STEPS IN

CONTROLLING
OHS HAZARDS
AND RISKS
 4 STEPS TO MANAGE HAZARDS
AND RISK

The best way to prevent injuries or illness in your

workplace is to find the hazards that could cause injury
or illness, and fix them. Do this by following four simple
steps:

Spot the Hazard

Assess the Risk
Fix the Problem
Evaluate Results
 Spot the hazard
A hazard is anything that has the potential to cause injury, illness or damage to your health. Hazards at work may
include:
• manual tasks
• untidy workplaces
• bullying and violence
• working at heights
• The first step in ensuring a safe workplace is to identify hazards. There are a number of ways to find hazards in your
workplace:
• ask workers and contractors in your workplace about any hazards they may have noticed
• look at the physical structure of your workplace: for example, stairs, desks, floor surfaces, exits, driveways
• check all machinery, appliances and vehicles used for work
• examine how substances are stored, used and moved from one place to another
• review your injury records, including ‘near misses’
• review information from designers, manufacturers or suppliers of the equipment and substances in your workplace.
 Assess the risk

A risk is the likelihood of a hazard causing injury, illness or

damage to your health.
Your list of hazards may be long, with some hazards posing
more safety risks than others.
So you need to work out which hazards are more serious than
other and deal with those first.
 Fix the problem
You should always aim to remove a hazard completely
from your workplace. Where this isn’t practical, you should
work through the other alternatives systematically.
Some problems may be fixed easily and straight away,
while others will need more effort and planning.
Concentrate on the most urgent hazards without neglecting
the simpler ones that could be easily and immediately
fixed.
 Hierarchy of controls
Use the hierarchy of controls to remove or reduce risk in your workplace. It starts with the most
effective control method (removing the hazard from your workplace completely) and finishes with
the least effective (wearing personal protective equipment/PPE).
You must use the highest-ranked control that is practical for controlling the risk. Only use lower-
ranked controls as a last resort or until a more effective way of controlling risk can be used.
Sometimes using more than one control measure could be the most effective way to reduce the
exposure to hazards.
1 Eliminate the hazard
Remove it completely from your workplace. For example: repair damaged equipment; outsource
processes involving hazardous chemicals or equipment to a company set up to manage them safely. If
this is not practical, then…
2 Substitute the hazard
Replace it with a safer alternative. For example: use a less toxic chemical; lift smaller packages. If
this is not practical, then…
3 Isolate the hazard
Keep it away from workers as much as possible. For example: relocate
photocopiers to separate, ventilated rooms; install barriers to restrict access to
hazardous work areas. If this is not practical, then…
4 Use engineering controls
Adapt tools or equipment to reduce the risk. For example: place guards on
dangerous parts of machinery; use a trolley for moving heavy loads. If this is
not practical, then…
5 Use administrative controls
Change work practices and organisation. For example, rotate jobs to reduce the
time spent on any single work task; train staff in safe work procedures; carry out
routine maintenance of equipment. If this is not practical, then…
6 Use personal protective equipment (PPE)
For example: use hearing/eye protection equipment, hard hats, gloves and masks; train staff
to use PPE correctly.

Evaluate results
After you think you’ve fixed the problem, find out whether the changes have been
effective. Get feedback from those affected by the changes and include them in any
modifications to their workplace or work routines. Look at your incident records to see if
numbers are going down.
Make sure your solution does not introduce new hazards. Maybe you and your workers can
even see more ways to make further improvements. Set a date to re-assess the risk. Choose
a timeframe appropriate to the task and the risk involved. If the work process changes, or
new equipment is introduced to a task, then the risk assessment must be reviewed.