How to manage risk
A safe and healthy workplace does not happen by chance or guesswork. You have to think about what could go wrong at your workplace and what the consequences could be.
Then you must do whatever you can (in other words, whatever is ‘reasonably practicable’) to eliminate or minimise health and safety risks arising from your business or undertaking.
This process is known as risk management and consists of the following four steps:
- Step 1. Identify the hazards – find out what could cause harm
- Step 2. Assess risk presented by hazards – understand the nature of the harm that could be caused by the hazard, how serious the harm could be and the likelihood of it happening
- Step 3. Controlling the risk – implement the most effective control measure that is reasonably practicable in the circumstances
- Step 4. Monitoring controls to make sure they are working as planned.
Steps 1 to 3, identifying, assessing and controlling risks must be done in consultation with staff.
A number of specific risk management processes are available at UTS for different activity/hazard types, as outlined at Preventing injury and illness. Select the process best suited to your work.
Use the UTS Risk Register (UTS-internal access only. Use UTS VPN if off-campus.) to develop and record risk assessments and Safe Work Procedures.
WHS Risk Register (ORR) for Supervisors eLearning module (15 minutes)
Here we explain roles and responsibilities for managing health and safety risk assessments, and how the HSW Risk Register (ORR) can help you maintain a collection of risk assessments and safe work procedures that are reliable and effective.
This is intended for supervisors of research work, student supervisors, and persons who manage university operations and physical spaces. It has a few review questions that are not assessed or recorded. It should take 10-15 minutes.
Support at UTS
UTS's Risk Management Policy and Risk Management Procedure describe the risk management approach all UTS business processes and functions adopt in their approval, review and control processes.
Safety & Wellbeing provides a list of who to contact for help to address specific workplace health and safety hazards and issues.
External resources
Standards Australia
- AS/NZS ISO 31000:2018 Risk management - Guidelines provides a generic guide for establishing and implementing the risk management process
- HB 205-2017 OHS Risk Management Handbook