of which assessment methodology you use, the outcome should help you determine what controls are needed to manage the risk, such as routine safeguards up to critical controls.
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