How to do a workplace risk assessment: a step-by-step guide

Health & Safety might not be the most glamorous part of being an employer, but it’s vital that all your employees feel protected while at work. A risk assessment helps identify potential hazards before they cause any harm, giving you time to address them and return your workplace to being a safe space for everyone.

This guide is here to help you carry out these assessments easily — from creating your policy and knowing what to look out for, to writing the final report. By the time you finish, you’ll be a risk assessment pro.

Contents

1. What is a risk assessment at work?
2. Why are workplace risk assessments important?
3. Who should carry out a risk assessment of the workplace?
4. When should a risk assessment be carried out?
5. How many risk assessment steps are there?
6. How to do a risk assessment
7. How do you write a risk assessment report?
8. How Citation can help with risk assessments

What is a risk assessment at work?

A workplace risk assessment is a process that identifies, monitors, and reviews potential dangers in the business’ environment and activities. It evaluates what might cause harm to anyone in your workplace, whether that’s injury or risks to stress and wellbeing, and allows you to take reasonable steps to prevent that harm from occurring.

The assessment looks for any hazards that could cause injury or illness to employees, visitors, or anyone else on the premises. These hazards range from physical dangers like trailing wires and heavy machinery to less obvious risks such as workplace stress or dangerous substances.

There are several different types of specialist assessments that a business might need to carry out, including:

 

Risk assessment type	Purpose
General workplace risk assessments	Comprehensive evaluations to identify, evaluate, and control risks that could cause harm in the workplace
Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) risk assessments	Make sure businesses use, store, and dispose of hazardous substances in a certain way
Fire risk assessments	Identify fire hazards, risks, and measures to keep people safe
Stress risk assessments	Identify workplace stress factors in line with HSE’s 6 management standards
Manual handling assessment charts (the MAC tool)	Evaluate any risk of injury from any essential hazardous manual handling work
Display Screen Equipment (DSE) risk assessments	Review screen-related hazards, such as eye strain or bad posture, where employees use display screen equipment such as a computer, tablet or programming station for more than two hours per day
DSEAR risk assessments	Ensures workplaces using or storing dangerous substances are safe from fires, explosions, and similar hazardous events
Pregnancy risk assessments	Assesses any risks when a worker becomes pregnant, such as whether they can continue to work safely or require adjustments
Disability-specific risk assessments	Individual assessments are tailored to each worker’s needs

 

During any risk assessment, the person in charge should follow the Health and Safety Executive’s five steps:

 

• Identify hazards
• Assess the risks
• Control the risks
• Record your findings
• Review the controls

Why are workplace risk assessments important?

Your employees come to work each day expecting to be kept safe while they carry out their tasks. When done correctly, risk assessments help you identify any potential hazards in the workplace and find solutions to prevent them from causing harm. It’s every employer’s duty to do this, and dealing with these hazards means anyone who comes onto the business premises will be less likely to suffer workplace injury or occupational stress.

Risk assessments are vital for several reasons:

Legal requirement

Any business with five or more employees is legally required to carry out and record risk assessments. The following regulations require business owners to identify potential hazards and decide how likely they are to cause harm to employees:

• Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999
• Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmosphere Regulations (DSEAR) 2005
• Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) 2002
• Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005
• The Fire Safety (Scotland) Regulations 2006

You should also take specific actions to reduce the risk of an accident or remove the hazard where possible.

Preventing accidents and injuries

Once a risk assessment has been planned, carried out, and documented, changes and improvements can be implemented to prevent these hazards from harming your workers. It’s important to make sure activities are supervised and monitored to ensure that controls are followed and are working properly.

Protecting your business

Proper risk assessments protect your business from potential claims of wrongdoing, enforcement notices, and prosecution. In fact, companies with proper Health & Safety support are 47 times less likely to face an enforcement notice and 72% less likely to have a reportable accident compared to national averages.

Who should carry out a risk assessment of the workplace?

The law states that employers are responsible for conducting risk assessments for their business.

In many professional settings, the employer will delegate risk assessments to others within the business — typically a Health & Safety manager, or a designated employee with the necessary training. However, while it’s the responsibility of the individual the employer has chosen, if a risk assessment submitted is deemed incomplete or unsuitable, this would ultimately be the employer’s fault. It’s, therefore, required that competent individuals complete risk assessments. 

When should a risk assessment be carried out?

Complete a workplace risk assessment before any hazardous work activity begins. This way, you can identify and control potential hazards before they harm your workers.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) encourages businesses to regularly reassess potential workplace risks to make sure no further threats have appeared. Ideally, this should be done at least once a year.

However, risk assessments should also be conducted/reviewed whenever you:

• Introduce new business processes 
• Purchase new equipment
• Use new substances
• Physically change the workplace 
• Have an accident or near miss
• Have high staff turnover, e.g. redundancies
• Have an employee become pregnant
• New legislation is introduced
• Have someone with a disability join the team

It’s also helpful to reassess following any workplace incident, even if no one was hurt, as this can reveal gaps in your current safety measures.

How to do a risk assessment

Carrying out risk assessments can feel daunting, but it’s much more straightforward than you might think. We’ll walk you through the five steps, helping you create a safer work environment for everyone.

1. Identify potential hazards

First, you’ll need to thoroughly inspect your premises and identify any hazards or places where accidents could occur.

It’s worth asking employees what they see as a risk, as they work in the environment daily and may have spotted hazards you’ve missed. Check any accident books to see if there are any recurring incidents that need attention, and make detailed notes of anything you find as you go, as you’ll need to report these later.

Common hazards include:

• Trailing wires – creating trip hazards
• Heavy machinery – potential for crushing or getting trapped
• Electricity – risk of electrocution or fire
• Slips, trips and falls – from wet floors or uneven surfaces
• Transport – vehicles, forklifts, or delivery areas
• Confined spaces – areas with limited access or ventilation
• Hazardous substances – chemicals, dust, or fumes
• Manual handling – lifting, carrying, pushing, or pulling
• Stress – workload, deadlines, or workplace culture issues
• Working at height – ladders, scaffolding, or elevated platforms
• Fire hazards – flammable materials or open flames
• Temperature extremes – very hot or cold working conditions
• Poor lighting – creating visibility issues

2. Assess the risks

Once you’ve identified potential hazards, the next step is to assess the associated risks. This means determining how likely each hazard is to cause harm and the severity of that harm.

For each hazard identified, think about:

• Who might be harmed? — whether that’s employees, contractors, visitors, or members of the public
• How could they be harmed? — the type of injury or illness that could occur
• How often are they exposed? — daily, weekly, occasionally
• How severe could the consequences be? — minor injury, serious injury, or in extreme cases, fatality
• What existing controls are in place? — current safety measures or procedures
• Are current controls adequate? — do they effectively reduce the risk?

Many businesses use a matrix to rate risks on a scale (for example, low, medium, high) based on likelihood and severity. This helps you prioritise which needs attention urgently and what level of control measures are necessary. Risks that are more likely to happen and have severe consequences should be addressed first, while lower risks can be managed with less intensive controls.

3. Implement controls

Once you’ve done the preparation work, it’s time for the most important step — removing the hazard altogether, keeping the risks under control, or putting precautions in place to reduce the impact if this isn’t possible.

These could take the form of:

• Handrails on the stairs
• Putting out wet floor signs
• Changing the layout to make it easier to navigate
• Replacing machinery
• Providing suitable personal protective equipment (PPE)
• Comprehensive training

4. Write up your findings

Once you’ve carried out the assessment, you’ll need to record your findings in a clear, comprehensive document. If you employ five or more people, you’re legally required to document the outcome of any risk assessments in writing.

We’ve included a detailed breakdown of how to create your risk assessment report below.

5. Review future risks

The fifth step is an ongoing one that involves monitoring all risks and their proposed solutions to check that they’re still working effectively and that risks don’t get worse over time.

Regular reviews are essential because workplace and employee circumstances constantly evolve and change, such as a member of staff telling you they’re pregnant, which means new hazards may appear anytime. Try to schedule frequent review dates (annually at a minimum) and make it clear that risk assessments are living documents that should be updated whenever circumstances change, not documents that gather dust on a shelf.

How do you write a risk assessment?

The entire risk assessment should be recorded in a document that clearly shows what considerations you’ve made and the measures you’ve put in place.

Luckily, you don’t have to start this document from scratch or design it yourself. At Citation, all of our customers have access to a range of risk assessment templates that you can use to guide you through the process. Our Health & Safety consultants are also on hand 24/7 to answer any questions you may have.

Unfortunately, you can’t just copy a risk assessment template from another business and alter the company name. Each assessment must be specific to your workplace, your processes, and your employees, so it’s crucial to take the extra time and effort to make sure it’s done properly.

What to include

A comprehensive risk assessment report should contain the following:

Header information:

• Business name and location
• Assessment date
• Who conducted the assessment
• When the following assessment is due

Detailed assessment:

• Each hazard identified
• Who might be affected and how
• Current control measures are already in place
• Risk rating (before and after controls)
• Additional actions needed
• Person responsible for actions
• Deadline for completion

Sign-off:

• Signature of the person who conducted the assessment
• Signature of the person approving the assessment
• Date of approval

How Citation can help with risk assessments

If workplace risk assessments aren’t really your cup of tea, we understand. Whether you don’t know where to start or want to save valuable time, Citation has your back.

Our Health & Safety consultants provide risk assessment support day in, day out – including access to software for accident reporting and health and safety. Find out more by contacting our experts today.