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SMEs: risky business

Paul Reeve | Features | HSW | 08.09.2008

Most people know that risk assessment is a lynchpin of health and safety at work, and the HSE says "for most businesses, risk assessment is not difficult to do". But many small businesses still feel daunted by it. Paul Reeve continues his guide to the basics of safety management for small businesses with advice on risk assessment.

Moving targets: dynamic risk assessment

Lucie Ponting | Features | HSW | 07.08.2008

Traditional risk assessment is about identifying risks in the workplace so that you can implement suitable controls. Lucie Ponting and Jocelyn Dorrell look at how dynamic risk assessment can help employees manage risks as they arise.

Working with arthritis

Becky Allen | Features | HSW | 07.08.2008

Arthritis is the largest single cause of physical disability in the UK. It affects nine million people and - together with other musculoskeletal disorders - is the UK's second most common cause of sickness absence. Becky Allen continues our series on protecting workers with long-term health conditions.

Have we lost our way with risk assessments?

Paul Smith | Features | HSW | 06.03.2008

Risk assessment has become a central plank of our safety philosophy and practice. But are we missing the points? Paul Smith of Empower Training suggests the overwhelming emphasis on written risk assessments has sent us off the right path.

Using 'body mapping' to flag workers' ill health

Jocelyn Dorrell | Features | HSW | 09.11.2007

The technique of 'body mapping' was developed in the 1970s at Nottingham University to encourage workers to report ill-health symptoms. The employee-centred approach aids locating workplace health hazards and flagging up workers' health problems, especially musculoskeletal disorders, as Jocelyn Dorrell reports.

Safeguarding workers abroad

Becky Allen | Features | HSW | 08.11.2007

Business travel is an integral part of many Britons' jobs. Despite huge advances in information and communications technology, UK residents made more than nine million journeys abroad for work last year - up 12% since 2004. But what toll does it take on their health and safety and how can the risks be best managed? Becky Allen reports.

ALARP: making risk as unlikely as possible

Duncan Spencer | Features | HSW | 15.10.2007

Most safety legislation is not prescriptive, but essentially requires managers to write their own rules. So anyone tasked with managing risk is left to grapple with a variety of questions. Duncan Spencer looks at the principle of reducing risk to as low a level as reasonably practicable (ALARP).

Assessing employees' wellbeing

Lucie Ponting | Features | HSW | 15.09.2007

Health assessments for safety-critical staff make sense, says Lucie Ponting, but in other cases their value may be limited.

Avoiding the tickbox idea of risk assessment

Lucie Ponting | Features | HSW | 12.08.2007

How do you make sure risk assessments don't become an end in themselves? Lucie Ponting considers the ways.

If the mask fits

Helen Collins | Features | HSW | 09.08.2007

Helen Collins takes a deep breath and explains the ins and outs of face fit testing for RPE

Just another hazard

Oliver Brennan | Features | HSW | 01.06.2007

People who continually verbally abuse, threaten, humiliate and denigrate colleagues, causing them unreasonable stress, are themselves hazards and, as such, are harmful to the health and safety of people unfortunate enough to have to work with them. Oliver Brennan says that you should apply the same risk management techniques to workplace bullies that you would to any inanimate hazard.

Regulations require checks for ill health in staff

Lucie Ponting | Features | HSW | 01.10.2006

Regulations increasingly require businesses to check staff for signs of ill health. Lucie Ponting reports how surveillance to find the early signs of work-related ill health range from simple self-assessment, through to checks by occupational health professionals.