Principles And Practice Of Risk Assessment - MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Principles And Practice Of Risk Assessment. Answer: Introduction The aim of the current study is to prepare a risk assessment plan for the Eastman Chemical Company. This is one of the major fortune 500 companies that is based in US, which mainly specializes in providing quality chemicals that are used in all types of commercial purposes. They also provide fibers that are needed for the everyday activity. The company has currently has more 40 manufacturing units in all the major nations across the globe. The risk assessment plan of the organization will be based upon its internal business environment. It will therefore help to ensure all the employees within the organization are able to work in health and safety environment. The risk assessment plan will mainly focus upon 5 type of hazardous activities which are as follows: Stress at work: Stress is considered to be one of the most common cause of mental illness among workers in the internal business environment. Nearly 1 million workers leave from their jobs due to the effect of occupational stress (Siegrist 2016). Slips, trips and falls: This type of risk is mainly common among employees doing heavy physical activities that involves high level of hazards. Nearly 40% of the injuries that occurred in workplace are mainly due to slip, trips and fall. Fire: The fire safety protocols are required to protect all assets of the organization. Having fire safety insurance is highly essential in this context. Confined space: The confined space within the workplace can increase the hazard of toxic atmosphere that can compromise upon the health and safety level of the workers. Nearly 50% of all the diseases that are caused due to unhealthy workplace atmosphere are due to working within a confined space (Brum 2016). Fall from height: The unsafety work stations within the workplace can result in accidents like fall from height. This is mainly caused due to the absence of standard work place plan that can increase the risks of falling. The business environment within the chemical manufacturing unit is considered to have high levels of riskthat is caused due to the hazardous substance that are being involved in the workplace. WSH legal requirements (Singapore based) It is one of the major legal duty of the organization is to provide high levels of safe and healthy environment. This can be achieved by identifying all the major hazards that are associated with the work profile of every organization. The Workplace Safety and Health Act 2006 was implemented by the government in Singapore that will help in providing maximum possible occupational safety that is needed in the context of providing safety at the workplace (Ministry of Manpower Singapore 2018). This act can be implemented in all types of workplaces and it is essential for all the organizations in Singapore to the follow the protocol of this act to ensure minimum legal risks are involved. It will also help to ensure high workplace reputation. According to the framework of the following principles are developed: Reduce the chance of occurring the source by identifying its original source. The industry needs to take full responsibility and the ownership of all types of risks that will help to minimize the same. Companies have to pay higher penalty for any types of accidents that will occur due to the failure of safety management (Ministry of Manpower Singapore 2018). In the given context, the Work Injury Compensation Actwas implemented to ensure that all the employees within the organization get proper advantage and compensatory funds for the accidents that are caused due to the mismanagement of the standard safety protocols (Ministry of Manpower Singapore 2018). The major types of injuries that occur within the workplace includes that from fire outbreak, Slips, trips and fall from heights. In the context of the Chemical industry, the Fire Safety Act is highly essential that are implemented by the Singapore Civil Defense Force. All the workplaces, which have high risk of catching up with fire due to the use of flammable materials need to have special protocol for the fire safety measures. This will help them to get the fire safety license (Ministry of Manpower Singapore 2018). Benefits According toBahr (2014), due to the involvement of high levels of risks and hazards within the workplace can be the causes for high levels stress within the employees. For a chemical industry like that of Eastman, the major issues at the work place is due to the high levels of risks and chemical hazards that are generally involved at the workplace. The health and safety environment with the workplace is therefore essential to improve the motivation levels and encourage the workers to take the extra efforts. Fernndez-Muizet al.(2014), have added in the context that with the introduction of the safety protocols in the forms of work place safety management, it is possible to increase the level of awareness among the employees. The workplace reputation within an organization is also dependent upon the health and safety procedures that are being applied. Effective Risk Management It is important to follow certain fixed steps for implementing effective risk management plan. In the context of the Eastman Chemical company it essential to implement the safety protocol depending upon the particular hazards that are involved within the respective workplace. The initial step of the risk management plan is to implement a definite framework for assessing all the risks. Proper mapping process can also be implemented that will help in the purpose of identifying all the hazard and in particular respect the chemical company. The company also need to held counseling sessions with every group of employees which will help them to identify all the major risks and issues that are confronted at the workplace. It is also possible to understand the mental health condition of the patient thereby predicting the cause of stress at workplace (Hopkin 2017) The company need to assign efficient risk managers, who are currently having high level of experience at the job profile of chemical industry. It is thereby possible to predict all forms of adverse situations that can be encountered within the manufacturing unit of Eastman Chemicals. The risk manager also need to propose a wide range of solutions that can be implemented on the basis of the current workplace scenario. After identification of the discs with the help of proper planning and evaluation it is important to properly define the same. This will help to ensure that the root cause of hazardous activities. In the following step it is important to classify all the risks on the basis of threat levels. For example, in the context of the chemical industry the threat of fire unconfined space is high compared to that of fall from height. The stress at work is also high due to the fact that all the employees have to work under high critical conditions. As the level of threat for each hazards are classified it is necessary to perceive the same. The context of the chemical industry the main focus of safety protocols should be upon fire control act. It is also essential to held regular mental counselling sessions, which are needed to deal with high level of workplace stress. The management also need to keep a proper record of all the risk incident that occurred within the organization. This record will help to provide detailed information for implementation of future safety protocols (Drennan et al. 2014). The risk assessment process need to be done on regular time interval. This will help to ensure that all the heavy machineries that are used in the manufacturing unit are properly maintained. With the help of this risk management plan, it is possible for the Eastman Chemical company to get proper information relevant to high level of hazards that are involved within the workplace. Recommended risk assessment process/ action required The threats at the workplace of Eastman chemical company can be accessed with the help of a risk assessment template. This will help in the natters of implementimng intervenrtion techniques. This will encompass all potential hazard that can compromise upon the safety level of the employees. Proper documentation in the forms of electromic databases are kept of all the safety protocols are required that will help in the purpose of providing training to the Employees. Types of Risks Level of Threats Proper Preventive Measures /Recommendations Duty of the Employees Stress at work Medium Mental Couselling sessions with individual employees to help them inherit the skills of time management and the ways to deal with the pressure at the workplace Raise the personal issues to the managememt that they encounter at the workplace due to lack of proper risk assessmemt tools Slips, trips and falls Medium Better level of infrastructure during the constution of manufacturing unit Act with cautious while carrying out risky activities. Fire High Fire safet infrastructure that includes installing of fire extinguishers and developiong of the proper fire safety exist route. The company also needs to have fire insurance that will help in the process of damage recovery. Get proper training for the acting swiftly during the time of fire emergency. Also act with cautious while dealing with all tyoes of volatotile substances. Confined Space Low Have proper ventellation at the workplace Fall from Height Low Use of proper quality matrials while developing infrastructure Risk assessmemnt chart for Eastman Chemical Recommendations: Development of infrastructure which will reduce the chances of slips, trips and falls within the manufacturing units such as using chips for increasing the friction of the pavement surfaces. Installation of fire extinguishers at each and every entry and exit Additionally development of fire insurance policies for providing accidental coverage can help in coping up with aftermaths. The site should be properly ventiliated to reduce the risk of closed space disasters such as suffocation due to leakage of poisonous gases. Quantitative vs. qualitative As per the research work of McNeil et al. (2015), it is essential for an organization to analyses both quantitative and qualitative aspect of the risk management plan. In the respect of qualitative method, it is possible to describe theoretical aspect of each risks and hazards. In this context the risk assessment can be described as a process of combining all the relevant evidences and information that are collected from respective practical event. In this process the risk is characterized and represented mainly in the form of non-numerical data (Grote 2015). On the other hand, in quantitative method of risk analysis, it is essential to collect to categories the risk and hazard depending upon their chances of occurring. For example, in the context of the chemical industry the risk of chemical contamination is much higher compared to that of workplace stress. It essentially uses numerical data to analyses the risk involved within an environment. For the management of Eastman Chemical company, it is essential to implement the qualitative procedure in order to identify the threat level of each risk and hazards. This will be possible by calculating the probability of occurring of each risks. On the other hand, the qualitative method will help to identify proper intervention measures for each types of risks. For example, in case of fire risk assessment, the qualitative procedures will help to ensure that all the equipment that are needed to deal with fire outbreak situations are kept as basic infrastructure resource of the company. This can include Fire extinguisher machine and alternative exit route for fire escape. Strengths of chosen risk assessment The major strength of the existing risk assessment plan of the Eastman Chemical company includes the following. The company is considering the major legal procedures of workplace safety that include the fire safety protocol and Work Injury Compensation act The risk assessment plan also includes identifying the root cause of all the hazards. Proper training procedures are also included within the plan that will ensure that the enoployees are able to cope up with the emergency situations such as using personal protective equipments effectively, isolating people from the hazard during emergency situations such as fire. In this regard , fire management training can be provided to the workers. Both quantitative and qualitative approach of risk assessment will help to maximize the opportunity of risk planning by highlighting the areas where there are loopholes such as infrasrutural deficit, improperly working fire extinguishers. The past records of accidents within the site of work can be used for framing of future safety directives which helps in the implementation of best practice methods witin the construction sites. Weakness of chosen risk assessment Following on the weakness of the existing risk assessment plan It will be highly challenging for the risk Manager to categories each and every form of hazard activities. Due to the fast changing scenario at the workplace it will be highly challenging for the management of the Eastman chemical to bring about modification in the safety protocols. As the total number of employees within the organization increases, it will not be possible for the management to include all the workers within the existing safety protocols. Communication Communication is believed to be one of the essential component of implementing effective risk assessment plan in the context of the Eastman Chemical company. The management need to implement essential communication strategy that is necessary in the context of implementing proper culture of safety (Drennanet al. 2014). The management need to held regular training and discussion session with the employees, which will help them to share important thoughts and information related to risk and hazardous activities. Hence, it will be possible to increase the level of awareness of every worker that will help them to effectively imply the safety protocols (Radawski et al. 2015). Verbal, written, graphic Effective verbal form of communication with the employees in the form of team meetings can help to highlight about the issues related to health and safety hazards. Verbal communication can also be conducted in virtual meetings, where the employees will get the opportunity to directly interact with higher authority (Brum 2016). It is essential to share accurate information through the form of verbal communication, which can thereby minimise the chance of all forms of misunderstanding or misconception that can compromise upon the health and safety procedures (Bahr 2014). It is also important to note that verbal form of communication are considered to be one of the effective ways that can help in establishing workplace safety culture. Written information in the form of proper document also essential. This can be presented as a book for health and safety protocols and are provided to every group of employees. Additionally, graphical representation are also essential to ensure that all the employees understand the practical application of Health and safety guidelines (Fernndez-Muiz et al. 2016). Training It is highly essential for the management of Eastman chemical to provide health and safety training for the working staff. The main content of the training will focus upon providing ideas of emergency protocols that are needed to be followed during the time of crisis. For example, in case of fire breakout employees need to have the basic training for evacuation. As the company involves using of harsh raw materials for manufacturing chemicals, it is essential for the employees to have proper level of knowledge about the ways to handle the same and ensure minimum chance of accident (Nasirzadehet al. 2014). Correct Equipment and tools Proper equipment that include safety mask and gloves are highly essential to ensure that the workers are not directly exposed to harmful chemicals in the process of manufacturing. Proper first aid equipment are also needed for all types of emergency and accidental situations. Safety Promotion The company needs to regular safety promotion program and workshop, which can also be held in the form of team meetings and group discussions. In this type of program it is possible to raise important issues related to health and safety protocols. The employees can also be given proper practical training so that they can efficiently during the time of crisis (Zhao and Lucas 2015). Employees can also be given mental counselling sessions, which can help them to deal with high level of workplace stress. As the workers are able to perform efficiently under critical situation, the chance of risk automatically reduces (McNeil et al. 2015). Conclusion (Wellbeing) The risk of fire outbreak is considered to be the highest in a context of workplace of Eastman chemicals. There is also major risk of confined space, where the employees have the risk of chemical contamination. All these risk and hazard situations raises the chance of workplace stress. The level of employee well-being therefore depends upon the ability of the organisation to promote health and safety protocols. It is also essential for the employees to manage high level of workplace stress, which can help them to provide high level of organisational productivity. References Bahr, N.J., 2014. System safety engineering and risk assessment: a practical approach. Florida:CRC Press, pp. 105-225. Brum, M.C.B., 2016. What Conditions Should Be Assessed in Evaluating Individuals Who Work in Confined Spaces?.Journal of occupational and environmental medicine, 58(4), pp.e152-3. Drennan, L.T., McConnell, A. and Stark, A., 2014. 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