PUN617: HSE Risk Analysis and Mitigation Strategies for ABZ Limited

This report addresses the health, safety, and environment (HSE) risks faced by ABZ Limited, an Australian organization. The report begins with an introduction emphasizing the importance of early risk identification and mitigation in modern organizations. It then outlines the context of ABZ Limited, detailing its workforce and operational environment. The core of the report involves a risk assessment, identifying potential hazards and evaluating associated risks, including operational, legal, reputational, and financial risks. The methodology includes brainstorming, risk matrix analysis, and the evaluation of risk mitigation options such as risk transfer, risk limitation, and risk acceptance. The report also discusses the hierarchy of control and provides advice on managing risks, including the designation of dangerous areas, safety training, and communication strategies. Finally, the report concludes with the importance of monitoring and review, emphasizing the need for regular assessments and adjustments to ensure effective risk management and prevent workplace accidents.

Running Head: OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY 1
OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY
Name
Institution Affiliation

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY 2
Introduction
Health and safety are one of the areas that modern organizations largely focus on. Early
Risk identification and mitigation are some of the options that organizations have in dealing with
health and safety at work. Health, safety, and environment risks can be costly to an organization
if not sufficiently handled. These challenges faced by organizations range from employee
exposure risks, human ecological risks, sustainability reporting risks, and business risks. These
risks are often linked to negative outcomes witness through public areas such as public’s health
and safety, occupational health and safety in daily activities, deterioration of the environment,
employee wellness, pollution and destruction of natural resources. The unsafe working
environment can pose different challenges for an organization. A reduction of this health, safety
and environment risks calls robust health, safety and environment strategy (Kimbrough &
Componation, 2009). This report explores health, safety and environment scenario for ABZ
Limited, discusses the identified HSE risk issue alongside associated risks from areas such as
operational, legal, reputational and financial likely to arise from the core health, safety and
environmental risk. All organizations need to have a risks management strategy in place
irrespective of their size. For effective mitigation, these strategies need to be comprehensive. All
risks need to be prioritized to facilitate swift execution of mitigation strategies.
Context
ABZ is an Australian Organization employing over 2000 staff. Its range of employees
includes executives, administration staff, and warehouse workers. The organization houses its
employees in two buildings located adjacent to each other in the middle of Melbourne City. The
CEO of the company is deeply concerned about increasing cases of accidents in the organization.

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Recently the organization compensated one of their employees who suffered an accident in the
course of duty. The CEO is deeply concerned about these occurrences and focused on seeing an
end to the trend to guard the reputation of the organization in the public eye avoid future
litigations, conform to legal requirements and improve internal conditions for their employees
and customers. The evaluation of the risk will fist include identification of risk hazard and an
assessment of the parties likely to be affected and how they are likely to be affected (Corvellec,
2010). The identified risks will then be evaluated, and precautions decided upon. This will be
followed by a recording and implementation of the findings. The methodology to be used will
include identification of environmental aspects of the organizational activities, preliminary high-
risk analysis and identification, screening and prioritization of risks, risk quantification, detailed
risk assessment and a decision on the risk controls and communication of the same to
stakeholders
Risk Assessment
Risk assessment refers to the process of identifying risk and hazard factors likely to result
in negative outcomes, analyzing and evaluating the potential risks likely to result from the
hazard. As part of maintaining workplace health and safety, organizations ought to take all the
necessary precautions of dealing with workplace risks (Haimes, 2015). In order to effectively deal
with organizational risks all possible cause of risks likely to cause harm to need to be identified.
After possible risks have been identified, a decision is then arrived at on whether all reasonable
steps are being taken to address the issue. This is what risk assessment refers to.
Risk identification

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Risk identification is the process of identifying negative and positive risks affecting an
organization. The organization will use some strategies to identify risks. The first method to be
used in risk identification will be brainstorming (Reason, 2016). The organization will bring
together different groups within the organization and engage them in a brainstorming activity to
identify the potential risks, the cause of those risks, hazards associated with the risks and options
for mitigating the risks. For this exercise to be effective, a conducive environment for free-
flowing ideas will be established. All ideas will be treated equally with none being criticized or
rewarded.
Analyzing the significance of the risks
This process will start with the identification of all possible internal and external risks
that the organization is facing. These risks will be categorized as hazard, operational, strategic
and financial risks. The significance of the risks will be analyzed through brainstorming sessions
and an analysis of the strengths, weakness, Opportunities, and Treats for the organization. This
analysis will also include the possible impacts of the risks and how far the impact is likely to
extend (Tideiksaar, 2010). Possible options to be considered include the impact of the identified
risks to business operations, communication, workflow, impact on customers and other external
shareholders.
Risk evaluation
A risk matrix will be used to analyze the significance of the risks. Through this method,
risks will be ranked according to their probability of occurrence and impact upon occurrence.
This will facilitate effective development of strategies to respond to the risk.
Risk Mitigation options

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Risk mitigations the process of taking steps to reduce the potential impacts of risks.
Various risk mitigation options are available for the organization.
Risk transfer
Risk transfer refers to the process of transferring an identified risk to a third party.
Through this approach, the organization will outsource the services of an external party
specialized in the risk area especially if the risk will not be a core competency of the
organization (Sharp & Brock, 2012). Adoption of this option will enable the organization to focus
on other areas of competence.
Risk limitation
Risk limitation is a widely used approach. By adopting this approach, the company will
take the necessary actions to limit its exposure to the identified risks(Sharp & Brock, 2012). Risk
limitation may involve a combination of risk acceptance risk avoidance or a combination of the
two.
Risk Acceptance
Risk acceptance is also an option that can be used by the organization. This strategy will
however not minimize the effects of the identified risks. Risk acceptance approach will be most
viable in a situation where the most likely to be incurred through the adoption of other strategies
will have a higher cost than the risk itself(Sharp & Brock, 2012). Risk acceptance will save the
organization from spending so much money on risks that do not have a high possibility of
occurring.
Hierarchy of control

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Hierarchy control is used to reduce exposure to hazards or eliminate it. Hierarchy of
control is advocated for by multiple safety organizations. It is promoted as the standard
organizational practice and taught to managers to facilitate its adoption. The hierarchy of
controls commences with the most effective controls and concludes with the least effective
controls. The first control, Elimination is concerned with the physical removal of the hazard. A
substitution which is the second one focuses on replacement of the hazard (Manuj & Mentzer,2008).
The third control, engineering controls centers on isolation of people from the hazard. Fourthly,
Administrative controls center on changing the way people work. Finally, the focus is on
protecting the worker with personal protective equipment.
Advice on managing risks
Accidents at the workplace can arise as a result of the failure of the organization or the
employees. Effective management of this risk, therefore, calls adoption of a comprehensive
approach (Lave, 2013). This section presents my recommendations to the organization on
effective management of the risks.
Identification of potential risks in the workplace environment
The bulk of effective risk management should start here. Some of the possible hazards at
the workplace include heavy objects likely to strain the backs of employees, object obstruction
on paths and wet floors (Sodhi, Son & Tang, 2012) After all possible scenarios of injury have been
explored; a list should then be prepared to contain all potential organizational risks.
Designation of all potentially dangerous areas

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The organization may also label all the dangerous areas to notify employees of the
potential risks. Signage used should conform to the requirements of Occupation Safety and
Health Administration(Manuj & Mentzer,2008). The use of Signage will be beneficial in
safeguarding against workplace accidents and potential complaints.
Formulation of plans for avoiding injury from each of the identified injuries
After all potential risks likely to be faced by employees have been identified; a plan
detailing the steps that they will take to avoid any harm should be devised.
Safety training
Organizational accidents and injuries may also arise as a result of the lack of adequate
safety training for employees. The organization will also have to train its employees on safety
management after all procedures of avoiding injury have been established(Manuj & Mentzer,2008).
Safety training should be made available to both new and existing employees.
How these will be communicated to Workers and Clients
These will be communicated will be communicated to workers through some strategies.
Face to face communication will highly be used. Meetings will facilitate face to face
communication. Meetings will facilitate immediate feedback and enable any clarifications as the
need may arise (Lundgren & McMakin, 2018).
Written Communication
Written communication will also be used to communicate the recommendations. Written
communication mediums to be used include, emails, Memos and internet content (Lundgren &
McMakin, 2018).

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Social media
Social media will be an effective medium of reaching to the vast clients of the
organization(Lundgren & McMakin, 2018). The recommendations will be posted on the company’s
social media pages such as Facebook. Social media communication will also allow real-time
feedback.
Monitoring and review
Monitoring of the new Strategies
Real-time monitoring of the implementation
This strategy will involve monitoring of all organization activities, processes, monitoring
individual employees to identify how well the suggestions are being implemented as well as
identification of what else needs to be done to aid the implementation (Aven, 2016).
Regular status and progress reports
The implementation will be carried out in phases. Regular status and progress reports will
be prepared for different stages to identify any deviations from the initial targets so that such can
be rectified. These reports will identify what has been achieved and what needs to be achieved
(Moon & Rutgers University,2016). The reports will also enable identification of existing issues and
facilitate the making of timely adjustments.
Estimation of failure or success percentage

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Monitoring will also involve estimation of the percentage of failure or success in the
implementation. This estimation will facilitate corrective actions and improve the success of the
implementation.
Review
They will be reviewed through a comparison of the previous situation at the organization
with the current situation. A reduction in workplace accidents will signal the success of the
strategies(Moon & Rutgers University,2016). In a situation where accidents continue to occur at the
organization, the strategies will have failed to achieve the intended objectives
Importance of Monitoring
Monitoring is important in that it ensures that the implementation is carried out as
intended. It facilitates the identification of any deviations from the initial implementation for
early corrective actions. Monitoring ensures successful implementation. The process will ensure
that implementation is kept on track and facilitate the realization of intended results (Purdy, 2010).
Monitoring will enable consolidation of information about the progress of the project. It will also
reveal implementation mistakes and provide an opportunity for learning and improvement.
Conclusion
In conclusion, ABZ Limited is faced with imminent risks demonstrated by increased
accidents at the organization. The evaluation of the risks will include identification of risk hazard
and an assessment of the parties likely to be affected and how they are likely to be affected.
Identification of the organizational risks will be carried out through brainstorming and an
analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the organization. Management

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of the identified will require and adoption of a comprehensive risk mitigation approach. Possible
strategies that can be used by the organization in dealing with the risks include risk acceptance,
risk avoidance, risk limitation, and risk transfer. possible strategies for dealing with identified
organization risks will include safety training, labeling of dangerous spots within the
organization and formulation of plans to avoid injury at the organization
References

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