How many workers have looked at a job, took a sharp intake of breath, then thought to themselves that doesn't look right or, even worse think to themselves someone could get hurt doing that. In years gone past workers were been told by their supervisors to simply “get on with it” regardless of the consequences, just as long as the job was finished. Nowadays tougher Health and Safety regulations have been introduced to ensure that not only employees but members of public are fully protected from any accidents happening in the workplace.

Over the last few years many companies have been embarking on improving their own health and safety records, this may include training, employing and promoting people into their new health and safety departments where, there duties will include risk assessment, health and safety procedures and ensuring that all employees are aware of new Health and Safety regulations. In today's compensation culture it is very important that all your employees are aware of all the hazards that can happen when carrying out a particular action.

Risk assessments are an important part of any job as this will determine all the hazards and dangers not only to people working on the job but to anyone who enters the workplace. These don't have to be lengthy documents as long as they identify all the hazards and that all the dangers are identified and procedures put in place to limit or control any chance of accidents. Doing a proper risk assessment could prevent the premature deaths of more than 240 people each year and over 150,000 people getting injured.

If you work in a low risk office then the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have just released their 'Quick Office' Risk assessment which should take no longer than 20 minutes. This new tool will enable you to produce a tailored assessment by selecting the relevant hazards and thinking about how you control them.