The importance of dynamic risk assessments.

Why it really matters on the job?

Most businesses understand and complete task based risk assessments. It is one of the cornerstones of managing health and safety properly. You assess the job in advance, identify the hazards, put control measures in place and brief the team before work starts. All good practice. All essential.

But a task based risk assessment only reflects the conditions at the point it was written. And that is where the dynamic risk assessment comes in.

Task Based vs Dynamic Risk Assessment

A dynamic risk assessment is the ongoing process of reassessing risk as work is being carried out. It is about staying alert to what is changing around you. Weather, environment, access, behaviour, equipment, time pressure. These things rarely stay the same from one moment to the next. The job might be the same, but the risk often is not.

A Real World Observation

Recently while out walking. I saw someone working from a ladder, leaning against the side of a property to hang decorations around first floor level.

I do not know the person, the company involved, or the planning that may have gone into the job. So I cannot and will not comment on the wider task or the competence of those involved.

What I do know is this; It was windy and raining.

Why the Conditions Changed Everything

The conditions can drastically change the risk profile. A ladder that might be reasonably stable in dry, calm weather could become far more hazardous when it is wet and exposed to gusts of wind. Grip is reduced. Balance is affected. The chance of a slip or sudden movement increases significantly. The consequences of a fall from that height need no explanation.

This is exactly where dynamic risk assessments should take over from the paperwork.

Even if a task based risk assessment existed, conditions on the day should have triggered a reassessment. The key question becomes simple. Are the controls still effective in these conditions? If the answer is no, then stopping and postponing the work is not failure to complete the work. It is good decision making.

Dynamic risk assessment is not about being overly cautious. It is about recognising that real life does not behave like a document. It is about giving people permission and confidence to say, “This has changed. This no longer feels safe.”

Many small and medium sized businesses can feel real pressure from customers to keep to agreed dates. Postponing work because of weather does not just affect the job in front of you. It can often push back everything else that is already planned or become difficult to find a time to comeback at a later date to complete.

That creates frustration for clients, stress for operatives and a difficult balancing act for business owners who are trying to protect their reputation while also protecting their people.

A Question for Business Owners

So here is the question I would leave with small to mid size business owners and managers.

Do your people genuinely feel able to stop work when conditions change, even if it delays the job? Or do they feel pressure, spoken or unspoken, to push on regardless?

If you are not completely confident in the answer, it might be time to look again at how dynamic risk assessments are understood, encouraged and supported within your business.