Risk Assessment, 2nd Edition

2Risk Assessment Standards and Definitions

Bruce Lyon¹ and Bruce Hollcroft²

¹ Brown & Brown

² PayneWest Insurance, A Marsh & McLennan Agency LLC Company

OBJECTIVES

• Introduce the Need for Risk Assessments
• Review Compliance Standards that Require Hazard Determination and Analysis
• Review Consensus Standards that Prescribe Risk Assessment
• Define Key Risk Assessment Terminology

2.1 Introduction

The single‐most important component within the operational risk management process is the identification, analysis, and assessment of risk. Without this element, there is little hope of understanding and managing risk. The purpose of risk assessment is to identify and analyze risk sources (hazards) and assess their risks so that management can properly avoid, reduce, and manage operational risks.

Risk assessment is a discipline that must be learned, practiced, and executed on a consistent basis to effectively anticipate and identify, analyze, and evaluate in order to manage risks. As further explained in this text, risk assessment is an essential component of an effective operational risk management system used to identify, analyze, and evaluate risks in the workplace.

There is a growing awareness for the significance of risk assessments with the development of standards, guidelines, and practices requiring or advocating formal risk assessments. The focus of this chapter is to provide the reader with an understanding of key standards and guidelines prescribing operational risk assessment ...