According to the GDA guideline and the applicable German Occupational Safety and Health Act, seven steps are required to carry out a risk assessment. These are the same as those used for a psychological risk assessment, although they are implemented differently in both theory and practice.
Table of Contents
1. Risk assessment: Essential first steps
Before the risk assessment begins, the following points must be clarified:
Who carries out the risk assessment?
Because a risk assessment requires expert knowledge of operational processes, a project team must be formed to plan and carry out the assessment. The team should include an occupational safety specialist, the company doctor, the relevant manager, a works council representative, the safety officer and the person responsible for quality and environmental management. Other specialists must be included in the project team where necessary, such as a radiation protection officer, biosafety officers or the chief welding engineer.
External specialists can also be added to the project team. Their role is primarily advisory and may include suggesting methodological approaches, providing information on risk assessment criteria, conducting inspections, checks and investigations, determining the causes of accidents and work-related health risks, or proposing protective measures.
To help ensure that the risk assessment is successful, the company should draw on employees' knowledge and specific familiarity with their workplaces and actively involve them in every phase of the risk assessment from an early stage.
If the company has an occupational health and safety committee (Arbeitsschutzausschuss, ASA), it should also be involved in planning and carrying out the risk assessment. This provides expert advice on all matters relating to health and safety.
Recording the organisational structure
As a basis for the subsequent stages of the risk assessment, all departments and work areas within the organisation should be recorded. Groups that require particular attention include, for example:
- children and young people aged 13 and over,
- pregnant and breastfeeding women,
- people undergoing rehabilitation, such as employees returning to work in stages following illness,
- temporary agency workers and employees without sufficient knowledge of German,
- trainees or employees of external companies,
- units of assessment.
Different parts of the company, such as workshops, production areas or offices where specific activities are performed, should be divided into distinct units of assessment with similar working conditions and hazards. In this context, you should document which activities are carried out at these workplaces and who is responsible for occupational safety there. This breakdown forms the basis for documenting the entire risk assessment.
Documents that can be used
Company documents that may be useful for the risk assessment include reports and existing inspection records produced by appointed company doctors and occupational safety specialists, reports from occupational health and safety committee meetings, internal documents on noise measurements, hazardous substances and equipment inspections, the hazardous substances register, quality management documentation, the hygiene plan and emergency plans.
2. Identifying hazards
The fundamental purpose of a risk assessment is to identify hazards that actually exist, are typical of the workplace concerned and could affect employees. Only these hazards need to be recorded. This includes both hazards that could lead to accidents and health risks that could arise from work processes.
According to the German Occupational Safety and Health Act, hazards arise mainly from the construction and design of workplaces. This includes all traffic routes, workrooms, storage areas, sanitary facilities, staff rooms and other influencing factors. Further hazards may also arise from workplace environmental conditions.
Hazards can be identified using two different methods:
The direct (forward-looking or preventive) method involves, for example, workplace inspections and/or surveys. The indirect (retrospective) method involves, for example, investigating accidents and/or work-related illnesses.
Tools
Checklists and hazard catalogues are useful tools for systematically identifying hazards. Checklists tend to be used in small and medium-sized organisations. In other cases, hazard catalogues are recommended; these list typical hazards and protective measures for particular sectors or areas of operation. Other tools are particularly suitable for identifying harmful psychological strain.
3. Assessing hazards
In the context of a risk assessment, assessment means determining whether employees are exposed to a hazard and whether occupational safety measures are therefore required. Each hazard must be assessed and documented individually.
Comparison with standardised protection objectives
Once all hazards have been identified, the relevant legal requirements must be researched. If government regulations or accident insurance regulations – such as legislation, ordinances, accident prevention regulations or technical rules – already contain corresponding requirements, these must be met to achieve the required protection objective, namely the safe target condition.
Are there protection-level concepts?
Certain regulations, such as the German Biological Agents Ordinance and Hazardous Substances Ordinance, contain statutory protection levels. Each protection level describes measures and criteria for verifying the effectiveness of the protective measures taken.
Are assessment aids available?
Assessment aids provided by the relevant government authorities and statutory accident insurance bodies help with the assessment of hazards. Typical examples include the key indicator method for assessing the manual handling of loads and the Easy-to-use Workplace Control Scheme for Hazardous Substances (EMKG).
Are there no specific requirements for the hazards identified?
If no specific requirements exist for the hazards identified, the company must estimate and assess the remaining risks itself. Determine how serious a potential accident or adverse health effect could be and how likely it is to occur. The aim is to reduce the risk to an acceptable level.
4. Developing and implementing measures
Once a risk has been identified, the next step is to reduce it. Protection objectives must be defined and suitable measures selected to eliminate the hazard or reduce it sufficiently. Technical, organisational and personal occupational safety measures are used for this purpose.
Criteria for selecting measures
Occupational safety measures are selected in accordance with the STOP principle, also known as the TOP principle. The individual letters stand for:
- Substitution (replacement)
- Technical measures
- Organisational measures
- Personal and behavioural safety measures
This also determines the order in which measures must be taken:
- Work processes must be designed so that the hazard no longer exists; in other words, the source of the hazard must be eliminated (S).
- Protective devices, which should operate automatically wherever possible, are used to eliminate or reduce hazards (T).
- The health risk is minimised by reducing the intensity or duration of exposure through technical or organisational measures (O).
- Personal protective equipment or rules of conduct are applied in addition (P).
Where should you begin?
The hazards with the greatest impact on employees should be eliminated first. This is particularly important in high-risk work areas and for activities where accidents or health risks are likely. Further measures are then defined according to their urgency and the time and practical resources required to implement them.
Criteria for high-risk work areas or activities include, for example:
- frequent disruption to operational processes,
- unusually high levels of absence,
- frequent accidents and illness,
- frequent errors,
- monotonous activities,
- activities that are very often carried out under time pressure,
- a poor working atmosphere,
- areas with high staff turnover,
- poor quality of work.
Documenting the measures
Special worksheets are available for documenting the measures to be implemented. Entries must be sufficiently specific for work instructions to be issued on their basis.
More information about documentation can be found in the final section.
5. Checking effectiveness
The findings from the risk assessment lead to measures that reduce or eliminate hazards. These measures must be organised by priority, deadline and responsibility. The basic principle for successfully implementing occupational safety measures is to define the required activities by answering the following questions:
- Who will do what by when?
- Which documents can be used?
Existing resources can be used where available. Use documents from risk assessments already carried out within the organisation, such as the hazardous substances register, the substitution assessment and operating instructions. You can refer to these in your risk assessment.
Instruction and training – an important measure
To minimise risks effectively and permanently, employees must be aware of the potential hazards. They should also be informed about the purpose of occupational safety measures in a way that enables them to understand it and take personal responsibility for behaviour that protects their health. Employers are therefore always obliged to provide employees with comprehensive protection during working hours. This obligation is based on Section 81 of the German Works Constitution Act (BetrVG), Sections 12 and 14 of the German Occupational Safety and Health Act (ArbSchG), Section 4 of DGUV Regulation 1 and more specific regulations such as Section 9 of the German Ordinance on Industrial Safety and Health (BetrSichV).
6. Repeating the risk assessment to keep it up to date
Regular checks are used to determine whether the risk assessment has been implemented successfully. This review consists of three stages.
Implementation check
Check whether the measures specified were implemented on schedule by the people responsible.
Effectiveness check
Check whether the specified objective has been achieved and the hazard has actually been eliminated. This involves more than simply adding formal confirmation to the documentation that the deadline was met; the effectiveness of the measure must also be assessed. Check whether the measures have created any new or different hazards.
Sustainability check
Check whether the resulting condition is stable or whether further measures may be required.
The review must be carried out by a person responsible for it. Record the result in writing.
Timing of the review
All measures must be reviewed immediately after the agreed deadlines. Reviews should then take place continuously at specified intervals.
In certain cases, it is necessary to monitor the effectiveness of a measure over a longer period. This may apply, for example, when monitoring employee satisfaction, reducing sickness absence, raising awareness and motivating managers, or seeking to improve customer satisfaction.
Does the hazard still exist in part?
If the intended reduction in the hazard has not been achieved or has only been partly achieved, you must first establish why the hazard remains. Use the findings to revise and supplement your analysis of the causes. Then define new measures to eliminate the hazard. You should subsequently verify the effectiveness of the revised measures.
7. Documentation
There are no statutory deadlines by which you must repeat the risk assessment. As an employer, however, you are obliged to adapt your occupational safety measures whenever circumstances change. The risk assessment must be updated if hazards within the company have not previously been identified, if new hazards have arisen or could arise, or if operational conditions affecting safety and health change.
The risk assessment must be updated in particular in the following circumstances:
- workplace accidents, near misses or occupational diseases,
- high levels of absence caused by workplace conditions,
- the acquisition of new work equipment,
- the introduction of new working substances,
- the redesign of work areas and traffic routes,
- changes to work organisation and/or workflows,
- changes in the state of the art,
- new information on occupational safety and health,
- new occupational safety regulations.
Does everything need to be repeated from the beginning?
An updated risk assessment does not need to be repeated from the beginning. It should focus primarily on changes in operational circumstances and on hazards that have not yet been eliminated.
