Overview
Every site supervisor wants to have a clean record of no 'lost time' injuries and no incidents at their workplace. It's not just that they don't like seeing anyone get hurt – they also want to maintain their own reputation as a good operator and a 'safe pair of hands' while they're in charge of the company's assets and personnel.
Life is full of risks. Just about everything you do carries some level of risk, and in the timber industry there are many activities that are potentially very risky indeed. But the likelihood of an accident or incident occurring can be dramatically reduced, and at times eliminated completely, when the risks are assessed and dealt with in ways that reflect their seriousness.
Your business has a legal responsibility to identify, assess and control risks whenever:
- a new worksite is being set up
- work processes are being planned
- new machinery or equipment is introduced to the workplace
- changes are made to the way materials or equipment are used
- new information regarding work processes becomes available
- an incident has occurred causing damage to property or an injury to personnel
- legislation changes, including changes to Acts or Regulations.
In this section, we'll look at the process of carrying out a risk assessment, implementing control measures, and monitoring the controls to evaluate their effectiveness.
Completing this section
The assignment for this section will focus on the methods you use to monitor the control measures to address a particular hazard. Have a look at the assignment now to see what you'll need to do to complete it.
Also in the menu bar are links to the following two lessons, which provide background information on topics relevant to the assignment:
- The risk assessment process
- Monitoring control measures
There is also a case study, showing how Tania, an SH&E manager, goes about the on-going process of monitoring control measures.