Risk Assessment, 2nd Edition

3 Risk Assessment Fundamentals

Bruce Lyon¹ and Bruce Hollcroft²

¹ Brown & Brown

² PayneWest Insurance, A Marsh & McLennan Agency LLC Company

OBJECTIVES

• Describe the Fundamentals of the Risk Assessment Process
• Introduce the Steps in the Process
• Describe How to Complete the Steps Successfully

3.1 Introduction

Organizations, whether they realize it or not, are exposed to hazards and their risks each day, some of which may be capable of significantly affecting the ability to achieve important business goals or even remain in business. Risk assessment is an important and sophisticated tool used to assess an organization’s operational risks so that proper decisions can be made to avoid or effectively reduce and manage risks to an acceptable level. It is considered the cornerstone of risk management, and the basis for the practice of safety.

In Europe, the importance of operational risk assessment is well known and publicized as indicated in the following statement from the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU‐OSHA) website.

If the risk assessment process – the start of the health and safety management approach – is not done well or not done at all, the appropriate preventive measures are unlikely to be identified or put in place.

(EU‐OSHA 2015)

In fact, risk assessments are a common practice in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and other parts of the world. In the United Kingdom, risk assessments have been legally required since 1999 by the Health and ...