Employees risk assessment process

This last step allows employees to participate in the risk assessment process and helps in their buy-in of toe results of the analysis. 

The organization uses the local risk assessment process to determine the potential for TB exposure. The organization assesses the medical procedures performed at the practice to ensure that all employees with job tasks that offer potential for occupational exposure are informed of the hazard and take proper precautions against exposure to TB. 

Establishing the status of the safety systems, controls, degree of management, and employee and union participation via means of risk assessment, and evaluating the physical risks in the woikplace, is a vital part of the safety culture shift process. This forms the foundation on which a positive safety culture is built. Risks in the workplace can only be managed once they have been assessed. Ongoing risk assessment is an important component of safety culture. 

Every few minutes somebody in the world dies from work-related causes and every year hundreds of thousands of employees are involved from injuries during work activities. The potential financial devastation caused by the costs associated with accidents necessitates the adoption of an improvement process in the areas of safety, health, and environmental protection. During the last years high technological progresses have been made about safety and health in working activities. Even if the safety rules have became stricter and the concept of risk assessment is now well established and forms the basis of health and safety legislation, the work injury is still a big problem as it is clearly shows by statistics related to many terrible events. 

When carrying out a risk assessment on operations or processes, potential risks to other employees, visitors, contractors, maintenance personnel and also members of the public must not be overlooked. 

Evaluate the risk of injury, illness, environmental harm, and property damage to which the public or an organization is exposed associated with the organization s facilities, products, systems, processes, equipment, and employees by applying quantitative and qualitative threat, vulnerability, and risk assessment techniques. 

Employees at all levels should be engaged in the change process, particularly for the identification of hazardous situations and for risk assessments. 

Hazard Analysis and Risk Assessment Techniques Top management shall adopt and apply the hazard analysis and risk assessment techniques suitable to the organization s needs and provide the training necessary to employees who will be involved in the process. Descriptions of eight selected techniques are presented in Addendum G. Addendum H is a Failure Mode and Effects Analysis form. 

However, many risk assessment tools used in industry approach the concept as a management tool and not one that immediately involves the employee. A personal risk assessment tool can be an effective process to implement at the grass roots level for determining appropriate actions based on the potential associated risk. 

A member of the central safety committee should be designated to guide and administer the JHA process. This person would use cross-functional ad hoc teams to develop and maintain diversity and expertise for development of a portfolio of JHAs. The JHA ad hoc teams would develop specific JHAs based on the risk assessment list developed using the risk guidance card. They would draw on experience and expertise of employees and supervisors in the department or area where the job resides. Refer to Chapter 8, Getting Your Employees Involved in the Safety Management System . 

The assessment team leader is the focal point of all information from the team and provides location leadership with updates on the assessment process. If any potentially high severity hazards and associated risks are identified, the assessment is stopped and the problem/issue is immediately relayed to leadership for corrective actions. At the end of each day or workshift, a meeting should be held with the leadership team and employees to update findings, additional documentation needs, and immediate concerns about the assessment. 

The views of staff and employees can be of particular use in identifying manual handling problems. Involvement in the assessment process should be encouraged, particularly in reporting problems associated with particular tasks. Records of accidents and ill-health are also valuable indicators of risk as are absentee records, poor productivity and morale, and excessive product damage. 

In this case study, no JHA was used, no risk assessment completed, there were no discussions with involved employees or other employees to obtain opinions. Employee participation was minimal at best.The leadership team jumped to a conclusion and made corrective action, which may or may not have been the proper solution. If the JHA process had been effectively in place and employees actively involved, the assessment of whether a true potential problem could have been determined or whether other potential eye injury issues were present. 

Use of a standardized personal risk assessment tool builds a bridge between the differences and variations in individual risk perception. A combination of the employee and leadership team discussing potential risk is the best approach to address risk perception. A personal risk assessment tool and a discussion process enhances the employees knowledge in identifying, recognizing, evaluating, and controlling of associated risk. 

After the hazard assessment has been conducted and the data has been collected, it should be organized in a logical outline that will estimate the potential for employee injury The organized data will help to decide the type of hazard(s) involved, the level of risk, and the seriousness of potential injury The appropriate levels of PPE are then selected based on the hazard determination and the availability of PPE. The user should be properly fitted for the specified PPE, and the employer should make sure that it is comfortable to wear. Hazard reassessments should be conducted as necessary based on the introduction of new or revised processes, equipment, and accident experience, to ensure the continued suitability of selection of the proper PPE. 

The impacts of TSCA, such as those on two specific exemplary industries, surface coating polymers and metal-cutting fluids, by S.Oslosky and H.Fribush, respectively, are implied but actually not explicit within TSCA. Consider the required assessment of risks, the need for test-data describing effects on health and the environment, aside from plant inspections, subpoenas, prohibited acts, penalties for prohibited acts, enforcement and seizure, judicial review, citizens civil actions and petitions, and employee protection provisions in the Act. Thus, it s inevitable that the alert manufacturer will adjust his product research, development and selection processes to identify and use substances with reduced risk to health and the environment wherever possible. As structure-(biological)-activity relationships become more reliable, the alert... 

If a situation arises that has or could evolve into a loss, an assessment must be conducted to determine the level of risk. Of concern in this assessment would be the exposure to employees, nearby communities, and the environment. This assessment should be an ongoing process requiring constant monitoring. To assure appropriate responses to each situation by the on-site coordinator, use of a checklist or decision tree is suggested. 

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