Prepare for Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment

Organizations need to set up a process for recognizing jobs with hazards, including MSD hazards even if no MSD, worker concerns, or reports of discomfort have been recorded. Workplaces need to plan to take advantage of information that they may already collect and review to help recognize jobs that expose workers to MSD hazards.

Risk Assessment is the process of identifying hazards, performing preliminary risk assessment, eliminating hazards if possible, performing further assessments as necessary, and choosing and implementing controls. A goal is to decide if hazard elimination or a control is required. If an MSD hazard is not clearly identified or understood and a root cause cannot be determined, then more studies are needed.

The progression from Preliminary Risk Assessment to Simple Risk Assessment to Full Risk Assessment minimizes the resources required for a decision on an MSD hazard. 

If control of MSD Hazard is later needed, then in order to control it an in-depth Root Cause Analysis will be essential in eliminating hazards and controlling risks in a sustainable way.

Establish a team 

RACE is a collaborative effort in which all internal stakeholders including workers need to be involved. Therefore, it is essential to create a Risk Assessment and Inspection Team to do the job.

Choose risk assessment methods   

Risk Assessment and Inspection Team, choose the appropriate method(s) for MSD hazard identification and risk assessment. The team should:

• Select MSD Hazard ID and Risk Assessment methods and checklists appropriate for the workplace
• Select the Risk Criteria for the Assessment Methods chosen
• Develop procedures to assess jobs, including participation of workers, task analysis, what to monitor, who to monitor, when to monitor and what data to collect that is appropriate for the methods chosen.