a case study of a risk assessment reading answers

IELTS General Training Reading: Cambridge 13 Test 4 Section 2; A Case Study of a risk assessment for general office cleaning & Preparing for a virtual job interview; with top solutions and detailed explanations

This General Training IELTS Reading post focuses on solutions to IELTS Cambridge 13 Reading Test 4 Section 2 that has two texts titled ‘A Case Study of a risk assessment for general office cleaning’ & ‘Preparing for a virtual job interview’. This is a targeted post for GT IELTS candidates who have big problems finding out and understanding Reading Answers in the GT module. This post can guide you the best to understand every Reading answer without much trouble. Finding out IELTS Reading answers is a steady process, and this post will assist you in this respect.

IELTS Cambridge 13 Test 4: GT Reading Module

The headline of the text: a case study of a risk assessment for general office cleaning.

Questions 15-21: Completing FLOW-CHART with ONE WORD ONLY:

In this type of question, candidates are asked to write ONE WORD ONLY to complete some notes on the given flow-chart. For this type of question, first, skim the passage to find the keywords in the paragraph concerned with the answer, and then scan to find the exact word.

[ TIPS : Here, scanning technique will come in handy. Target the keywords of the questions to find the answers. Remember to focus on Proper nouns, random Capital letters, numbers, special characters of text etc.]

Title of the flow chart: Stages followed by manager in carrying out risk assessment

Question 15: He talked to health and safety ____________ about the risks.

Keywords for this question: talked to, health and safety, about the risks,

In the second paragraph, the author of the text says, “To identify the hazards, the cleaning service manager visited the office complex and walked through the areas where cleaning staff would be working, noting things that might pose potential risks. Following this, he consulted the health and safety representatives of the cleaning service about these risks , taking into account the needs of any particular staff members, such as whether they were pregnant or aged under 18.”

Here, consulted = talked to,

So, the answer is: representatives

Question 16: At a meeting, he talked to the client company about

the policy of the company regarding ____________ (e.g. clear walkways)

Keywords for this question: a meeting, talked to, client company, about, policy, e.g. clear walkways,

In paragraph no. 3, take a look at lines 1-4, “In order to gather further information, he then had a meeting with the client company during which a number of issues were discussed. These included the client company’s own standard of housekeeping , such as the immediate clearing up of spills and keeping walkways clear , . .. . .. . ”

Here, had a meeting with the client company = talked to the client company, client company’s own standard = the policy of the company, keeping walkways clear = e.g. clear walkways,

So, the answer is: housekeeping

Question 17:

procedures to be followed in case of a ____________

Keywords for this question: procedures, to be followed, in case of, a,

Take a look at lines 2-4 in paragraph no. 3, “ . . .. . .. . These included the client company’s own standard of housekeeping, such as the immediate clearing up of spills and keeping walkways clear, as well as the action to be taken if a fire broke out. .. . .. . ”. . .”

Here, action to be taken if = procedures to be followed in case of,

So, the answer is: fire

Question 18:

facilities available to cleaners (e.g. space available for ____________ )

Keywords for this question: facilities available, to cleaners, e.g. space available,

Lines 5-7 of the third paragraph say, “ . . . .. He also established what facilities and equipment would be available to the cleaners , including the amount of storage space available , as well as the availability of sinks and taps, etc.. .. .”

So, the answer is: storage

Question 19:

a way of ____________ risks and hazards.

Keywords for this question: a way of, risk and hazards,

The final few lines of paragraph no. 3 say, “.. . .. and agreed on a method of reporting near-miss accidents and risks discovered by cleaners (e.g. damaged floor tiles).”

Here, a method of = a way of, near-miss accidents and risks = risks and hazards,

So, the answer is: reporting

Question 20:

He compared these to information that the HSE provided on its ____________ .

Keywords for this question: compared, these, to information, HSE provided, on its,

The answer can be found in paragraph no. 4. Here, in the final lines, the author of the text writes, “ .. . . .. The manager then compared these to the good practice guidance set out on the HSE’s website and identified any areas where improvement was needed.”

Here, The manager then compared these = He compared these, to the good practice guidance = to information, set out on = provided on,

So, the answer is: website

Question 21:

He displayed a copy of the risk assessment inside a ___________ available to all cleaning staff.

Keywords for this question: displayed, a copy of, risk management, inside, a, available, all cleaning staff,

In the final paragraph, the writer of the text says in the final lines, “ . .. .. Finally, to ensure that all the cleaning staff had access to a copy of the risk assessment , the manager pinned a copy in the cupboard where cleaning equipment was kept.”

Here, the manager pinned a copy = He displayed a copy, all the cleaning staff had access = available to all cleaning staff,

So, the answer is: cupboard

The headline of the text: Preparing for a virtual job interview

Questions 22-27: Completing sentences with ONE WORD ONLY :

In this type of question, candidates are asked to write ONE WORD ONLY to complete sentences on the given topic. For this type of question, first, skim the passage to find the keywords in the paragraph concerned with the answer, and then scan to find the exact word.

[TIPS: Here scanning technique will come in handy. Target the keywords of the questions to find the answers. Remember to focus on Proper nouns, random Capital letters, numbers, special characters of text etc.]

Question 22: Some companies prefer to interview job applicants digitally because of lower ________ .

Keywords for this question : Some companies, prefer, interview job applicants, digitally, because, lower,

In paragraph no. 1, the writer says in the first lines, “Businesses are always looking for new ways to increase efficiency and profits. For example, organisations often reduce costs by conducting virtual job interviews . .. ..”

Here, organisations = some companies, reduce = lower, conducting virtual job interviews = prefer to interview job applicants digitally,

So, the answer is: costs

Question 23: As with the standard recruitment process, virtual recruitment opens with __________ .

Keywords for this question : As with, standard recruitment process, virtual recruitment, opens with,

In the ‘How a virtual interview is the same’ section, the first lines of the first paragraph say, “ The typical interview process usually entails multiple steps. First , there is screening , lasting about thirty minutes. .. … .”

Here, The typical interview process = the standard recruitment process, First = opens with,

So, the answer is: screening

Question 24: Applicants should read any details about the advertised post carefully and pick out important _____________ which they can discuss if necessary.

Keywords for this question : Applicants, should read, any details, advertised post, carefully, pick out, important, which, can discuss, if necessary,

Again, in the ‘How a virtual interview is the same’ section, the first lines of the second paragraph say, “Virtual interviews follow the same steps so you’ll need to focus on the same core topics. Identify what the critical topics are based on the job description and prepare to talk about them . If you can, gather inside information so you can impress interviewers with your knowledge.”

Here, Identify = pick out, critical = important, prepare to talk about them = they can discuss if necessary,

So, the answer is: topics

Question 25: It is a good idea for applicants to check if they can be clearly understood when they use a ______________ .

Keywords for this question : a good idea, for applicants, check, if they can be clearly understood, when, use a,

In the ‘How a virtual interview is different’ section, the first lines in the second paragraph say, “Modern technology is great when it works, but a pain when it doesn’t. So, it’s wise to check you can operate your webcam, especially if you don’t use it often. Test the headset too and find out how intelligible your voice sounds .”

Here, Test = check, find out how intelligible your voice sounds = to check if they can be clearly understood,

So, the answer is: headset

Question 26: Applicants may not be familiar with the ___________ that the person conducting the interview will use, so they should try it out.

Keywords for this question : Applicants, may not be familiar with, the person, conducting, interview, will use, so, should try it out,

Again in the ‘How a virtual interview is different’ section, the final lines in the second paragraph say, “ .. .. .. . It’s also wise to establish what software the interviewer is going to work with and give it a trial run .”

Here, interviewer = the person conducting the interview, is going to work with = will use, give it a trial run = should try it out,

So, the answer is: software

Question 27: It is very useful to go through a _____________ of the interview, with someone playing the part of the interviewer.

Keywords for this question : very useful, go through, a, of the interview, with someone playing, part of the interviewer,

In the ‘How a virtual interview is different’ section, the fourth paragraph says, “The most important part of your preparation is to run through everything first as best you can. Have a friend conduct a rehearsal with you before the big day. This will help you know how to behave in front of the camera .”

Here, a friend = someone playing the part of the interviewer, run through = go through, This will help you know how to behave in front of the camera = it is very useful,

So, the answer is: rehearsal

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Risk assessment for general office cleaning: IELTS Reading

IELTS General Test – Passage 18: A case study of a risk assessment for general office cleaning reading with answers explanation, location and pdf. This reading paragraph has been taken from our huge collection of Academic & General Training (GT) Reading practice test PDFs.

A case study of a risk assessment for general office cleaning

A commercial cleaning service took on a new contract to clean an office complex. Before sending cleaning staff to the offices, the manager of the cleaning service carried out a risk assessment using guidance provided by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

To identify the hazards, the cleaning service manager visited the office complex and walked through the areas where cleaning staff would be working, noting things that might pose potential risks. Following this, he consulted the health and safety representatives of the cleaning service about these risks, taking into account the needs of any particular staff members, such as whether they were pregnant or aged under 18.

In order to gather further information, he then had a meeting with the client company during which a number of issues were discussed. These included the client company’s own standard of housekeeping, such as the immediate clearing up of spills and keeping walkways clear, as well as the action to be taken if a fire broke out. He also established what facilities and equipment would be available to the cleaners, including the amount of storage space available, as well as the availability of sinks and taps, etc. and agreed on a method of reporting near-miss accidents and risks discovered by cleaners (e.g. damaged floor tiles).

Following the meeting, the manager created a risk assessment document. He wrote down who could be harmed by each risk or hazard identified and in what way, and he then described what controls, if any, were in existence to manage these hazards. The manager then compared these to the good practice guidance set out on the HSE’s website and identified any areas where improvement was needed.

The manager discussed the findings with the cleaning staff, making sure they understood the risks of the job and how these risks would be monitored. One cleaner, whose first language was not English, had difficulty understanding this, so the manager arranged for translation to be done by a bilingual cleaner from another team. Finally, to ensure that all the cleaning staff had access to a copy of the risk assessment, the manager pinned a copy in the cupboard where cleaning equipment was kept.

Questions 15-21

Complete the flow-chart below.

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the text for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 15-21 on your answer sheet.

Stages followed by manager in carrying out risk assessment

He visited the offices to be cleaned and noted potential risks.

He talked to health and safety 15 …………………… about the risks.

At a meeting, he talked to the client company about

• the policy of the company regarding 16 …………………… (e.g. clear walkways)

• procedures to be followed in case of a 17 ……………………

• facilities available to cleaners (e.g. space available for 18 ……………………)

• a way of 19 …………………… risks and hazards.

He created a risk assessment document identifying existing controls of risks and hazards.

He compared these to information that the HSE provided on its 20 …………………… .

He displayed a copy of the risk assessment inside a 21 …………………… available to all cleaning staff.

________________

1) IELTS 13 READING PASSAGE – VANILLA: THE MOST WONDERFUL FLAVOUR ↗

2) IELTS 13 READING PASSAGE – TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY COMPETITION ↗

3) IELTS 13 READING PASSAGE – RUNNING HEADPHONES ↗

4) IELTS 13 READING PASSAGE – PREPARING FOR VIRTUAL JOB INTERVIEW ↗

5) IELTS 13 READING PASSAGE – TUNING UP YOUR LEADERSHIP SKILLS ↗

A case study of a risk assessment for general office cleaning Answers

Check out A case study of a risk assessment for general office cleaning reading answers below with explanations and locations given in the text.

15 representatives

16 housekeeping

17 fire

18 storage

19 reporting

20 website

21 cupboard

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Test 41: Section # 2 – A case study of a risk assessment & Preparing for a virtual job interview

GT Reading Mock Test 41: Section 1 | Section 2 | Section 3 |

GT Reading Test 41: Section # 2

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 15-27 , which are based on Reading Passage below.

Write answers to questions in boxes 15-27 on your answer sheet.

Read the text below and answer Questions 15-21 .

A case study of a risk assessment for general office cleaning

Questions 15-21 Complete the flow-chart below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the text for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 15-21 on your answer sheet.

Stages followed by manager in carrying out risk assessment

He visited the offices to be cleaned and noted potential risks. ↓ He talked to health and safety 15 …………………. about the risks. ↓ At a meeting, he talked to the client company about • the policy of the company regarding 16 …………………. (e.g. clear walkways) • procedures to be followed in case of a 17 …………………. • facilities available to cleaners (e.g. space available for 18 ………………….) • a way of 19 …………………. risks and hazards. ↓ He created a risk assessment document identifying existing controls of risks and hazards. ↓ He compared these to information that the HSE provided on its 20 …………………. ↓ He displayed a copy of the risk assessment inside a 21 …………………. available to all cleaning staff.

Read the text below and answer Questions 22-27 .

Preparing for a virtual job interview

Businesses are always looking for new ways to increase efficiency and profits. For example, organisations often reduce costs by conducting virtual job interviews. The video or Skype interview benefits both interviewer and interviewee, especially when an applicant would otherwise need to travel far. Despite the convenience though, it poses unique challenges.

How a virtual interview is the same The typical interview process usually entails multiple steps. First, there is screening, lasting about thirty minutes. Its purpose is to ensure candidates have the basic requirements. In the second interview, they’re assessed for their technical skills and on whether they would fit the organisation.

Virtual interviews follow the same steps so you’ll need to focus on the same core topics. Identify what the critical topics are based on the job description and prepare to talk about them. If you can, gather inside information so you can impress interviewers with your knowledge.

How a virtual interview is different Normally you travel somewhere for an interview. One advantage of that is that you aren’t responsible for the place, whereas in a virtual interview you must ensure you have an appropriate location and appropriate equipment.

Modern technology is great when it works, but a pain when it doesn’t. So, it’s wise to check you can operate your webcam, especially if you don’t use it often. Test the headset too and find out how intelligible your voice sounds. It’s also wise to establish what software the interviewer is going to work with and give it a trial run.

Probably the biggest problem in a virtual interview is what the camera can see. You want the interviewer to see you as a professional. Having a messy or cluttered room behind you won’t help you achieve this image – a clear white background is usually a safe bet.

The most important part of your preparation is to run through everything first as best you can. Have a friend conduct a rehearsal with you before the big day. This will help you know how to behave in front of the camera.

All things considered, though, virtual interviews should be treated like any other type of interview. Being at home requires as much preparation as a traditional interview. If you follow the steps mentioned above, you have every chance of getting the job you want. Good luck!

Questions 22-27 Complete the sentences below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the text for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 22-27 on your answer sheet.

22. Some companies prefer to interview job applicants digitally because of lower …………………. . 23. As with the standard recruitment process, virtual recruitment opens with …………………. . 24. Applicants should read any details about the advertised post carefully and pick out important …………………. which they can discuss if necessary. 25. It is a good idea for applicants to check if they can be clearly understood when they use a …………………. . 26. Applicants may not be familiar with the …………………. that the person conducting the interview will use, so they should try it out. 27. It is very useful to go through a …………………. of the interview, with someone playing the part of the interviewer.

Risk assessment for general office cleaning & Preparing for a virtual job interview: Reading Answers

15. representatives 16. housekeeping 17. fire 18. storage 19. reporting 20. website 21. cupboard 22. costs 23. screening 24. topics 25. headset 26. software 27. rehearsal

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A case study of a risk assessment for general office cleaning

Assessing the risk

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Exam Review

As a title for a supposedly unprejudiced debate on scientific progress, “Panic attack: interrogating our obsession with risk” did not bode well. Held last week at the Royal Institution in London, the event brought together scientists from across the world to ask why society is so obsessed with risk and to call for a “more rational” approach. “We seem to be organising society around the grandmotherly maxim of ‘better safe than sorry’,” exclaimed Spiked, the online publication that organised the event. “What are the consequences of this overbearing concern with risks?”

The debate was preceded by a survey of 40 scientists who were invited to describe how awful our lives would be if the “precautionary principle” had been allowed to prevail in the past. Their response was: no heart surgery or antibiotics, and hardly any drugs at all; no aeroplanes, bicycles or high-voltage power grids; no pasteurisation, pesticides or biotechnology; no quantum mechanics; no wheel; no “discovery” of America. In short, their message was: no risk, no gain.

They have absolutely missed the point. The precautionary principle is a subtle idea. It has various forms, but all of them generally include some notion of cost-effectiveness. Thus the point is not simply to ban things that are not known to be absolutely safe. Rather, it says: “Of course you can make no progress without risk. But if there is no obvious gain from taking the risk, then don’t take it.”

Clearly, all the technologies listed by the 40 well-chosen savants were innately risky at their inception, as all technologies are. But all of them would have received the green light under the precautionary principle because they all had the potential to offer tremendous benefits – the solutions to very big problems – if only the snags could be overcome.

If the precautionary principle had been in place, the scientists tell us, we would not have antibiotics. But of course, we would – if the version of the principle that sensible people now understand had been applied. When penicillin was discovered in the 1920s, infective bacteria were laying waste to the world. Children died from diphtheria and whooping cough, every open-drain brought the threat of typhoid, and any wound could lead to septicaemia and even gangrene.

Penicillin was turned into a practical drug during the Second World War when the many pestilences that result from were threatened to kill more people than the bombs. Of course antibiotics were a priority. Of course, the risks, such as they could be perceived, were worth taking.

And so with the other items on the scientists’ list: electric light bulbs, blood transfusions. CAT scans, knives, the measles vaccine – the precautionary principle would have prevented all of them, they tell us. But this is just plain wrong. If the precautionary principle had been applied properly, all these creations would have passed muster, because all offered incomparable advantages compared to the risks perceived at the time.

Another issue is at stake here. Statistics are not the only concept people use when weighing up risk. Human beings, subtle and evolved creatures that we are, do not survive to three-score years and ten simply by thinking like pocket calculators. A crucial issue is the consumer’s choice. In deciding whether to pursue the development of new technology, the consumer’s right to choose should be considered alongside considerations of risk and benefit. Clearly, skiing is more dangerous than genetically modified tomatoes. But people who ski choose to do so; they do not have skiing thrust upon them by portentous experts of the kind who now feel they have the right to reconstruct our crops. Even with skiing, there is the matter of cost-effectiveness to consider: skiing, I am told, is exhilarating. Where is the exhilaration in GM soya?

Indeed, in contrast to all the other items on Spiked’s list, GM crops stand out as an example of a technology whose benefits are far from clear. Some of the risks can at least be defined. But in the present economic climate, the benefits that might accrue from them seem dubious. Promoters of GM crops believe that the future population of the world cannot be fed without them. That is untrue. The crops that really matter are wheat and rice, and there is no GM research in the pipeline that will seriously affect the yield of either. GM is used to make production cheaper and hence more profitable, which is an extremely questionable ambition.

The precautionary principle provides the world with a very important safeguard. If it had been in place in the past it might, for example, have prevented insouciant miners from polluting major rivers with mercury. We have come to a sorry pass when scientists, who should above all be dispassionate scholars, feel they should misrepresent such a principle for the purposes of commercial and political propaganda. People at large continue to mistrust science and the high technologies it produces partly because they doubt the wisdom of scientists. On such evidence as this, these doubts are fully justified.

Questions 1-6

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage?

In boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement is true

FALSE if the statement is false

NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the passage

1 TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN The title of the debate is not unbiased. Answer: TRUE

2 TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN All the scientists invited to the debate were from the field of medicine. Answer: NOT GIVEN

3 TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN The message those scientists who conducted the survey were sending was people shouldn’t take risks. Answer: FALSE

4 TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN All the 40 listed technologies are riskier than other technologies. Answer: NOT GIVEN

5 TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN It was worth taking the risks to invent antibiotics. Answer: TRUE

6 TRUE FALSE NOT GIVEN All the other inventions on the list were also judged by the precautionary principle. Answer: NOT GIVEN

Questions 7-13

Complete the following summary of the paragraphs of Reading Passage

Using NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the Reading Passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 7-13 on your answer sheet.

When applying the precautionary principle to decide whether to invent a new technology, people should also the consideration of the 7 Answer: consumer’s right , along with the usual consideration of 8 Answer: risk and benefit . For example, though risky and dangerous enough, people still enjoy 9 Answer: Skiing for the excitement it provides. On the other hand, experts believe that future population desperately needs 10 Answer: GM crops in spite of their undefined risks. However, the researchers conducted so far have not been directed towards increasing the yield of 11 Answer: wheat and rice , but to reduce the cost of 12 Answer: production and to bring more profit out of it. In the end, such selfish use of the precautionary principle for business and political gain has often led people to 13 Answer: mistrust science for they believe scientists are not to be trusted.

Question 14

Choose the correct letter, A , B , C or D .

Write your answers in boxes 14 on your answer sheet.

14. What is the main theme of the passage?

A people have the right to doubt science and technologies

B the precautionary principle could have prevented the development of science and technology

C there are not enough people who truly understand the precautionary principle

D the precautionary principle bids us take risks at all costs Answer: A

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A complete guide to the risk assessment process

Lucid Content

Reading time: about 7 min

Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, once said, “The biggest risk is not taking any risk. In a world that's changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.”

While this advice isn't new, we think you’ll agree that there are some risks your company doesn’t want to take: Risks that put the health and well-being of your employees in danger.

These are risks that aren’t worth taking. But it’s not always clear what actions, policies, or procedures are high-risk.

That’s where a risk assessment comes in.

With a risk assessment, companies can identify and prepare for potential risks in order to avoid catastrophic consequences down the road and keep their personnel safe.

What is risk assessment?

During the risk assessment process, employers review and evaluate their organizations to:

Identify processes and situations that may cause harm, particularly to people (hazard identification).
Determine how likely it is that each hazard will occur and how severe the consequences would be (risk analysis and evaluation).
Decide what steps the organization can take to stop these hazards from occurring or to control the risk when the hazard can't be eliminated (risk control).

It’s important to note the difference between hazards and risks. A hazard is anything that can cause harm , including work accidents, emergency situations, toxic chemicals, employee conflicts, stress, and more. A risk, on the other hand, is the chance that a hazard will cause harm . As part of your risk assessment plan, you will first identify potential hazards and then calculate the risk or likelihood of those hazards occurring.

The goal of a risk assessment will vary across industries, but overall, the goal is to help organizations prepare for and combat risk. Other goals include:

Providing an analysis of possible threats
Preventing injuries or illnesses
Meeting legal requirements
Creating awareness about hazards and risk
Creating an accurate inventory of available assets
Justifying the costs of managing risks
Determining the budget to remediate risks
Understanding the return on investment

Businesses should perform a risk assessment before introducing new processes or activities, before introducing changes to existing processes or activities (such as changing machinery), or when the company identifies a new hazard.

The steps used in risk assessment form an integral part of your organization’s health and safety management plan and ensure that your organization is prepared to handle any risk.

Preparing for your risk assessment

Before you start the risk management process, you should determine the scope of the assessment, necessary resources, stakeholders involved, and laws and regulations that you’ll need to follow.

Scope: Define the processes, activities, functions, and physical locations included within your risk assessment. The scope of your assessment impacts the time and resources you will need to complete it, so it’s important to clearly outline what is included (and what isn’t) to accurately plan and budget.

Resources : What resources will you need to conduct the risk assessment? This includes the time, personnel, and financial resources required to develop, implement, and manage the risk assessment.

Stakeholders: Who is involved in the risk assessment? In addition to senior leaders that need to be kept in the loop, you’ll also need to organize an assessment team. Designate who will fill key roles such as risk manager, assessment team leader, risk assessors, and any subject matter experts.

Laws and regulations: Different industries will have specific regulations and legal requirements governing risk and work hazards. For instance, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) sets and enforces working condition standards for most private and public sectors. Plan your assessment with these regulations in mind so you can ensure your organization is compliant.

5 steps in the risk assessment process

Once you've planned and allocated the necessary resources, you can begin the risk assessment process.

Proceed with these five steps.

1. Identify the hazards

The first step to creating your risk assessment is determining what hazards your employees and your business face, including:

Natural disasters (flooding, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, fire, etc.)
Biological hazards (pandemic diseases, foodborne illnesses, etc.)
Workplace accidents (slips and trips, transportation accidents, structural failure, mechanical breakdowns, etc.)
Intentional acts (labor strikes, demonstrations, bomb threats, robbery, arson, etc.)
Technological hazards (lost Internet connection, power outage, etc.)
Chemical hazards (asbestos, cleaning fluids, etc.)
Mental hazards (excess workload, bullying, etc.)
Interruptions in the supply chain

Take a look around your workplace and see what processes or activities could potentially harm your organization. Include all aspects of work, including remote workers and non-routine activities such as repair and maintenance. You should also look at accident/incident reports to determine what hazards have impacted your company in the past.

Use Lucidchart to break down tasks into potential hazards and assets at risk—try our free template below.

2. Determine who might be harmed and how

As you look around your organization, think about how your employees could be harmed by business activities or external factors. For every hazard that you identify in step one, think about who will be harmed should the hazard take place.

3. Evaluate the risks and take precautions

Now that you have gathered a list of potential hazards, you need to consider how likely it is that the hazard will occur and how severe the consequences will be if that hazard occurs. This evaluation will help you determine where you should reduce the level of risk and which hazards you should prioritize first.

Later in this article, you'll learn how you can create a risk assessment chart to help you through this process.

4. Record your findings

If you have more than five employees in your office, you are required by law to write down your risk assessment process. Your plan should include the hazards you’ve found, the people they affect, and how you plan to mitigate them. The record—or the risk assessment plan—should show that you:

Conducted a proper check of your workspace
Determined who would be affected
Controlled and dealt with obvious hazards
Initiated precautions to keep risks low
Kept your staff involved in the process

5. Review your assessment and update if necessary

Your workplace is always changing, so the risks to your organization change as well. As new equipment, processes, and people are introduced, each brings the risk of a new hazard. Continually review and update your risk assessment process to stay on top of these new hazards.

How to create a risk assessment chart

Even though you need to be aware of the risks facing your organization, you shouldn’t try to fix all of them at once—risk mitigation can get expensive and can stretch your resources. Instead, prioritize risks to focus your time and effort on preventing the most important hazards. To help you prioritize your risks, create a risk assessment chart.

The risk assessment chart is based on the principle that a risk has two primary dimensions: probability and impact, each represented on one axis of the chart. You can use these two measures to plot risks on the chart, which allows you to determine priority and resource allocation.

Be prepared for anything

By applying the risk assessment steps mentioned above, you can manage any potential risk to your business. Get prepared with your risk assessment plan—take the time to look for the hazards facing your business and figure out how to manage them.

Now it's time to create your own risk management process, here are five steps to get you started.

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While you can’t entirely avoid risk, you can anticipate and mitigate risks through an established risk management process. Follow these steps!

Implement the strategic planning process to make measurable progress toward achieving your company’s vision and make decisions that will keep you on the path to success for years to come.

Bring your bright ideas to life.

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How to Do a Risk Assessment: A Case Study

Healthy , Organizational Leadership , Winning Strategy | Execution , Organizational Health Management , Risk management , Strategic planning

how to do a risk assessment a case study

Christian Leadership Reflections

An exploration of Christian ministry leadership led by CCCC's CEO John Pellowe

There’s no shortage of consultants and authors to tell boards and senior leaders that risk assessment is something that should be done. Everyone knows that. But in the chronically short-staffed world of the charitable sector, who has time to do it well? It’s too easy to cross your fingers and hope disaster won’t happen to you!

If that’s you crossing your fingers, the good news is that risk assessment isn’t as complicated as it sounds, so don’t be intimidated by it. It doesn’t have to take a lot of time, and you can easily prioritize the risks and attack them a few at a time. I recently did a risk assessment for CCCC and the process of creating it was quite manageable while also being very thorough.

I’ll share my experience of creating a risk assessment so you can see how easy it is to do.

Step 1: Identify Risks

The first step is obvious – identify the risks you face. The trick is how you identify those risks. On your own, you might get locked into one way of thinking about risk, such as people suing you, so you become fixated on legal risk. But what about technological risks or funding risks or any other kind of risk?

I found a helpful way to identify the full range of risks is to address risk from three perspectives:

Two of the mission-related risks we identified at CCCC were 1) if we gave wrong information that a member relied upon to their detriment; and 2) if a Certified member had a public scandal.
We listed several risks to organization health for CCCC. Among them were 1) a disaster that would shut down our operations at least temporarily, and 2) a major loss from an innovation that did not work.
We identified a risk related to the sociopolitical environment.

I began the risk assessment by reviewing CCCC from these three perspectives on my own. I scanned our theory of change, our strategy map, and our programs to identify potential risks. I then reviewed everything we had that related to organizational health, which included our Vision 2020 document (written to proactively address organizational health over the next five years), financial trends, a consultant’s report on a member survey, and a review of our operations by an expert in Canadian associations. I also thought about our experience over the past few years and conversations I’ve had with people. Finally, I went over everything we know about our environments and did some Internet research to see what else was being said that might affect us.

With all of this information, I then answered questions such as the following:

What assumptions have I made about current or future conditions? How valid are the assumptions?
What are my nightmare scenarios?
What do I avoid thinking about or just hope never happens?
What have I heard that went wrong with other organizations like ours?
What am I confident will never happen to us? Hubris is the downfall of many!
What is becoming more scarce or difficult for us?

At this point, I created a draft list of about ten major risks and distributed it to my leadership team for discussion. At that meeting we added three additional risks. Since the board had asked for a report from staff for them to review and discuss at the next board meeting, we did not involve them at this point.

Step 2: Probability/Impact Assessment

Once you have the risks identified, you need to assess how significant they are in order to prioritize how you deal with them. Risks are rated on two factors:

How likely they are to happen (That is, their Probability )
How much of an effect could they have on your ministry (Their anticipated Impact )

Each of these two factors can be rated High , Medium , or Low . Here’s how I define those categories:

High : The risk either occurs regularly (such as hurricanes in Florida) or something specific is brewing and becoming more significant over time, such that it could affect your ministry in the next few years.
Medium : The risk happens from time to time each year, and someone will suffer from it (such as a fire or a burglary). You may have an elevated risk of suffering the problem or you might have just a general risk, such as everyone else has. There may also be a general trend that is not a particular problem at present but it could affect you over the longer term,
Low : It’s possible that it could happen, but it rarely does. The risk is largely hypothetical.
High : If the risk happened, it would be a critical life or death situation for the ministry. At the least, if you survive it would change the future of the ministry and at its worst, the ministry may not be able to recover from the damage and closure would be the only option.
Medium : The risk would create a desperate situation requiring possibly radical solutions, but there would be a reasonable chance of recovering from the effects of the risk without long term damage.
Low : The risk would cause an unwelcome interruption of normal activity, but the damage could be overcome with fairly routine responses. There would be no question of what to do, it would just be a matter of doing it.

I discussed my assessments of the risks with staff and then listed them in the agreed-upon priority order in six Probability/Impact combinations:

High/High – 2 risks
High/Medium – 1 risk
Medium/High – 2 risks
Medium/Medium – 3 risks
Low/High – 3 risks
Low/Medium – 2 risks

I felt that the combinations High/Low, Medium/Low, and Low/Low weren’t significant enough to include in the assessment. The point of prioritizing is to help you be a good steward as you allocate time and money to address the significant risks. With only thirteen risks, CCCC can address them all, but we know which ones need attention most urgently.

Step 3: Manage Risk

After you have assessed the risks your ministry faces (steps 1 and 2), you arrive at the point where you can start managing the risks. The options for managing boil down to three strategies:

Prevent : The risk might be avoided by changing how you do things. It may mean purchasing additional equipment or redesigning a program. In most cases, though, you probably won’t actually be able to prevent the risk from ever happening. More likely you will only be able to mitigate the risk.
Mitigate : Mitigate means to make less severe, serious, or painful. There are two ways to mitigate risk: 1) find ways to make it less likely to happen; and 2) lessen the impact of the risk if it happens. Finding ways to mitigate risk and then implementing the plan will take up most of the time you spend on risk assessment and management. This is where you need to think creatively about possible strategies and action steps. You will also document the mitigating steps you have already taken.
Transfer or Eliminate : If you can’t prevent the risk from happening or mitigate the likelihood or impact of the risk, you are left with either transferring the risk to someone else (such as by purchasing insurance) or getting rid of whatever is causing the risk so that the risk is no longer applicable. For example, a church with a rock climbing wall might purchase insurance to cover the risk or it might simply take the wall down so that the risk no longer exists.

Step 4: Final Assessment

Armed with all this information, it’s time to prepare a risk report for final review by management and then the board. I’ve included a download in this post to help you write the report. It is a template document with an executive summary and then a detailed report. They are partially filled out so you can see how it is used.

After preparing your report, review it and consider whether or not the mitigating steps and recommendations are sufficient, Do you really want to eliminate some aspect of your ministry to avoid risk? Do you believe that whatever action has been recommended is satisfactory and in keeping with the ministry’s mission and values? Are there any other ways to get the same goal achieved or purpose fulfilled without attracting risk?

Finally, after all the risk assessment and risk management work has been done, the ministry is left with two choices:

Accept whatever risk is left and get on with the ministry’s work
Reject the remaining risk and eliminate it by getting rid of the source of the risk

Step 5: Ongoing Risk Management

On a regular basis, in keeping with the type of risk and its threat, the risk assessment and risk management plan should be reviewed to see if it is still valid. Have circumstances changed? Are the plans working? Review the plan and adjust as necessary.

Key Thought: You have to deal with risk to be a good steward, and it is not hard to do.

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Issues in Risk Assessment (1993)

Chapter: analysis of case studies.

identification in the case studies are as important in the presentation of hazard data as they are for health risk assessment.

Discussion of other questions suggested that the scope and definition of ecological risk assessment might be broader than the scope and definition of human health risk assessment in the Red Book. For example, risk management considerations (management and political pressures, social costs, economic considerations, and regulatory outcomes) were ingredients in all case studies and related discussions. Much attention was paid to the influence of management on the scope and design of assessment. Such considerations are absent from discussions of health risk assessment. Some participants also felt that generation of new data should be treated as an aspect of risk assessment, rather than restricting risk assessment to evaluation of data that are already in hand.

Discussion leaders questioned the role of valuation in hazard identification, but this issue was not discussed in detail. In view of repeated references to the question of end point selection as a valuation decision, additional examination on this point is needed.

The case studies illustrated the importance of a systematic presentation and evaluation of data used to identify hazard. Discussion leaders noted that presentation of hazard data was highly variable in the case studies and suggested that some of the hazard identification principles that guide health hazard evaluation might be useful, including emphasis on a complete and balanced picture of relevant hazard information. Specific criteria and questions that are critical to identifying ecological risk are needed to develop an operational definition of complete and balanced .

Analysis of Case Studies

Examination of the case studies revealed a variety of approaches to ecological hazard identification.

For the tributyltin study, hazard identification was based initially on field studies. Retrospective epidemiological studies included a monitoring program (both biological and chemical) and laboratory investigation of cause-effect relationships.

In pesticide risk assessments, as exemplified by the agricultural chemicals case study, neither laboratory nor field studies are required to establish a hazard. Instead, there is a regulatory presumption of hazard.

The scientific basis, inference assumptions, regulatory uses, and research needs in risk assessment are considered in this two-part volume.

The first part, Use of Maximum Tolerated Dose in Animal Bioassays for Carcinogenicity, focuses on whether the maximum tolerated dose should continue to be used in carcinogenesis bioassays. The committee considers several options for modifying current bioassay procedures.

The second part, Two-Stage Models of Carcinogenesis, stems from efforts to identify improved means of cancer risk assessment that have resulted in the development of a mathematical dose-response model based on a paradigm for the biologic phenomena thought to be associated with carcinogenesis.

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Enterprise Risk Management Case Studies: Heroes and Zeros

By Andy Marker | April 7, 2021

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We’ve compiled more than 20 case studies of enterprise risk management programs that illustrate how companies can prevent significant losses yet take risks with more confidence.

Included on this page, you’ll find case studies and examples by industry , case studies of major risk scenarios (and company responses), and examples of ERM successes and failures .

Enterprise Risk Management Examples and Case Studies

With enterprise risk management (ERM) , companies assess potential risks that could derail strategic objectives and implement measures to minimize or avoid those risks. You can analyze examples (or case studies) of enterprise risk management to better understand the concept and how to properly execute it.

The collection of examples and case studies on this page illustrates common risk management scenarios by industry, principle, and degree of success. For a basic overview of enterprise risk management, including major types of risks, how to develop policies, and how to identify key risk indicators (KRIs), read “ Enterprise Risk Management 101: Programs, Frameworks, and Advice from Experts .”

Enterprise Risk Management Framework Examples

An enterprise risk management framework is a system by which you assess and mitigate potential risks. The framework varies by industry, but most include roles and responsibilities, a methodology for risk identification, a risk appetite statement, risk prioritization, mitigation strategies, and monitoring and reporting.

To learn more about enterprise risk management and find examples of different frameworks, read our “ Ultimate Guide to Enterprise Risk Management .”

Enterprise Risk Management Examples and Case Studies by Industry

Though every firm faces unique risks, those in the same industry often share similar risks. By understanding industry-wide common risks, you can create and implement response plans that offer your firm a competitive advantage.

Enterprise Risk Management Example in Banking

Toronto-headquartered TD Bank organizes its risk management around two pillars: a risk management framework and risk appetite statement. The enterprise risk framework defines the risks the bank faces and lays out risk management practices to identify, assess, and control risk. The risk appetite statement outlines the bank’s willingness to take on risk to achieve its growth objectives. Both pillars are overseen by the risk committee of the company’s board of directors.

Risk management frameworks were an important part of the International Organization for Standardization’s 31000 standard when it was first written in 2009 and have been updated since then. The standards provide universal guidelines for risk management programs.

Risk management frameworks also resulted from the efforts of the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO). The group was formed to fight corporate fraud and included risk management as a dimension.

Once TD completes the ERM framework, the bank moves onto the risk appetite statement.

The bank, which built a large U.S. presence through major acquisitions, determined that it will only take on risks that meet the following three criteria:

The risk fits the company’s strategy, and TD can understand and manage those risks.
The risk does not render the bank vulnerable to significant loss from a single risk.
The risk does not expose the company to potential harm to its brand and reputation.

Some of the major risks the bank faces include strategic risk, credit risk, market risk, liquidity risk, operational risk, insurance risk, capital adequacy risk, regulator risk, and reputation risk. Managers detail these categories in a risk inventory.

The risk framework and appetite statement, which are tracked on a dashboard against metrics such as capital adequacy and credit risk, are reviewed annually.

TD uses a three lines of defense (3LOD) strategy, an approach widely favored by ERM experts, to guard against risk. The three lines are as follows:

A business unit and corporate policies that create controls, as well as manage and monitor risk
Standards and governance that provide oversight and review of risks and compliance with the risk appetite and framework
Internal audits that provide independent checks and verification that risk-management procedures are effective

Enterprise Risk Management Example in Pharmaceuticals

Drug companies’ risks include threats around product quality and safety, regulatory action, and consumer trust. To avoid these risks, ERM experts emphasize the importance of making sure that strategic goals do not conflict.

For Britain’s GlaxoSmithKline, such a conflict led to a breakdown in risk management, among other issues. In the early 2000s, the company was striving to increase sales and profitability while also ensuring safe and effective medicines. One risk the company faced was a failure to meet current good manufacturing practices (CGMP) at its plant in Cidra, Puerto Rico.

CGMP includes implementing oversight and controls of manufacturing, as well as managing the risk and confirming the safety of raw materials and finished drug products. Noncompliance with CGMP can result in escalating consequences, ranging from warnings to recalls to criminal prosecution.

GSK’s unit pleaded guilty and paid $750 million in 2010 to resolve U.S. charges related to drugs made at the Cidra plant, which the company later closed. A fired GSK quality manager alerted regulators and filed a whistleblower lawsuit in 2004. In announcing the consent decree, the U.S. Department of Justice said the plant had a history of bacterial contamination and multiple drugs created there in the early 2000s violated safety standards.

According to the whistleblower, GSK’s ERM process failed in several respects to act on signs of non-compliance with CGMP. The company received warning letters from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2001 about the plant’s practices, but did not resolve the issues.

Additionally, the company didn’t act on the quality manager’s compliance report, which advised GSK to close the plant for two weeks to fix the problems and notify the FDA. According to court filings, plant staff merely skimmed rejected products and sold them on the black market. They also scraped by hand the inside of an antibiotic tank to get more product and, in so doing, introduced bacteria into the product.

Enterprise Risk Management Example in Consumer Packaged Goods

Mars Inc., an international candy and food company, developed an ERM process. The company piloted and deployed the initiative through workshops with geographic, product, and functional teams from 2003 to 2012.

Driven by a desire to frame risk as an opportunity and to work within the company’s decentralized structure, Mars created a process that asked participants to identify potential risks and vote on which had the highest probability. The teams listed risk mitigation steps, then ranked and color-coded them according to probability of success.

Larry Warner, a Mars risk officer at the time, illustrated this process in a case study . An initiative to increase direct-to-consumer shipments by 12 percent was colored green, indicating a 75 percent or greater probability of achievement. The initiative to bring a new plant online by the end of Q3 was coded red, meaning less than a 50 percent probability of success.

The company’s results were hurt by a surprise at an operating unit that resulted from a so-coded red risk identified in a unit workshop. Executives had agreed that some red risk profile was to be expected, but they decided that when a unit encountered a red issue, it must be communicated upward when first identified. This became a rule.

This process led to the creation of an ERM dashboard that listed initiatives in priority order, with the profile of each risk faced in the quarter, the risk profile trend, and a comment column for a year-end view.

According to Warner, the key factors of success for ERM at Mars are as follows:

The initiative focused on achieving operational and strategic objectives rather than compliance, which refers to adhering to established rules and regulations.
The program evolved, often based on requests from business units, and incorporated continuous improvement.
The ERM team did not overpromise. It set realistic objectives.
The ERM team periodically surveyed business units, management teams, and board advisers.

Enterprise Risk Management Example in Retail

Walmart is the world’s biggest retailer. As such, the company understands that its risk makeup is complex, given the geographic spread of its operations and its large number of stores, vast supply chain, and high profile as an employer and buyer of goods.

In the 1990s, the company sought a simplified strategy for assessing risk and created an enterprise risk management plan with five steps founded on these four questions:

What are the risks?
What are we going to do about them?
How will we know if we are raising or decreasing risk?
How will we show shareholder value?

The process follows these five steps:

Risk Identification: Senior Walmart leaders meet in workshops to identify risks, which are then plotted on a graph of probability vs. impact. Doing so helps to prioritize the biggest risks. The executives then look at seven risk categories (both internal and external): legal/regulatory, political, business environment, strategic, operational, financial, and integrity. Many ERM pros use risk registers to evaluate and determine the priority of risks. You can download templates that help correlate risk probability and potential impact in “ Free Risk Register Templates .”
Risk Mitigation: Teams that include operational staff in the relevant area meet. They use existing inventory procedures to address the risks and determine if the procedures are effective.
Action Planning: A project team identifies and implements next steps over the several months to follow.
Performance Metrics: The group develops metrics to measure the impact of the changes. They also look at trends of actual performance compared to goal over time.
Return on Investment and Shareholder Value: In this step, the group assesses the changes’ impact on sales and expenses to determine if the moves improved shareholder value and ROI.

To develop your own risk management planning, you can download a customizable template in “ Risk Management Plan Templates .”

Enterprise Risk Management Example in Agriculture

United Grain Growers (UGG), a Canadian grain distributor that now is part of Glencore Ltd., was hailed as an ERM innovator and became the subject of business school case studies for its enterprise risk management program. This initiative addressed the risks associated with weather for its business. Crop volume drove UGG’s revenue and profits.

In the late 1990s, UGG identified its major unaddressed risks. Using almost a century of data, risk analysts found that extreme weather events occurred 10 times as frequently as previously believed. The company worked with its insurance broker and the Swiss Re Group on a solution that added grain-volume risk (resulting from weather fluctuations) to its other insured risks, such as property and liability, in an integrated program.

The result was insurance that protected grain-handling earnings, which comprised half of UGG’s gross profits. The greater financial stability significantly enhanced the firm’s ability to achieve its strategic objectives.

Since then, the number and types of instruments to manage weather-related risks has multiplied rapidly. For example, over-the-counter derivatives, such as futures and options, began trading in 1997. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange now offers weather futures contracts on 12 U.S. and international cities.

Weather derivatives are linked to climate factors such as rainfall or temperature, and they hedge different kinds of risks than do insurance. These risks are much more common (e.g., a cooler-than-normal summer) than the earthquakes and floods that insurance typically covers. And the holders of derivatives do not have to incur any damage to collect on them.

These weather-linked instruments have found a wider audience than anticipated, including retailers that worry about freak storms decimating Christmas sales, amusement park operators fearing rainy summers will keep crowds away, and energy companies needing to hedge demand for heating and cooling.

This area of ERM continues to evolve because weather and crop insurance are not enough to address all the risks that agriculture faces. Arbol, Inc. estimates that more than $1 trillion of agricultural risk is uninsured. As such, it is launching a blockchain-based platform that offers contracts (customized by location and risk parameters) with payouts based on weather data. These contracts can cover risks associated with niche crops and small growing areas.

Enterprise Risk Management Example in Insurance

Switzerland’s Zurich Insurance Group understands that risk is inherent for insurers and seeks to practice disciplined risk-taking, within a predetermined risk tolerance.

The global insurer’s enterprise risk management framework aims to protect capital, liquidity, earnings, and reputation. Governance serves as the basis for risk management, and the framework lays out responsibilities for taking, managing, monitoring, and reporting risks.

The company uses a proprietary process called Total Risk Profiling (TRP) to monitor internal and external risks to its strategy and financial plan. TRP assesses risk on the basis of severity and probability, and helps define and implement mitigating moves.

Zurich’s risk appetite sets parameters for its tolerance within the goal of maintaining enough capital to achieve an AA rating from rating agencies. For this, the company uses its own Zurich economic capital model, referred to as Z-ECM. The model quantifies risk tolerance with a metric that assesses risk profile vs. risk tolerance.

To maintain the AA rating, the company aims to hold capital between 100 and 120 percent of capital at risk. Above 140 percent is considered overcapitalized (therefore at risk of throttling growth), and under 90 percent is below risk tolerance (meaning the risk is too high). On either side of 100 to 120 percent (90 to 100 percent and 120 to 140 percent), the insurer considers taking mitigating action.

Zurich’s assessment of risk and the nature of those risks play a major role in determining how much capital regulators require the business to hold. A popular tool to assess risk is the risk matrix, and you can find a variety of templates in “ Free, Customizable Risk Matrix Templates .”

In 2020, Zurich found that its biggest exposures were market risk, such as falling asset valuations and interest-rate risk; insurance risk, such as big payouts for covered customer losses, which it hedges through diversification and reinsurance; credit risk in assets it holds and receivables; and operational risks, such as internal process failures and external fraud.

Enterprise Risk Management Example in Technology

Financial software maker Intuit has strengthened its enterprise risk management through evolution, according to a case study by former Chief Risk Officer Janet Nasburg.

The program is founded on the following five core principles:

Use a common risk framework across the enterprise.
Assess risks on an ongoing basis.
Focus on the most important risks.
Clearly define accountability for risk management.
Commit to continuous improvement of performance measurement and monitoring.

ERM programs grow according to a maturity model, and as capability rises, the shareholder value from risk management becomes more visible and important.

The maturity phases include the following:

Ad hoc risk management addresses a specific problem when it arises.
Targeted or initial risk management approaches risks with multiple understandings of what constitutes risk and management occurs in silos.
Integrated or repeatable risk management puts in place an organization-wide framework for risk assessment and response.
Intelligent or managed risk management coordinates risk management across the business, using common tools.
Risk leadership incorporates risk management into strategic decision-making.

Intuit emphasizes using key risk indicators (KRIs) to understand risks, along with key performance indicators (KPIs) to gauge the effectiveness of risk management.

Early in its ERM journey, Intuit measured performance on risk management process participation and risk assessment impact. For participation, the targeted rate was 80 percent of executive management and business-line leaders. This helped benchmark risk awareness and current risk management, at a time when ERM at the company was not mature.

Conduct an annual risk assessment at corporate and business-line levels to plot risks, so the most likely and most impactful risks are graphed in the upper-right quadrant. Doing so focuses attention on these risks and helps business leaders understand the risk’s impact on performance toward strategic objectives.

In the company’s second phase of ERM, Intuit turned its attention to building risk management capacity and sought to ensure that risk management activities addressed the most important risks. The company evaluated performance using color-coded status symbols (red, yellow, green) to indicate risk trend and progress on risk mitigation measures.

In its third phase, Intuit moved to actively monitoring the most important risks and ensuring that leaders modified their strategies to manage risks and take advantage of opportunities. An executive dashboard uses KRIs, KPIs, an overall risk rating, and red-yellow-green coding. The board of directors regularly reviews this dashboard.

Over this evolution, the company has moved from narrow, tactical risk management to holistic, strategic, and long-term ERM.

Enterprise Risk Management Case Studies by Principle

ERM veterans agree that in addition to KPIs and KRIs, other principles are equally important to follow. Below, you’ll find examples of enterprise risk management programs by principles.

ERM Principle #1: Make Sure Your Program Aligns with Your Values

Raytheon Case Study U.S. defense contractor Raytheon states that its highest priority is delivering on its commitment to provide ethical business practices and abide by anti-corruption laws.

Raytheon backs up this statement through its ERM program. Among other measures, the company performs an annual risk assessment for each function, including the anti-corruption group under the Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer. In addition, Raytheon asks 70 of its sites to perform an anti-corruption self-assessment each year to identify gaps and risks. From there, a compliance team tracks improvement actions.

Every quarter, the company surveys 600 staff members who may face higher anti-corruption risks, such as the potential for bribes. The survey asks them to report any potential issues in the past quarter.

Also on a quarterly basis, the finance and internal controls teams review higher-risk profile payments, such as donations and gratuities to confirm accuracy and compliance. Oversight and compliance teams add other checks, and they update a risk-based audit plan continuously.

ERM Principle #2: Embrace Diversity to Reduce Risk

State Street Global Advisors Case Study In 2016, the asset management firm State Street Global Advisors introduced measures to increase gender diversity in its leadership as a way of reducing portfolio risk, among other goals.

The company relied on research that showed that companies with more women senior managers had a better return on equity, reduced volatility, and fewer governance problems such as corruption and fraud.

Among the initiatives was a campaign to influence companies where State Street had invested, in order to increase female membership on their boards. State Street also developed an investment product that tracks the performance of companies with the highest level of senior female leadership relative to peers in their sector.

In 2020, the company announced some of the results of its effort. Among the 1,384 companies targeted by the firm, 681 added at least one female director.

ERM Principle #3: Do Not Overlook Resource Risks

Infosys Case Study India-based technology consulting company Infosys, which employees more than 240,000 people, has long recognized the risk of water shortages to its operations.

India’s rapidly growing population and development has increased the risk of water scarcity. A 2020 report by the World Wide Fund for Nature said 30 cities in India faced the risk of severe water scarcity over the next three decades.

Infosys has dozens of facilities in India and considers water to be a significant short-term risk. At its campuses, the company uses the water for cooking, drinking, cleaning, restrooms, landscaping, and cooling. Water shortages could halt Infosys operations and prevent it from completing customer projects and reaching its performance objectives.

In an enterprise risk assessment example, Infosys’ ERM team conducts corporate water-risk assessments while sustainability teams produce detailed water-risk assessments for individual locations, according to a report by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development .

The company uses the COSO ERM framework to respond to the risks and decide whether to accept, avoid, reduce, or share these risks. The company uses root-cause analysis (which focuses on identifying underlying causes rather than symptoms) and the site assessments to plan steps to reduce risks.

Infosys has implemented various water conservation measures, such as water-efficient fixtures and water recycling, rainwater collection and use, recharging aquifers, underground reservoirs to hold five days of water supply at locations, and smart-meter usage monitoring. Infosys’ ERM team tracks metrics for per-capita water consumption, along with rainfall data, availability and cost of water by tanker trucks, and water usage from external suppliers.

In the 2020 fiscal year, the company reported a nearly 64 percent drop in per-capita water consumption by its workforce from the 2008 fiscal year.

The business advantages of this risk management include an ability to open locations where water shortages may preclude competitors, and being able to maintain operations during water scarcity, protecting profitability.

ERM Principle #4: Fight Silos for Stronger Enterprise Risk Management

U.S. Government Case Study The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, revealed that the U.S. government’s then-current approach to managing intelligence was not adequate to address the threats — and, by extension, so was the government’s risk management procedure. Since the Cold War, sensitive information had been managed on a “need to know” basis that resulted in data silos.

In the case of 9/11, this meant that different parts of the government knew some relevant intelligence that could have helped prevent the attacks. But no one had the opportunity to put the information together and see the whole picture. A congressional commission determined there were 10 lost operational opportunities to derail the plot. Silos existed between law enforcement and intelligence, as well as between and within agencies.

After the attacks, the government moved toward greater information sharing and collaboration. Based on a task force’s recommendations, data moved from a centralized network to a distributed model, and social networking tools now allow colleagues throughout the government to connect. Staff began working across agency lines more often.

Enterprise Risk Management Examples by Scenario

While some scenarios are too unlikely to receive high-priority status, low-probability risks are still worth running through the ERM process. Robust risk management creates a culture and response capacity that better positions a company to deal with a crisis.

In the following enterprise risk examples, you will find scenarios and details of how organizations manage the risks they face.

Scenario: ERM and the Global Pandemic While most businesses do not have the resources to do in-depth ERM planning for the rare occurrence of a global pandemic, companies with a risk-aware culture will be at an advantage if a pandemic does hit.

These businesses already have processes in place to escalate trouble signs for immediate attention and an ERM team or leader monitoring the threat environment. A strong ERM function gives clear and effective guidance that helps the company respond.

A report by Vodafone found that companies identified as “future ready” fared better in the COVID-19 pandemic. The attributes of future-ready businesses have a lot in common with those of companies that excel at ERM. These include viewing change as an opportunity; having detailed business strategies that are documented, funded, and measured; working to understand the forces that shape their environments; having roadmaps in place for technological transformation; and being able to react more quickly than competitors.

Only about 20 percent of companies in the Vodafone study met the definition of “future ready.” But 54 percent of these firms had a fully developed and tested business continuity plan, compared to 30 percent of all businesses. And 82 percent felt their continuity plans worked well during the COVID-19 crisis. Nearly 50 percent of all businesses reported decreased profits, while 30 percent of future-ready organizations saw profits rise.

Scenario: ERM and the Economic Crisis The 2008 economic crisis in the United States resulted from the domino effect of rising interest rates, a collapse in housing prices, and a dramatic increase in foreclosures among mortgage borrowers with poor creditworthiness. This led to bank failures, a credit crunch, and layoffs, and the U.S. government had to rescue banks and other financial institutions to stabilize the financial system.

Some commentators said these events revealed the shortcomings of ERM because it did not prevent the banks’ mistakes or collapse. But Sim Segal, an ERM consultant and director of Columbia University’s ERM master’s degree program, analyzed how banks performed on 10 key ERM criteria.

Segal says a risk-management program that incorporates all 10 criteria has these characteristics:

Risk management has an enterprise-wide scope.
The program includes all risk categories: financial, operational, and strategic.
The focus is on the most important risks, not all possible risks.
Risk management is integrated across risk types.
Aggregated metrics show risk exposure and appetite across the enterprise.
Risk management incorporates decision-making, not just reporting.
The effort balances risk and return management.
There is a process for disclosure of risk.
The program measures risk in terms of potential impact on company value.
The focus of risk management is on the primary stakeholder, such as shareholders, rather than regulators or rating agencies.

In his book Corporate Value of Enterprise Risk Management , Segal concluded that most banks did not actually use ERM practices, which contributed to the financial crisis. He scored banks as failing on nine of the 10 criteria, only giving them a passing grade for focusing on the most important risks.

Scenario: ERM and Technology Risk The story of retailer Target’s failed expansion to Canada, where it shut down 133 loss-making stores in 2015, has been well documented. But one dimension that analysts have sometimes overlooked was Target’s handling of technology risk.

A case study by Canadian Business magazine traced some of the biggest issues to software and data-quality problems that dramatically undermined the Canadian launch.

As with other forms of ERM, technology risk management requires companies to ask what could go wrong, what the consequences would be, how they might prevent the risks, and how they should deal with the consequences.

But with its technology plan for Canada, Target did not heed risk warning signs.

In the United States, Target had custom systems for ordering products from vendors, processing items at warehouses, and distributing merchandise to stores quickly. But that software would need customization to work with the Canadian dollar, metric system, and French-language characters.

Target decided to go with new ERP software on an aggressive two-year timeline. As Target began ordering products for the Canadian stores in 2012, problems arose. Some items did not fit into shipping containers or on store shelves, and information needed for customs agents to clear imported items was not correct in Target's system.

Target found that its supply chain software data was full of errors. Product dimensions were in inches, not centimeters; height and width measurements were mixed up. An internal investigation showed that only about 30 percent of the data was accurate.

In an attempt to fix these errors, Target merchandisers spent a week double-checking with vendors up to 80 data points for each of the retailer’s 75,000 products. They discovered that the dummy data entered into the software during setup had not been altered. To make any corrections, employees had to send the new information to an office in India where staff would enter it into the system.

As the launch approached, the technology errors left the company vulnerable to stockouts, few people understood how the system worked, and the point-of-sale checkout system did not function correctly. Soon after stores opened in 2013, consumers began complaining about empty shelves. Meanwhile, Target Canada distribution centers overflowed due to excess ordering based on poor data fed into forecasting software.

The rushed launch compounded problems because it did not allow the company enough time to find solutions or alternative technology. While the retailer fixed some issues by the end of 2014, it was too late. Target Canada filed for bankruptcy protection in early 2015.

Scenario: ERM and Cybersecurity System hacks and data theft are major worries for companies. But as a relatively new field, cyber-risk management faces unique hurdles.

For example, risk managers and information security officers have difficulty quantifying the likelihood and business impact of a cybersecurity attack. The rise of cloud-based software exposes companies to third-party risks that make these projections even more difficult to calculate.

As the field evolves, risk managers say it’s important for IT security officers to look beyond technical issues, such as the need to patch a vulnerability, and instead look more broadly at business impacts to make a cost benefit analysis of risk mitigation. Frameworks such as the Risk Management Framework for Information Systems and Organizations by the National Institute of Standards and Technology can help.

Health insurer Aetna considers cybersecurity threats as a part of operational risk within its ERM framework and calculates a daily risk score, adjusted with changes in the cyberthreat landscape.

Aetna studies threats from external actors by working through information sharing and analysis centers for the financial services and health industries. Aetna staff reverse-engineers malware to determine controls. The company says this type of activity helps ensure the resiliency of its business processes and greatly improves its ability to help protect member information.

For internal threats, Aetna uses models that compare current user behavior to past behavior and identify anomalies. (The company says it was the first organization to do this at scale across the enterprise.) Aetna gives staff permissions to networks and data based on what they need to perform their job. This segmentation restricts access to raw data and strengthens governance.

Another risk initiative scans outgoing employee emails for code patterns, such as credit card or Social Security numbers. The system flags the email, and a security officer assesses it before the email is released.

Examples of Poor Enterprise Risk Management

Case studies of failed enterprise risk management often highlight mistakes that managers could and should have spotted — and corrected — before a full-blown crisis erupted. The focus of these examples is often on determining why that did not happen.

ERM Case Study: General Motors

In 2014, General Motors recalled the first of what would become 29 million cars due to faulty ignition switches and paid compensation for 124 related deaths. GM knew of the problem for at least 10 years but did not act, the automaker later acknowledged. The company entered a deferred prosecution agreement and paid a $900 million penalty.

Pointing to the length of time the company failed to disclose the safety problem, ERM specialists say it shows the problem did not reside with a single department. “Rather, it reflects a failure to properly manage risk,” wrote Steve Minsky, a writer on ERM and CEO of an ERM software company, in Risk Management magazine.

“ERM is designed to keep all parties across the organization, from the front lines to the board to regulators, apprised of these kinds of problems as they become evident. Unfortunately, GM failed to implement such a program, ultimately leading to a tragic and costly scandal,” Minsky said.

Also in the auto sector, an enterprise risk management case study of Toyota looked at its problems with unintended acceleration of vehicles from 2002 to 2009. Several studies, including a case study by Carnegie Mellon University Professor Phil Koopman , blamed poor software design and company culture. A whistleblower later revealed a coverup by Toyota. The company paid more than $2.5 billion in fines and settlements.

ERM Case Study: Lululemon

In 2013, following customer complaints that its black yoga pants were too sheer, the athletic apparel maker recalled 17 percent of its inventory at a cost of $67 million. The company had previously identified risks related to fabric supply and quality. The CEO said the issue was inadequate testing.

Analysts raised concerns about the company’s controls, including oversight of factories and product quality. A case study by Stanford University professors noted that Lululemon’s episode illustrated a common disconnect between identifying risks and being prepared to manage them when they materialize. Lululemon’s reporting and analysis of risks was also inadequate, especially as related to social media. In addition, the case study highlighted the need for a system to escalate risk-related issues to the board.

ERM Case Study: Kodak

Once an iconic brand, the photo film company failed for decades to act on the threat that digital photography posed to its business and eventually filed for bankruptcy in 2012. The company’s own research in 1981 found that digital photos could ultimately replace Kodak’s film technology and estimated it had 10 years to prepare.

Unfortunately, Kodak did not prepare and stayed locked into the film paradigm. The board reinforced this course when in 1989 it chose as CEO a candidate who came from the film business over an executive interested in digital technology.

Had the company acknowledged the risks and employed ERM strategies, it might have pursued a variety of strategies to remain successful. The company’s rival, Fuji Film, took the money it made from film and invested in new initiatives, some of which paid off. Kodak, on the other hand, kept investing in the old core business.

Case Studies of Successful Enterprise Risk Management

Successful enterprise risk management usually requires strong performance in multiple dimensions, and is therefore more likely to occur in organizations where ERM has matured. The following examples of enterprise risk management can be considered success stories.

ERM Case Study: Statoil

A major global oil producer, Statoil of Norway stands out for the way it practices ERM by looking at both downside risk and upside potential. Taking risks is vital in a business that depends on finding new oil reserves.

According to a case study, the company developed its own framework founded on two basic goals: creating value and avoiding accidents.

The company aims to understand risks thoroughly, and unlike many ERM programs, Statoil maps risks on both the downside and upside. It graphs risk on probability vs. impact on pre-tax earnings, and it examines each risk from both positive and negative perspectives.

For example, the case study cites a risk that the company assessed as having a 5 percent probability of a somewhat better-than-expected outcome but a 10 percent probability of a significant loss relative to forecast. In this case, the downside risk was greater than the upside potential.

ERM Case Study: Lego

The Danish toy maker’s ERM evolved over the following four phases, according to a case study by one of the chief architects of its program:

Traditional management of financial, operational, and other risks. Strategic risk management joined the ERM program in 2006.
The company added Monte Carlo simulations in 2008 to model financial performance volatility so that budgeting and financial processes could incorporate risk management. The technique is used in budget simulations, to assess risk in its credit portfolio, and to consolidate risk exposure.
Active risk and opportunity planning is part of making a business case for new projects before final decisions.
The company prepares for uncertainty so that long-term strategies remain relevant and resilient under different scenarios.

As part of its scenario modeling, Lego developed its PAPA (park, adapt, prepare, act) model.

Park: The company parks risks that occur slowly and have a low probability of happening, meaning it does not forget nor actively deal with them.
Adapt: This response is for risks that evolve slowly and are certain or highly probable to occur. For example, a risk in this category is the changing nature of play and the evolution of buying power in different parts of the world. In this phase, the company adjusts, monitors the trend, and follows developments.
Prepare: This category includes risks that have a low probability of occurring — but when they do, they emerge rapidly. These risks go into the ERM risk database with contingency plans, early warning indicators, and mitigation measures in place.
Act: These are high-probability, fast-moving risks that must be acted upon to maintain strategy. For example, developments around connectivity, mobile devices, and online activity are in this category because of the rapid pace of change and the influence on the way children play.

Lego views risk management as a way to better equip itself to take risks than its competitors. In the case study, the writer likens this approach to the need for the fastest race cars to have the best brakes and steering to achieve top speeds.

ERM Case Study: University of California

The University of California, one of the biggest U.S. public university systems, introduced a new view of risk to its workforce when it implemented enterprise risk management in 2005. Previously, the function was merely seen as a compliance requirement.

ERM became a way to support the university’s mission of education and research, drawing on collaboration of the system’s employees across departments. “Our philosophy is, ‘Everyone is a risk manager,’” Erike Young, deputy director of ERM told Treasury and Risk magazine. “Anyone who’s in a management position technically manages some type of risk.”

The university faces a diverse set of risks, including cybersecurity, hospital liability, reduced government financial support, and earthquakes.

The ERM department had to overhaul systems to create a unified view of risk because its information and processes were not linked. Software enabled both an organizational picture of risk and highly detailed drilldowns on individual risks. Risk managers also developed tools for risk assessment, risk ranking, and risk modeling.

Better risk management has provided more than $100 million in annual cost savings and nearly $500 million in cost avoidance, according to UC officials.

UC drives ERM with risk management departments at each of its 10 locations and leverages university subject matter experts to form multidisciplinary workgroups that develop process improvements.

APQC, a standards quality organization, recognized UC as a top global ERM practice organization, and the university system has won other awards. The university says in 2010 it was the first nonfinancial organization to win credit-rating agency recognition of its ERM program.

Examples of How Technology Is Transforming Enterprise Risk Management

Business intelligence software has propelled major progress in enterprise risk management because the technology enables risk managers to bring their information together, analyze it, and forecast how risk scenarios would impact their business.

ERM organizations are using computing and data-handling advancements such as blockchain for new innovations in strengthening risk management. Following are case studies of a few examples.

ERM Case Study: Bank of New York Mellon

In 2021, the bank joined with Google Cloud to use machine learning and artificial intelligence to predict and reduce the risk that transactions in the $22 trillion U.S. Treasury market will fail to settle. Settlement failure means a buyer and seller do not exchange cash and securities by the close of business on the scheduled date.

The party that fails to settle is assessed a daily financial penalty, and a high level of settlement failures can indicate market liquidity problems and rising risk. BNY says that, on average, about 2 percent of transactions fail to settle.

The bank trained models with millions of trades to consider every factor that could result in settlement failure. The service uses market-wide intraday trading metrics, trading velocity, scarcity indicators, volume, the number of trades settled per hour, seasonality, issuance patterns, and other signals.

The bank said it predicts about 40 percent of settlement failures with 90 percent accuracy. But it also cautioned against overconfidence in the technology as the model continues to improve.

AI-driven forecasting reduces risk for BNY clients in the Treasury market and saves costs. For example, a predictive view of settlement risks helps bond dealers more accurately manage their liquidity buffers, avoid penalties, optimize their funding sources, and offset the risks of failed settlements. In the long run, such forecasting tools could improve the health of the financial market.

ERM Case Study: PwC

Consulting company PwC has leveraged a vast information storehouse known as a data lake to help its customers manage risk from suppliers.

A data lake stores both structured or unstructured information, meaning data in highly organized, standardized formats as well as unstandardized data. This means that everything from raw audio to credit card numbers can live in a data lake.

Using techniques pioneered in national security, PwC built a risk data lake that integrates information from client companies, public databases, user devices, and industry sources. Algorithms find patterns that can signify unidentified risks.

One of PwC’s first uses of this data lake was a program to help companies uncover risks from their vendors and suppliers. Companies can violate laws, harm their reputations, suffer fraud, and risk their proprietary information by doing business with the wrong vendor.

Today’s complex global supply chains mean companies may be several degrees removed from the source of this risk, which makes it hard to spot and mitigate. For example, a product made with outlawed child labor could be traded through several intermediaries before it reaches a retailer.

PwC’s service helps companies recognize risk beyond their primary vendors and continue to monitor that risk over time as more information enters the data lake.

ERM Case Study: Financial Services

As analytics have become a pillar of forecasting and risk management for banks and other financial institutions, a new risk has emerged: model risk . This refers to the risk that machine-learning models will lead users to an unreliable understanding of risk or have unintended consequences.

For example, a 6 percent drop in the value of the British pound over the course of a few minutes in 2016 stemmed from currency trading algorithms that spiralled into a negative loop. A Twitter-reading program began an automated selling of the pound after comments by a French official, and other selling algorithms kicked in once the currency dropped below a certain level.

U.S. banking regulators are so concerned about model risk that the Federal Reserve set up a model validation council in 2012 to assess the models that banks use in running risk simulations for capital adequacy requirements. Regulators in Europe and elsewhere also require model validation.

A form of managing risk from a risk-management tool, model validation is an effort to reduce risk from machine learning. The technology-driven rise in modeling capacity has caused such models to proliferate, and banks can use hundreds of models to assess different risks.

Model risk management can reduce rising costs for modeling by an estimated 20 to 30 percent by building a validation workflow, prioritizing models that are most important to business decisions, and implementing automation for testing and other tasks, according to McKinsey.

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Int J Environ Res Public Health

Supporting Occupational Health and Safety Risk Assessment Skills: A Case Study of Five Companies

Financial burden due to poor occupational safety practices remains high although occupational health and safety (OHS) have improved in recent years. Conducting risk assessment is one way to improve OHS. Workplaces may not have sufficient expertise in risk assessment. The aim of this study was to identify the needed OHS risk assessment skills, current support in the workplaces and the ways to improve risk assessment skills. This study was conducted with the Delphi survey for OHS experts ( n = 13) and with interviews ( n = 41) in the case companies. OHS experts agreed that the most significant skills were for employees to identify hazards and minimize risks in one’s work; for supervisors to influence others with a good example; and for OHS experts to understand and manage the wholeness of safety practices and understand and manage the meaning, concepts, and criteria of risk assessment. The current main support methods were learning at work, training and written instructions. However, many of the interviewees felt that they had not received risk assessment training and that the support depended on their activity. Finally, the OHS experts determined that the most feasible ways to improve risk assessment skills were training, coaching and giving clear instructions. Likewise, the interviewees suggested various training methods. Based on these results, concrete development plans to improve risk assessment skills can be made.

1. Introduction

Even though occupational health and safety (OHS) have been developed and improved in recent years, almost two million employees die each year because of exposure to work-related risks [ 1 ]. The economic burden of poor OHS practices is estimated to be 3.9% of the global gross domestic product (GDP) (i.e., EUR 2680 billion) each year [ 2 ]. According to previous studies, health promotion programs and various interventions related to occupational safety and health seem to reduce absenteeism and healthcare costs, and they have the potential to achieve business benefits [ 3 , 4 ]. At workplaces based on Finnish Occupational Health and Safety Act [ 5 ] and European OSH legislation [ 6 ], employers are responsible for ensuring the safety and health of their employees, for preventing occupational accidents and diseases and for eliminating hazards stemming from the work environment and the work itself. One key responsibility of employers is to carry out hazard identification and risk assessment [ 5 , 7 ].

The OHS risk management process involves different concepts (e.g., hazard, hazardous events, consequences and risk) which can be defined in different ways, thus affecting the results of the risk assessment [ 8 , 9 ]. How risk assessors understand these concepts, the differences between them, and the process of risk assessment has a remarkable effect on the results and the success of the risk assessment [ 10 , 11 , 12 ]. Overall, the specific knowledge, experience, abilities, skills, attributes, values, attitudes, understanding and behaviors of the risk assessor may affect the OHS risk assessment results [ 13 , 14 , 15 ]. In addition to the risk assessor, initial assumptions, oversimplification, inaccuracy of consequence models, ill-defined data, as well as poor hazard identification, teamwork, chosen method and documentation may all affect the quality of a risk analysis [ 16 , 17 , 18 ]. Previous studies have found that risks remain unidentified or uncontrolled due to limitations in OHS risk assessment skills, processes and tools [ 11 , 12 , 19 , 20 ]. Risk assessments may also be omitted altogether or delayed [ 21 ]. In addition, the research suggests that insufficient guidance on how to use risk matrices may lead to variation in the quality of risk assessment [ 22 ].

Even though previous studies have recognized the effect of the risk assessor’s and the risk assessment team’s skills to conduct a risk assessment, not many studies have primarily focused on these assessment skills or on developing them. However, for example, Hrica and Eiter [ 23 ] identified critical competencies (i.e., general hazard knowledge, site-specific hazard knowledge and situational awareness) regarding hazard recognition, which is a part of OHS risk assessment skills. Previous research has revealed that when workers are trained by effective training methods, they are able to recognize more hazards and experience higher risk levels in similar cases than workers who have not received training [ 24 ]. Hazard identification can, for example, be developed through visual hazard identification exercises [ 25 ]. Brandt et al. [ 26 ] found that, in a participatory workshop, participants can discuss problems with their colleagues and might learn from others. Namian et al. [ 27 ] argued that both the type of education (low engagement or high engagement) and the training transfer effect (e.g., upper management engagement and supervisor support) are important. Achieving a better training transfer does not necessarily mean creating new processes, but more benefits accrue by integrating learning into the company’s existing process and reward systems [ 28 ].

OHS training often uses lectures and courses as teaching and training methods. In addition, novel approaches are being used, such as e-learning, online and distance learning, as well as computer-assisted teaching and virtual reality simulation [ 29 ]. Approaches requiring participation and commitment are generally considered to be more effective [ 30 , 31 ], and using examples pictures, and other illustrative methods has often been found to be more effective than using traditional lectures or reading material [ 32 , 33 ]

The need to develop risk assessment skills, and to do it based on one’s own initiative, is a widespread phenomenon in Finnish workplaces [ 21 , 34 , 35 , 36 ]. Previous research states that companies typically do not evaluate the risk assessment skills of risk assessors or the success of risk assessment [ 37 ]. Using the Occupational Health and Safety Act as framework, the aim of this study was to recognize what are the risk assessment skills of persons who carry out risk assessment related to OHS; how the skills are currently supported in the workplaces; and how the risk assessment skills can be improved. The results of the study can be used to make the OHS risk assessment more resource-efficient and better meet the needs of the workplace. Thus, risk assessment can reap the necessary benefits and serve as a tool for safety management and safety improvement. The practical contribution of the study consists of suggestions about what the risk assessment skills of employees, supervisors and OHS experts should include, and how to support risk assessment skills.

The subsequent Materials and Methods subsection contains background information on the companies that cooperated and the research methods we used. The results obtained are presented grouped by theme. First, the OHS risk assessment skills of employees are discussed, in which the research method was the Delphi survey. Then, the results of the interviews on the current support for risk assessment skills are provided. Finally, the development of risk assessment skills was examined through both the Delphi survey and interviews. The discussion section considers the results obtained by different methods and compares them with previous research. In addition, further research and research limitations are presented at the end of the section. Finally, the main results and the obtained contribution are highlighted in these conclusions.

2. Materials and Methods

The aim of this study was descriptive in nature, and the phenomena of interest are contextual so that the researchers have limited influence on them [ 38 ]. In this mixed methods study [ 39 ], there were two different phases. In phase 1 (December 2020–January 2021), a Delphi survey [ 40 , 41 ] was conducted to explore what kind of risk assessment skills people in different positions need to have and how their risk assessment skills can be supported. In order to gain a deeper understanding of the current OHS risk assessment skills, in phase 2 (January–March 2021), a qualitative interview study was conducted using a semi-structured interview form [ 42 ]. The interviews were conducted in five Finnish companies from different industries: manufacturing, transportation and storage, electrical power generation, and another technical testing and analysis field. This qualitative and descriptive study has followed research ethical principles in accordance with the Finnish National Board on Research Integrity [ 43 ] and the General Data Protection Regulation [ 44 ]. Companies involved in this study committed to participate in interviews and surveys. Participants agreed to participate in the study after being informed of voluntary participation, anonymity and confidentiality.

2.1. Delphi Survey

The iterative Delphi survey is a method in which respondents evaluate their anonymous responses until a consensus is reached on the responses [ 40 , 41 ]. The Delphi survey consisted of three rounds in which the aim was to gather the views of OHS specialists and managers on what should be included in the risk assessment skills of the employee, the supervisor and the expert (e.g., the OHS representative or OHS manager). The request to participate included information about the study; instructions on how to participate in the survey; and the link to the survey. It was emailed to 17 individuals; 13 agreed, yielding a response rate of 76.5%. Three rounds of the Delphi survey were conducted. The response percentages for each round were 47.1% ( n = 8) in the first; 70.6% ( n = 12) in the second; and 76.5% ( n = 13) in the third round. It was possible for the respondents to take part in the survey later, even if they had not been involved in the first round. In addition, it was assumed that OHS specialists and managers are, by definition, aware of the risk assessment principles. Their experience in occupational safety was on average 13 years (SD = 16). The respondents worked for industrial companies, research institutions and authorities (see summary in Table 1 ). The survey was created through Lime Survey.

Background information of the Delphi survey ( n = 17).

Questions asked in the first round of the Delphi survey were “What is included in the risk assessment skills of (a) the employee, (b) the supervisor, and (c) the OHS expert?” and “How can risk assessment skills be supported?” Respondents ( n = 8) answered open-ended questions and the length of the answers was not limited. Background information collected from the respondents included their name, the name of the company, the position in the organization (supervisor, specialist), work experience in the current position and work experience in similar positions. The name of the respondent was asked so that reminder emails could be targeted to people who had not yet responded.

Researchers performed a qualitative analysis and the participants received feedback. The thematic categorization of the qualitative material of the first round was conducted by applying the open coding analysis approach [ 45 ]; the process identified four factors in the OHS risk assessment skills of employee, six factors in the OHS risk assessment skills of the supervisor and six factors in the OHS risk assessment skills of experts. In addition, responses to the question about how to support OHS risk assessment skills received 12 suggestions. In the second round of the survey, respondents ( n = 12) commented on the categorized lists and explained their answers to open-ended questions.

After the second round, a quantitative analysis was performed using Microsoft (MS) Excel, and the participants again received feedback. In the third round of the survey, the respondents ( n = 13) chose the four most important factors for employee’s OHS risk assessment skills, the five most important factors for supervisor’s and expert’s OHS risk assessment skills, and the eight ways to support OHS risk assessment skills. In addition, respondents chose the eight most feasible ways to support OHS risk assessment skills. If desired, respondents were allowed to choose fewer options for their response. The third-round answers were again analyzed using MS Excel and IBM SPSS. Before each round ended, participants were sent reminders to answer.

2.2. Semi-Structured Interviews

The companies were chosen based on their needs and interests to develop their risk assessment processes. There are some similarities and differences between the companies. Four of the companies are large, while one is medium sized, employing approximately 200 people. In addition, almost all companies employ subcontractors. One company operates only in Finland, while others have international operations, or they are part of larger international corporations. The companies involved in this study are stable, traditional Finnish companies, where attention is paid to employee persistence. The duration of employment of the persons interviewed at the company was on average 14 years (SD = 10). This study focused on the Finnish sites of these companies.

The interviews were conducted with members of the risk assessment team or with managers. The position of the interviewees varied widely depending on the company. In one company, the interviewees were chosen as a cross-section of the process from design to implementation, while in another, mainly managers and immediate supervisors were interviewed. Altogether, the interviewees’ positions were manager ( n = 10), immediate supervisor ( n = 15), employee ( n = 20), and OHS manager or representative ( n = 8). When describing the status of the interviewees, it must be considered that, for example, the OHS manager can also be the supervisor and that the OHS representative of employees is usually an employee themselves or an expert on certain tasks. They are classified here as OHS managers and representatives. Table 2 summarizes the distribution of the companies, the interviewees and the interviews. All the interviews were held via MS Teams. Interview types were divided into individual interviews ( n = 32) and group interviews ( n = 9), and the average duration of interview was 59 min, lasting between 38 and 96 min. The transcriptions resulted in 324 pages.

Background information about the interviews ( n = 41) and interviewees ( n = 53).

The semi-structured interview form included questions such as the following: “How is the conducting of a risk assessment instructed?”; “Have you/others involved in the risk assessment received orientation about the risk assessment? What kind?”; “How are individual employees instructed to assess the risks of their own duties?”; “How are risk assessment skills currently supported?”; and “In what ways could the risk assessment skills be improved?” A few questions had to be slightly modified for companies to suit their operations. The question “How are individual employees instructed to assess the risks of their own duties?” received an answer in 25 interviews. It was not answered if the interviewee was an expert with no subordinates, if there was time pressure due to the group interview, or the discussion was about guidance in general. One interviewee did not answer the questions “How are risk assessment skills currently supported?” and “In what way the risk assessment skills could be improved?” All the interviews were recorded except for one, when the interviewee did not want to be recorded. However, the notes from that interview were added to transcriptions. A total of three companies had both individual and group interviews; one company had only group interviews, and one had individual interviews. The duration of the interviews varied depending on whether it was a group or an individual interview.

Transcriptions were analyzed using Atlas.ti version 9 software by applying the open-coding analysis approach [ 46 ] (i.e., written data were conceptualized into separate categories and given a name that represents or stands for it) [ 47 ] in order to identify the current risk assessment support and how to develop it. During the analysis, the codes that needed further processing were discussed together. Researchers coded one interview at a time, resulting in 482 codes. The researchers then checked the codes for consistency, removed unnecessary codes, and compiled similar codes, resulting in 409 codes. During the third round, the researchers categorized the codes into 104 themes. A thematic categorization of the data was conducted by using Whimsical SaaS because of its visuality for categorizing the themes that emerged. Questions with clear answers did not require thematic processing. Hence, two groups of codes were obtained, some of which were processed numerically and some through thematic design. Because there is more than one code categorized within a single theme, participants might have mentioned a particular theme more than once per interviewee. In other words, the number of respondents or interviews does not necessarily correlate with the number of themes. In addition, MS Excel was used as a support tool in the analysis. The questions and their occurrences in the interviews are presented in Appendix A , Table A1 .

The used risk assessment methods in the companies were checklists, the potential problems analysis (PPA) method and the task risk assessment completed either in the OHS system or with MS Excel and MS Word forms. The composition of the risk assessment team varied considerably depending on the company but usually comprised of the immediate supervisor and the employee(s), the OHS representative, and in some cases, safety/quality manager as well as the work experts.

3.1. Required OHS Risk Assessment Skills of Employee, Supervisor, OHS Expert

In the Delphi survey, the most significant OHS risk assessment skills of employees and supervisors were unanimously found. Identifying hazards and minimizing personal risks were the most significant skills for employees. Influencing others by their own example and attitude was seen as the most considerable skill for supervisors. The skill requirements of the experts were not as unanimously chosen as for the employees and supervisors. The two things considered to be the most significant OHS risk assessment skills were both understanding and managing the wholeness of safety practices and understanding and managing the meaning, concepts and criteria of risk assessment as well as the related workplace safety legislation.

3.1.1. Employees’ Risk Assessment Skills

All respondents considered identifying risk factors in their own work and minimizing risks to be the most important factors in an employee’s OHS risk assessment skills. In addition, the theme “Identify situations where work should be suspended” was highlighted in the second round and was considered the second most important factor by over 80% of the respondents in the third round. “Identifying situations in which a risk will be taken” and “Knowledge of one’s own responsibilities and rights (in occupational protection)” were chosen as the third and fourth most important factors by 46% of the respondents, respectively. Employees are expected to have experience of the work and knowledge of the work-related hazards, which is why understanding the meaning, principles, and concepts of risk assessment was considered to be the least important factor in an employee’s OHS risk assessment skills. Two respondents chose only three options instead of four. Figure 1 shows the results given by occupational health specialists and managers on the requirements for employee risk assessment skills.

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Opinions of occupational health specialists and managers on the most important risk assessment skills needed by the employee.

3.1.2. Supervisors’ Risk Assessment Skills

The most important factor in the supervisor’s OHS risk assessment skills was unanimously “influencing others through one’s own example and attitude (developing safety thinking and safety culture).” This option was added based on comments from the second round. The second most important factor, “Responsibility for risk assessment (able to guide and participate as well as identify and minimize risks in the work environment),” was chosen by 92% of the respondents. The third and fourth options also received more than 60% of choices. “Team motivation (for risk assessment and daily safe operations)” was added based on the second-round answers and was chosen by 69% of the respondents. “Identifying situations where risks need to be assessed” received the fourth highest score, as was chosen by 62% of the respondents. The fifth, “General duty to exercise care of safety at work,” received only 38% of the choices. The options which were only chosen once were “Competence in the use of risk management tools,” “Knowledge of the task to be assessed and ability to identify hazards,” and “Competence to assess the magnitude and probability of the identified risk.” Four respondents decided to choose only four factors instead of five. Figure 2 shows the results given by occupational health specialists and managers on the requirements for supervisor risk assessment skills.

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Opinions of occupational health specialists and managers on the most important risk assessment skills needed by the supervisor.

3.1.3. Experts’ Risk Assessment Skills

The most important factors related to an expert’s risk assessment skills caused more variation than those of employees and supervisors. The two most important were “Understanding and managing the wholeness of safety practices” and “Understanding and mastering the meaning, concepts, rationale, and knowledge of risk assessment (occupational safety legislation),” which received 85% of the choices. “Guiding in the risk assessment and in the use of risk assessment tools” also received more than 60% of the choices. “Knowledge of good practices in risk management” and “Understanding human factors” were chosen as the fourth and fifth factors by 46% of the respondents. Indicating the variation of the answers, even the least voted factors received more than 20% of the points. For the experts, these factors were “Be able to identify risks, assess the magnitude and probability of the identified risk, and target measures and evaluate their effectiveness” and “Knowledge of the use of risk management tools.” Two respondents felt that four of the five factors were sufficient. Figure 3 shows the results given by occupational health specialists and managers on the requirements for expert risk assessment skills.

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Opinions of the occupational health specialists and managers on the most important risk assessment skills needed by the expert.

3.2. OHS Risk Assessment Skills Support at The Case Companies

Based on the interviews, learning at work and training were considered to be the most often used forms of orientation, mentioned in 56% and 59% of the interviews, respectively. Almost as many felt that they had not received risk assessment orientation. Written instructions were raised in all companies as a considerable way to guide the conduct of an OHS risk assessment. Perceiving the dangers in one’s own job was seen as a part of everyday activities. Some companies also use a so-called last-minute risk assessment, being mentioned in 29% of interviews. Lastly, in 63% of interviews, the interviewees felt that the support they received mainly depended on the employee’s own activity and that they needed to be able to either ask for it or apply it. The number of responses per interviews or mention per theme varied in each question. All results are presented in Appendix A , Table A1 .

3.2.1. Orientation Regarding Risk Assessment Process

There are different ways to support OHS risk assessment skills in the workplace. One way to support employees involved in OHS risk assessment is to have an orientation about how to carry it out. In OHS risk assessment orientation, the three most often mentioned themes in interview responses were almost equally divided between “Learning at work” in 56% of the interviews, “Training” in 59% of the interviews and “Employees feel that there was no orientation” in 56% of the interviews. It was felt that orientation can be obtained almost as much through on-the-job learning as through training:

“Online training materials where all supervisors need to undergo these trainings. They are compulsory trainings.” “I actually started using that program—and practiced myself.”

It was generally pointed out in the responses that the skills were gained through work even prior to present-day orientations. Those who had worked less time felt that they had received more orientation. However, in an equal amount of the interviews, the respondents did not feel that they had received any orientation at all with regard to performing the risk assessment.:

“I have not received any orientation with risk assessment in particular.”

Responses to interviews in the “Other” category (20%) refer to a review of instructions prior to conducting a risk assessment, ongoing safety discussions and developing risk assessment models. Responses regarding orientation received similar answers in each company.

3.2.2. Instructions to Perform a Risk Assessment and for Individual Employee to Assess the Risks of Their Own Duties

By instructing employees, support can be provided both to conducting the risk assessment and guiding the individual employee to identify the hazards associated with their own work. When asked how to conduct a risk assessment, in 56% of interviews, the risk assessment guidelines as well as the written instructions used in the company and their location were mentioned. Some companies also received instructions from their customers:

“When you start doing a risk assessment, it goes how it is in this risk assessment form. It helps us, but it is not slavishly observed. ”

However, in 41% of the interviews, the respondents were uncertain regarding the instructions, the number of instructions was considered low, or the interviewee was unsure about the location of the guidelines or instructions. There was only one company where no one was unsure of guidance:

“If I have to name a guide, I find it terribly difficult to say. But yes, I go to a safety management system where I don’t remember exactly what it says.“

Training was mentioned in 34% of interviews. The interviewees felt that they had received guidance in various trainings, such as e-learning programs, educational days and video trainings. In addition, in 17% of interviews, guidance provided by a particular person, such as an OHS manager, or a leader of the risk assessment before each audit, was mentioned. In one interview, unwritten instructions were highlighted. At the corporate level, there were two themes—training and guidance provided by a particular person—that were not recognized in two companies.

A total of 39 responses were received from the 25 interviews regarding the instructions of an individual employee concerning the assessment of the risks of their own work tasks. Nearly half of the respondents felt that assessing the risks of one’s own job was a daily activity:

“A proactive approach to occupational safety [is needed], with the aim of making safety observations or reporting near misses, perhaps to achieve day-to-day foresight. ”

The second most common way to instruct assessing the risks of one’s own work is a last-minute risk or hazard assessment, which was mentioned in 29% of interviews. One of the companies used a paper memory card to perform a last-minute hazard assessment. In addition, one’s own activity was felt to be important in obtaining information in three responses. The oral work permit policy used in one company was also mentioned twice here as a guideline for assessing the risks of one’s own work. Two of the respondents felt that they were not introduced to how to assess the dangers of their own work.

3.2.3. Current Risk Assessment Skills Support

In 63% of interviews, the respondents thought that when they are active themselves, they also receive support. In other words, it was felt that support was available as long as it was requested. In addition, it was felt that individual initiative was needed to go through the guidelines:

“But it [support] may not be actively offered directly. In that sense, … one has to be active if one wants to further develop it.”

The next most usual way to support OHS risk assessment skills was various training sessions and guidelines, which were mentioned in 41% of interviews. In 29% of interviews, the respondents said that OHS risk assessment skills were not supported. In 22% of interviews, guided discussions, such as safety talks and meetings led by the supervisor, were seen as one way to support risk assessment skills.

3.3. Development of OHS Risk Assessment Skills

Based on the Delphi survey, no overwhelming feasible proposal was found for the development of OHS risk assessment skills. The two most frequently chosen development methods were the organization of training and coaching related to OHS risk assessment methods and clear instructions for the implementation of OHS risk assessments. Various training methods emerged in the interviews as the most significant way to develop OHS risk assessment skills.

3.3.1. Feasible Ways to Support Risk Assessment Skills

In the Delphi survey, the experts were asked to choose the eight most feasible ways to support OHS risk assessment skills. The question divided opinions and only seven of the respondents chose all eight options. The other six respondents either did not feel that they found any other feasible options on the list or were satisfied with fewer choices. The number of selected choices ranged from four to eight. The options receiving the most choices (77%) were “Organizing trainings and coaching on risk assessment methods” and “Clearly guiding the implementation of the risk assessment.” The other most viable forms of support that received more than 50% of the votes were “Defining consistent processes and models for risk management” (69%), “Providing easy-to-use tools” (69%), “Providing expert support to supervisors and employees” (62%), “Conducting a risk assessment participatory with employees, specialists, and supervisors from different departments” (62%) and “Incorporating the results of risk assessments into everyday decision-making” (54%). The choice for the most feasible way to support OHS risk assessment skills was not as unanimous as in the previous questions, which was partly due to the different risk assessment practices of companies. None of the respondents saw “Using support provided by an insurance company” as a the most feasible way to support OHS risk assessment skills. The form of support “By clearly defining the risk matrix (explaining verbally what probability and severity of consequences mean for different factors, such as physical and chemical factors)” was only chosen once. Figure 4 shows the results from the occupational health experts and supervisors on feasible ways to support risk assessment skills.

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Opinions of occupational health specialists and managers for the most feasible ways to support risk assessment skills.

3.3.2. Ideas for Developing OHS Risk Assessment Skills

Ideas for developing risk assessment skills varied more than the themes in the previous subsections. In 63% of interviews, participants mentioned training activities as the largest factor to improve risk assessment skills. The various training methods related to OHS risk assessment skills included, for example, training given by an outsider, video training, or training provided by a specific person working in the organization. In addition, the regular reviewing of the risk assessments, orientation of new employees and mentoring were mentioned:

“It could be, for example, an online course that allows you to concretely identify certain dangers from pictures and in some way figure out the risks associated with them.”

The next most common point was to increase the understanding of risk assessment (mentioned in 32% of the interview responses) and obtain different perspectives (mentioned in 24% of the interview responses):

“It would be good to hear how to carry out a risk assessment elsewhere—whether it’s similar, whether similar forms, for example, or are those matrices different, whether something else would work for us. Or the whole world of risk assessment could be opened up to us from a little different scope.”

In connection with the development of communication, in 17% of the interviews’ responses, participants mentioned that repeating information improves the person’s recollection. In 12% of the interviews categorized as “Other”, the respondents could not give any development proposal. The activities and discussions of the team as well as clear guidance and resources were mentioned in 10% of the interviews.

4. Discussion

In this study, the OHS risk assessment skills were examined. The Delphi survey provided information gathered from OHS experts on what they considered to be the important OHS risk assessment skills of people working in different roles. The role of safety experts in research extensively covers the need for safety management and related training, but there are few actual competence criteria related to purely risk assessment [ 48 , 49 , 50 ]. The present study shows that the experts agreed that the most important issue for an employee’s OHS risk assessment skills is identifying the hazards of their own work and minimizing the associated risks. According to the literature, various methods have been developed to identify hazards, such as using visual hazard identification and transmission boards [ 12 , 19 , 25 ].

The second most important requirement for employee’s OHS risk assessment skills was being able to identify situations in which work needs to be suspended. According to the Finnish Occupational Safety and Health Act [ 5 ], an employee has the right to refrain from doing work that poses a danger to their own health or the health of others. The employee is also obliged to notify the employer that they have eliminated or rectified the defect or deficiency. Wang et al. [ 51 ] have investigated the safety risks posed by high frequency and low severity that could be avoided if corrective action is taken in a timely manner. In two of the companies included in this study, the nature of the work was such that unsafe work was prevented by redesigning the work plan.

Regarding the skills of supervisors in the OHS risk assessment, “influencing by one’s own example and attitude” was considered to be the most significant by experts. This was somewhat highlighted in the interviews when participants discussed different safety sessions and discussions and reviewed risk assessments with the employees involved. In addition, improving the understanding of risk assessment was mentioned as a development measure, which also affects the supervisor’s motivation. This is in line with the study by Huang et al. [ 52 ], which emphasized that when a supervisor leads by example, they encourage subordinates to maintain a safer workplace. It should be noticed that employee’s and supervisor’s skills include more specific factors than OHS experts. For the OHS expert, the most important risk assessment skills were related to understanding and managing the wholeness, concepts and principles of the risk assessment. As the quality of risk assessment is dependent on many steps [ 16 ], it is important that certain persons have a holistic view of the risk assessment.

In the interviews, the most important guidelines for assessing the hazards of one’s own work were considered to be daily activities, which is in line with previous studies, as safety management should be a daily activity in which supervisors and managers lead by example and encourage their subordinates to work safely [ 52 ]. However, Jeschke [ 53 ] has revealed a major conflict between managers’ daily work and safety, which they viewed as an extra task. In this study, it was found that, in the workplaces, employees are encouraged to make safety reports and do various safety rounds, sessions, or walks. In addition, incidents are regularly reviewed under the supervision of a supervisor. The last-minute hazard assessment emerged as another form of guidance in the interviews. Both the memory card method and the silent self-assessment of work hazards were used.

In this study, the interviewees mainly named written instructions, on-the-job learning and training as methods of current orientation, training, and guidance. In addition to traditional training methods, interviewees mentioned, among other things, training via MS Teams, video training and e-learning. Based on previous studies, the use of different training methods in developing skills has been highlighted [ 23 , 24 ]. For example, COVID-19 has caused changes in the organization in terms of teaching and accelerated the possibilities of distance learning [ 54 ]. Although it is often assumed that skills are developed in training programs, especially via textbook- and computer-based methods, previous research has shown that this is not a certainty. Training with both safe and high-risk examples has shown the highest accuracy and may lead to fewer under- or overestimations of risk in the assessment [ 32 ]. However, this study revealed an experience of not receiving any risk assessment-related orientation. In addition, companies did have written instructions and guidelines but a large proportion of respondents were uncertain about the instructions, felt the amount of instructions was low, or were unsure where to find the instructions. Furthermore, it was felt that although support is available, one must be able to take the initiative and ask for support from the right party.

Further study is needed to explore the effective intervention for training OHS risk assessment skills. In the current study, the experts thought that training and coaching are among the most feasible methods of developing risk assessment skills. Burke et al. [ 30 ] suggested enhancing learning through activity, dialogue and reflections. Ho and Dzeng [ 29 ] revealed that an e-learning method can be effective if the learning environment motivates the learner. In this study, the interviewees also raised education as the most significant way to develop OHS risk assessment skills. Suggested training methods included training given by a person outside of the organization, self-learning on the computer and mentoring. The OHS experts said that another feasible method of developing employees’ risk assessment skills is having clear guidance. Supporting this, a study by Bruhn and Frick [ 55 ] showed how a project can fail with under- or oversteering as well as with overly general or overly detailed guidance. Furthermore, in this study, the interviewees suggested improving risk assessment understanding and reviewing different perspectives.

Huang et al. [ 52 ] emphasized the importance of supervisors having a comprehensive understanding of safety rules and raised the need for communicating well with their employees. The current study made similar findings [ 52 ]; there is a need to improve communication between management and employees. Furthermore, the results of risk perceptions among employees and assessors differ, but the situation can be improved by using information strategies that simplify learning and improve risk perception [ 56 ]. Further research should be focused on how to make existing instructions and guidance better known to workers. Important questions include, why does one person easily find the right instructions and another feels that the instructions are unclear? Likewise, the employees’ experience of their own activity in obtaining support also raises questions, so how much can the support depend on the person? The focus could be on the communication and communications methods by studying various case companies.

Limitations

The companies that participated in this study developed their own OHS management systems long before this study. Consequently, the results of the study may not be directly generalizable to companies with a lower level of safety. Furthermore, the reference framework for this study was European OSH legislation [ 6 ] and its national Finnish Occupational Health and Safety Act [ 5 ]. As this is an EU Framework Directive, it sets minimum standards risk assessment and hence, the results are generalizable to European countries at some level. As the Delphi survey and interview process are explained in detail with explanations about the demographics of the participants, similar research can be carried out by other researchers in other countries. Further studies are recommended in multiple companies under different conditions, for example micro and small companies, in order to further generalize the results.

The other limitations of this study are the response rate to the Delphi survey and the limited number of interviewees ( n = 53) in the qualitative studies as well as the interpretation of these studies. A Delphi survey was e-mailed to the OHS specialists and managers, whose response rates varied [ 57 , 58 ]. By sending a reminder email each round, the number of responses increased. Small variations in the questionnaire questions or in the words used may affect the results obtained; consequently, in the second round, organizational factors were asked in addition to individual ones [ 47 ]. The results of this study were supported by the fact that the number of respondents increased in each round: 8 respondents in the first round, 12 respondents in the next round and 13 respondents in the last round.

Some of the interviews were conducted under time pressure, and in some of the companies interviewed, participants were supervisors, managers, and occupational safety and health representatives with no employees. However, the ratio of employees’ positions was overall fairly uniform. Although the interviewees had different education levels, work experience and backgrounds, similar issues began to emerge from the responses, so it can be said that this study used enough interviews. The design of the interviews took into account the interaction between the researchers and the interviewees. The interview questions were shown as text and spoken aloud. The semi-structured interview ensured that all themes were discussed, but it also provided room for more in-depth and free discussion [ 59 ]. This was done to make the interviewees feel comfortable and ensure that the discussion stayed on topic [ 42 ]. Similarly, some pitfalls and problems were taken into account when conducting a qualitative interview [ 60 ]. Efforts were made to improve the reliability of the study in a number of ways. The interviews were conducted in collaboration with two researchers. After each interview, the notes were reviewed and a separate file was compiled from them. The material was mainly coded by the same two researchers, who discussed the meaning of citations and codes [ 61 ]. The coding was iteratively carried out, reviewing the citations of a particular code if necessary and ensuring that they corresponded to the code [ 62 ]. In addition, the theme design was done by two researchers.

5. Conclusions

The results of this study are in line with those of previous studies. The most important issues related to the risk assessment skills of the employees and supervisors were unanimously determined to be identifying hazards and minimizing the risks of one’s own work for employees and the supervisors influencing of their subordinates through their own example and attitude. Understanding and managing the wholeness of safety practices and understanding and managing the meaning, concepts, and criteria of risk assessment as well as the related workplace safety legislation were the most important risk assessment skills for the OHS experts.

The interviews were used to determine the most significant ways to support risk assessment skills. Currently, learning at work and training as well as written instructions are the most often used support methods. However, there were some uncertainties about the instructions and feelings of not receiving enough orientation, guidance and support. Interviewees felt that in order to receive the support, they have to be the active party.

For the development of risk assessment skills, the survey provided expert opinions on the most feasible ways to support risk assessment skills, such as training and coaching, clear instructions, as well as suggestions from interviews on how risk assessment skills can be supported, such as via various training methods. Training methods included video teaching and training provided by a person outside the organization. In addition, the need to increase understanding of risk assessment and utilizing different perspectives were highlighted.

The results of this study can be used to find the most import development needs in order to create concrete development plans to improve risk assessment skills. Based on a Delphi survey, companies receive information on what OHS experts consider important risk assessment skills for personnel in different positions. Furthermore, this study presents how risk assessment skills are currently supported and suggests ways to further support and develop the risk assessment skills. Knowledge of the current situation can enable a company to choose the best development actions and implementations. Hence, it is recommended that companies perform a similar survey and interviews to determine their personnel’s need and receive feedback on risk assessment skills and support.

The number and percentage of responses to the themes as well as the number and percentage of interviews in which the theme is mentioned.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, M.R. and M.L. Data curation, M.R. and M.L. Formal analysis, M.R. and M.L. Funding acquisition, S.T. Investigation, M.R. and M.L. Methodology, M.R. and M.L. Project administration, S.T. Supervision, S.T. Visualization, M.R. Writing—original draft, M.R. Writing—review and editing, M.R., M.L. and S.T. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

This research was funded by the Finnish Work Environment Fund, grant number 200089.

Informed Consent Statement

Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results.

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

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Case Study Text Version

The Risk Assessment Process Text Version

On Screen Text: Step 1: Task Observation and Description

Scene 1 Still image of the handler lifting barrel with people observing the task.

On Screen Text: Step 2: Collect Task Data

Scene 2 Still image showing a group of people in meeting room collecting information about the task.

On Screen Text: Step 3: Identification of Risk factors

Scene 3 Still image of character taken from scene 1, attempting to tilt the barrel forward by applying the full weight of his body. Large Red ÒXÓ marks indicate the risk factors and problems with the job. The image also shows people observing the task.

Physical effort is too strenuous
Difficult to grasp
Load is too heavy
Load is too large

On Screen Text: Step 4: Solution development and plan of action

Still image showing a group of people in meeting room, reviewing a proposed solution which is detailed on flip chart.

On Screen Text: Step 5: Review effectiveness of actions

Scene 5 Still image showing a person who conducted the risk assessment consulting with the worker to review effectiveness of new system of work using a mechanical aid to handle barrels.

On Screen Text: Manual Handling: Assess to Avoid, Reduce or Reorganise

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Conducting a Risk Assessment

The client is a major UK communications company which had undergone many changes in structure over the years.

The Problem

An internal audit had concluded that the critical communications infrastructure was sufficiently resilient; however, the number of incidents leading to downtime suggested otherwise.

Our consultant was therefore asked to conduct a risk assessment as part of an independent review of the critical infrastructure.

Conducting a risk assessment in the communications industry

The Solution

Through a series of interviews, our consultant was able to identify a significant number of single points of failure, both within the infrastructure and with internal processes.

These included a number of examples where equipment that had originally been installed as a temporary measure had now become critical to the business yet there was still no duplication in place: often the equipment was not even being used for the task for which it was originally designed.

Furthermore, the business had no change management process so additional equipment was being bought and installed without any consideration of the demands for electricity and air conditioning.

Our consultant completed a full survey of the network, identifying single points of failure and prioritising these for resolution. The survey was also used to assist with the selection of a site for new premises.

Recommendations were also made about implementing a formal change management process.

How Can Cambridge Risk Solutions Help?

View more of our case studies of recent client projects.

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1. Identify the hazards

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Christian Leadership Reflections

Step 1: Identify Risks

Step 2: Probability/Impact Assessment

Step 3: Manage Risk

Step 4: Final Assessment

Step 5: Ongoing Risk Management

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Issues in Risk Assessment (1993)

Analysis of Case Studies

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Enterprise Risk Management Case Studies: Heroes and Zeros

Enterprise Risk Management Examples and Case Studies

Enterprise Risk Management Framework Examples

Enterprise Risk Management Examples and Case Studies by Industry

Enterprise Risk Management Example in Banking

Enterprise Risk Management Example in Pharmaceuticals

Enterprise Risk Management Example in Consumer Packaged Goods

Enterprise Risk Management Example in Retail

Enterprise Risk Management Example in Agriculture

Enterprise Risk Management Example in Insurance

Enterprise Risk Management Example in Technology

Enterprise Risk Management Case Studies by Principle

ERM Principle #1: Make Sure Your Program Aligns with Your Values

ERM Principle #2: Embrace Diversity to Reduce Risk

ERM Principle #3: Do Not Overlook Resource Risks

ERM Principle #4: Fight Silos for Stronger Enterprise Risk Management

Enterprise Risk Management Examples by Scenario

Examples of Poor Enterprise Risk Management

Case Studies of Successful Enterprise Risk Management

Examples of How Technology Is Transforming Enterprise Risk Management

Streamline Your Enterprise Risk Management Efforts with Real-Time Work Management in Smartsheet