Often, questions also arise about when we should perform assessments? How long does it take to develop a risk assessment (e.g., LMRA - 1 minute, HAZOPS sometimes up to a year)? What role does risk assessment play in change management, or how to involve subcontractors in the process?

Many questions, and even more answers. We will continue to address the above and other questions in subsequent articles.

Our articles are based not only on Polish but also international standards and internal developments for various industries. We will gradually add links to the most interesting ones.

In Poland, risk assessment is commonly associated and will likely remain associated with occupational risk assessment for a long time. This methodology is legally required. However, we would like to draw attention to the methodology of operational and strategic risk assessment.

How many types of risk assessments are there?

Over the years, the risk assessment tool has evolved significantly and has become the basis for action in many organisations, companies, and even countries as a legal requirement. An example could be the introduction of risk assessment into the process of company cost development or change management.

We will also write about the difference between operational risk assessment (task-based) and strategic risk assessment (risk profiling). We often forget that the scale of risk acceptability starts from the management level and the determination of risks for the entire company. We will return to this and other interesting topics in subsequent articles.

Risk assessment is divided into methods such as quantitative or qualitative. And what is the difference between a risk assessment for work and a post-accident risk assessment known as Bow-Tie Analysis or risk assessment for machines? In our articles, we would like to present you with such types of risk assessments as FMEA, What-If, JSA, TRA, HAZOPS, HAZID, and many others.

In the next articles, we will also talk about the most common mistakes organisations encounter when developing risk assessments. A great example will be to demonstrate why we use the Hierarchy of Risk Control ERICPD in risk management but often forget about the Prevention Strategy for hazards at their source? Another example may be human error and its impact on the probability of an event occurring. Do you know the classification of human errors?

One of the main problems in Risk Assessment is located at the very foundations of our assessment system, namely, the definition of hazards and risks. We will try to address all these issues.

Operational Risk Assessment

Today, we focus on Operational Risk Assessment. It is primarily performed for a specific task. The task may be, for example, replacing a light bulb in the lighting or a complex operation of lifting two sets of self-propelled cranes. In many training sessions or workshops that we conduct together with our team, it often turns out that introducing risk assessment has improved mutual understanding among colleagues in various business spheres or operational activities.

Operational risk assessment is both a science, sharing knowledge, and consolidating procedures or standards according to which our organisation should function.

How detailed and specific our risk assessment needs to be depends on factors such as:

• Have we performed such work before?
• Will there be other companies on the site?
• Do we need to consider SIMOPS (work that may conflict with each other) and contractor/subcontractor management?
• Have there been accidents in the past while performing the work?
• What qualifications must individuals performing the work have?