EHS Risk Assessment
Template: User Guide
Proactively identify environmental, health, and safety risks
with this free template and guide.
INTRODUCTION
This risk assessment template will help you identify potential
threats to your organization's operations so you can
reduce risk and prevent unwanted events.
To make this template even easier to use, this guide will break
down each of the steps to filling out each section, along with
helpful tips and additional resources.
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What is an EHS risk
assessment?
An EHS risk assessment is a formal process to identify
potential environmental, health and safety hazards related to
your organization’s operations. Conducting an EHS risk
assessment can help you determine which risks pose the
greatest threat to your operations, and identify controls to
reduce the level of risk.
When should you conduct a
risk assessment?
You should conduct a risk assessment any time a hazard is
identified, or there's a change to your operations that could
introduce new risks.
Below is an example of what your risk assessment template
looks like.
At the top, there's space to keep track of the name of the
person performing the risk assessment, the date and time of
the assessment, and the activity being assessed. At the
bottom, there's room for additional notes and a signature.
In the bottom right corner, you'll see an example of a scoring
matrix you can use to rank the likelihood and severity of each
risk you identify. We'll dive into scoring later in this guide.
Don't forget to add your company name and any other
pertinent information at the top. You can even customize the
template by adding your company's logo or colors to match
your branding.
How to conduct an effective
EHS risk assessment
Step 1: Identify hazards
A hazard is anything that has the potential to cause harm to
people, property, or processes. This includes everything from
heavy machinery to chemicals, electricity, working alone, or
even driving.
Some hazards can be identified simply by taking a thorough
look at the worksite. However, other hazards — especially non-
routine situations like maintenance or cleaning — may be more
difficult to observe.
In that case, talking to workers who are familiar with the task
or facility, asking lots of questions, and capturing employee
observations can help you to identify potential hazards you
might otherwise have overlooked.
Additional reading: 7 Ways to Identify EHS Risks
How to conduct an effective
EHS risk assessment
Step 2: Determine who might be harmed
and how
As you identify hazards, you’ll need to think about the possible
consequences of each hazard. For example, if you’ve identified
improperly stored chemicals as a hazard, some of the possible
consequences might be:
- Chemicals could degrade
- Workers or cleaning staff can be exposed to a hazardous
substance
- Leaks or spills
- Fire or explosion
It’s important to remember that risk assessments not only
cover hazards to employees, but to anyone who might be
impacted by your operations. Subcontractors, maintenance
and cleaning personnel, customers, visitors, the community,
and the environment will all need to be carefully considered
during the risk assessment. For example, an accidental release
of chemicals could impact not only your operations but also
the local air or water supply.
How to conduct an effective
EHS risk assessment
Step 3: Evaluate & prioritize
Next, you’ll need to determine the level of risk related to each
hazard you’ve identified. Some risks — like the risk of a
chemical explosion — are very severe but very unlikely to
occur. Other risks may have less potential for harm, but be
more likely to occur.
It doesn’t always make sense to implement controls for every
single risk you’ve identified — nor would it be feasible to do so.
Instead, you’ll need to focus your efforts on those risks that are
most severe and most likely to occur.
One way to determine which risks are most serious and
therefore need controls is by using risk scoring. Risk scoring is
the process of assigning a numerical value to a risk depending
on its severity and the likelihood that it will occur. Scoring
gives you an objective way to compare and prioritize risks
across your organization.
Additional reading: 10 Reasons You Should Be Using Risk
Scoring
How to conduct an effective
EHS risk assessment
Step 4: Implement controls
Once you’ve determined which risks pose the greatest threat,
you will need to decide what should be done to eliminate or
reduce the risk.
Controls include measures like policies, procedures, training,
tools or personal protective equipment that help manage risk.
For example, a lockout/tagout procedure can help control the
risk of injuries when equipment is undergoing maintenance.
It’s important that your control measures are specific. Vague,
generic statements like “be aware” or “use PPE” are commonly
seen on risk assessments and do nothing to make the work
environment safer.
How to conduct an effective
EHS risk assessment
Step 5: Review & monitor controls
After you’ve implemented controls, it’s important to review
and monitor them on a regular basis. Monitoring ensures that
the controls are being properly implemented, and that they’re
effective in mitigating the risks you’ve identified. It also helps
determine if anything has changed that impacts your controls,
or if there’s anything you may have overlooked.
Final thoughts
We hope this template and guide will help you identify and
reduce risks across your organization. If you want to take
things a step further, you might consider using risk assessment
software.
Unlike paper and pencil forms, software guides you through all
the steps in an effective risk assessment. So, you can easily
complete a risk assessment from any smartphone or tablet and
sync the results to a centralized database. Not only that, but
you can calculate scores for each risk and analyze the results
across your entire organization. You can even get automated
alerts when serious risks are identified. Risk assessment
software saves you from a disorganized, time-consuming risk
assessment process.
If you’re a Perillon customer, you can use the Audits &
Inspections module to do this. Or, you can learn more about
Perillon's risk management software here.
