Online Risk Assessment Tool

A blank template gives you a table and leaves the hard part to you: finding the hazards, deciding how bad they are, and judging whether your controls are good enough. A spreadsheet adds a formula that multiplies two numbers you typed in. Neither knows anything about your work.

An online risk assessment tool should do more than store what you type. It should come with the hazards and controls for your kind of work already in it, apply a consistent scoring method, and give you something you can sign at the end.

• Starts from a real hazard register, specific to the activity, with the consequence and the inherent risk already assessed by someone qualified to do it.
• Lists the controls for each hazard, ranked by the hierarchy of control, so the question is "is this in place?" and not "what should we do?".
• Scores consistently. Two people answering the same way get the same result. Physical controls earn more credit than procedures and PPE, and a hazard cannot reach a low rating on PPE alone.
• Rates residual risk only when every control for that hazard has been answered, so a half-finished assessment cannot look complete.
• Builds the action plan for you – every control answered No, the most urgent and most effective first, with space for a responsible person and a due date.
• Lets you leave out what does not apply, so the record describes your site and not a generic one.
• Works on a phone on the workshop floor, saves as you go, and copes with a lost signal.
• Produces a formatted document to print and sign, including who was consulted.

• Who wrote the hazards and ratings? A form builder that lets you type your own is a digital blank template. Ask for the author's qualifications.
• Does it cover health hazards – fume, dust, noise, chemicals, vibration – or only safety hazards?
• How is residual risk worked out? If the answer is "you pick it from a dropdown", the tool is recording an opinion. It is not assessing anything.
• Can a hazard go green on PPE alone? It should not be able to.
• What do you get at the end? A dashboard is not a record. You need a dated document that names who was consulted and can be signed.
• Whose law does it cite? Work health and safety law differs between Australian jurisdictions, and Victoria has its own Act.
• What happens to your data if you stop paying? A one-off purchase with a downloadable report avoids the question.

1. Choose your activities. Untick anything your site does not do; its hazards and controls drop out.
2. Walk the floor with a supervisor and a worker or Health and Safety Representative, and answer Yes, No or N/A for each control.
3. See the result. As each hazard is completed the calculator shows its residual risk – red, yellow or green – alongside the inherent rating.
4. Complete the action plan. Every missing control is listed in priority order. You add who is responsible and when.
5. Download the report. A finished Word document with the method, the hazard register, your results, the action plan and the consultation and sign-off pages.

The method is a severity and probability matrix with control scoring based on the hierarchy of control. Controls that physically limit how bad an outcome can be are able to reduce severity as well as likelihood; rules and PPE cannot.

The Word report is laid out to be read by an inspector, an insurer or a principal contractor:

1. Cover details – business, site, assessor, date, the workers and Health and Safety Representatives consulted, and the next review date.
2. Summary of results – how many hazards are red, yellow and green, and what each colour requires.
3. The method – the severity and probability scales, the matrix, and how controls are judged against the hierarchy of control, with a worked example.
4. Part A – Hazard register – every hazard with what could go wrong, the possible consequence and the inherent risk.
5. Part B – Risk results – inherent risk, control score and residual risk for each hazard, with your comments.
6. Part C – Action plan – every missing control in priority order, with a responsible person and due date.
7. Part D – Consultation, approval and review – signature blocks and a review log.
8. Appendix – every control and your answer, so the basis of each rating can be checked.

The calculator currently runs our risk assessment for steel fabrication and tank manufacturing workshops: nine sections covering receiving and materials handling, cutting and forming machinery, welding, abrasive blasting and coating, liner fabrication, insulation and sealing, testing and trial assembly, dispatch, and maintenance – 350 hazards and 1,491 controls in all, New South Wales edition.

You can see the five steps with pictures of the real screens, and score one hazard yourself, before buying. If your industry is not covered yet, tell us what you need. New editions are built where there is demand.