Calculating The Risk...

In the last post we looked at risk assessments and mentioned about calculating the risk - but not how to do it. It's a doddle and as long as you can multiply up to 3 you can do it.

After identifying your hazards, you can set about calculating just how much of a risk they are to you. To do this you just need to assign two values and then multiply.

So how does it work?

You need to look at how severe an injury would be if that hazard were to wreak havoc on you, and look at just how likely that really is; assigning a value to both of these will lead you to a risk rating.

Risk rating = severity x likelihood

That's it - to make things quick and easy use the following values for severity:

1. Minor injury


2. Major injury


3. Serious injury / fatal

For likelihood you would follow a similar process:

1. Unlikely or improbable.


2. Sometimes happens.


3. Likely to happen or always happens.

Therefore, if you are always suffering fatalities that would get the highest risk rating of 9, but if you always shy away when there's work to be done operate in a safe manner, then your risk rating will be 1 or 2.

I made mention of the traffic light system in the last post and this ties in nicely with the risk rating using the above method.

• Risk ratings of 1-3 merit a 'green light'.


• Risk ratings of 4-6 merit an 'amber light'.


• Risk ratings of 7-9 merit a 'red light' to show a high to very high level of risk.

Next post... emergency action planning.