Keep a risk register
Rate each risk on the 5×5 matrix, list the controls, and review it on time.
What this is for
The risk register is what could go wrong in your shop and on installs, how likely it is, how bad it would be, and what's in place to stop it. Each risk is rated before and after its controls, has an owner and a review date, and job SWMS take their ratings from here.
What is on this screen
Each part of the screen above, top to bottom, and what changing it affects.
Top of the page
- Add a risk
- HR people who can change records.
- Extreme · High · Reviews overdue · Controlled
- Click one to filter the list.
- Where the risks sit (5×5 heat map)
- Likelihood from Rare to Almost certain up the side, consequence from Insignificant to Catastrophic along the bottom. Switch between Now, with controls and Before controls. Click a square to list its risks. Low 1–4, Medium 5–8, High 9–15, Extreme 16–25; score is how likely × how bad.
- Needs attention
- Extreme risks (stop the work until controlled), reviews overdue and reviews due soon, each with Review.
Risks list
- Filters
- Open, Controlled, Closed; rating; review due; and owner.
- Each risk
- Where and which task, the rating before → after (for example High 12 → Medium 6), the owner, and the review date or Overdue.
Adding or editing a risk
- What could happen · Where · Which task · Who's exposed
- For example 'Hand caught in the laminator rollers'.
- How bad is it before any controls
- How likely and how bad, 1 to 5 each. The rating and what to do about it show as you pick.
- Controls in place
- Strongest first: Eliminate, Substitute, Isolate, Engineering, Administrative, PPE. Up to 20.
- How bad is it with the controls
- The rating after. It can't be higher than before.
- Who looks after it · Next review · Status
- The owner, the review date (Use it suggests one: a month for extreme up to a year for low), and Open, Controlled or Closed.
One risk
- Rating
- Before controls → With controls, the action to take, and both marked on a small matrix.
- Controls in place
- The six rungs of the ladder, strongest at the top, green where you have controls.
- Record a review
- What you found and the next review date. The owner or HR can record it.
- Linked
- The hazard report or incident it came from, and any process change checked against it.
Before you start
- Your shop is on Scale. HR people see every risk; staff see the risks they look after.
Step by step
- 1
Open HR & Safety → Risk register and press Add a risk. Start with the big ones: working at height on installs, the router, the laminator, solvents, the forklift.
- 2
Describe what could happen, then rate how likely and how bad it is before any controls.
- 3
List the controls, strongest first, then rate it again with them in place.
- 4
Pick who looks after it and a review date, and press Add to the register. The owner is told.
- 5
When a review is due, the owner and HR are reminded two weeks before. Open the risk, check the controls still work, and press Record the review.
Tips & gotchas
- An extreme rating means stop the work until the risk is removed or properly controlled.
- A risk with no after rating counts at its before rating, everywhere.
- Name risks the way your SWMS hazards are written and they match up by themselves.