Making Sense of Risk Assessment

Chris Jerman CFIOSH, FIIRSMSafety Manager John Lewis

• You can’t be 100% safe– Great ideal but unrealistic goal

• You can’t risk assess everything– So why are we trying to?

• The Law recognises this– Significance is different for everyone

• What does ‘safe enough’ look like?– Not to me, but to YOU

Time for an open mind

Looking for rules

• Lack of confidence• Driven by liability not law• Fear of getting it wrong• Shotgun approach to safety• Myths and misunderstanding• Rules. What rules?• We’ve had 20 years to get this done

Looking for rules

It’s not about doing different things

Are we agreed?

• Who are you?• What do you do – undertakings?• What does ‘safe’ look like to you?• How will you know when you are there?• What will you do when you get there?• How will you deal with distractions?• How will you preserve your achievements?• Risk and safety are NOT the same thing

Risk management road map

5 steps to risk management

• Work out what you do as a business• Prioritise the significant and shelve the

trivial• Risk assess and record significant findings• Act as appropriate and proportionate• Monitor and manage the residue

Don’t forget to scan the horizon for new (significant) issues!

5 steps to risk management

Are you here?

Insignificant task with significant risk (HML)

Significant task with significant risk (HML)

Significant task with insignificant risk (NSF)

SIGNIFICANCE

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Insignificant task with insignificant risk (Trivia)

Explaining SignificanceFocus and map your priorities

Let’s talk about managers

Why do managers struggle?

Home truths• Leaders are born; managers are made• How do you become a manager?• What support is there?• How can WE support managers in being

BETTER managers in relation to managing risk as a subject?

Why do managers struggle

Learning outcomes

• Managers may know more than they think• The subject shouldn’t matter• Sometimes they can’t see past that• Managers rarely get to practice• If they can’t get through this then they are

not going to get far with what you want them to do

• Is this in your course syllabus?

Learning outcomes

Practical example

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Develop a plan for risk management action

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Practical example

Managing safely

Do managers really need ‘training’ in ‘health and safety’ or would they simply benefit more from training in being better managers?

Managers need to be shown the aspects of their team’s activities that require supervision and management – it’s not intuitive

Give managers the tools

Clarity and confidence

We assume that managers understand basic tools such as

• Prioritisation• Planning• Assigning responsibility• Determining accountability• Your safety management system!

Clarity and confidence

Safety in 3 slides?

Is that possible?• Just what do managers need to

understand about the law?• Not what do managers need to know, but

what they need to understand• Being simple and clear• Might be a few light bulb moments

Safety in three slides?

Traditional Model

1992 and all that

Risk Centred

Opal Fruits v Starburst

Simple understanding

• What could go wrong?– Assessment

• How will we stop that happening?– Control

• What will we do if it does?– Emergencies and recovery

Opal Fruits v Starburst

Overlapping approach

People

LocationsEquipment

Start in the right place

Process approach

3 4 52Step 1

Process approach

Setting start and end points

Priority________

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Task title________

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Enables us to determine and demonstrate which tasks are significant and which are not

There has to be less significant than insignificant

Define that first then and see what’s left

How would we show that we looked and said ‘no’?

Can a number of tasks be grouped together?

Risk Assessment

No absolute model, as long as it worksPick ‘n’ Mix from:Putting the assessment in contextIdentifying key hazards, not all.Identify what could go wrong, why and to

whomWhat stops this going wrong – and does it

workScores – if and ONLY IF, you need them

Risk Assessment

SIGNIFICANCE

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Sea of Trivia

Risk Profile

Suitable and sufficientJust training?

Suitable and sufficientLinked to Risk Assessment?

Likelihood is key

• Competency plays a huge role in this – but competency in WHAT?

• Please don’t say Health and Safety• Task driven competency• Do it well, do it less often• Refresh, don’t repeat• Supervisors need to participate • Managers need to understand to buy in

Likelihood is the key to success

Do what you’ve always done

You’ll get what you’ve always got.

If that is good, then fine, well done

If you think the end is just around the corner, then great – share your success with us

If you think that there’s another 40 years’ work here then maybe you really need to have a really good think

Do what you’ve always done

Will we be doing what we’ve been doing for another:

100 years?50 years?30?10?5?If a line has to be drawn, where will YOU

draw it?

So ……So…

End

Thank you for not throwing rocks