Rank: New forum user 
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Hi everyone. I am new here so I hope this is the right place to post this!
I am looking for some advice on managing risk assessments in my workplace. I am assistant to the H&S manager for an industrial manufacturing company with 100+ employees. At the moment, when a new employee starts at our company, we are printing copies of every risk assessment we have that is relevant to the work they will be doing and asking them to read and sign every one before they start. This may amount to 50+ assessments per employee and produces a lot of paperwork. When risk assessments are reviewed and the content of the assessment changes, we were originally going to reissue the assessment to all employees and get them to sign for it again, however this has proved impossible to manage. Is getting a signature is necessary at all? I noticed in the HSE guidance it is stated that the results of risk assessments must be communicated to employees – so does this mean that employees do not strictly need to see/sign the assessment itself? For example, would simply having all risk assessments available to read if desired be acceptable, or communicating annual updates to risk assessments via a newsletter or something similar? The H&S manager believes that we need to have signatures from everybody to prove they understand the content of the assessments, but I am not so sure. I am not convinced that we should be using risk assessments as training documents in this way and I think that the signatures have little worth. I do hope somebody can shed a little light on the subject as we are looking to be compliant with HSE guidance in the most efficient way that we can manage! I would be very interested in knowing how risk assessments are managed at similar companies.
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Rank: Forum user 
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Hi NR, You are spot on, you only need to make people aware of the significant hazards and controls in place. My take has always been that this is covered by: - H&S Induction
- Company Handbook
- Signage
- Safe Systems of Work (SWI etc)
- Specific Training such as FLT Training, Manual Handling
I never get people to sign against Risk Assessments; unless its something like Pregnancy Assessment but I do that as a Workplace Adjustment more than risk assessment. Most people will not understand what they are signing and if push come to shove this will be their arguement in court should the worst happen.
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 2 users thanked MrBrightside for this useful post.
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Rank: Super forum user
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The H&S manager believes that we need to have signatures from everybody to prove they understand the content of the assessments
Im afraid a signiture proves nothing except that they have signed it - As an inspector i was never bothered if assessments were signed or not, by staff, or if most staff had even seen them, for me they were a management tool.
As you and Mr Brightside have said the important thing is how you communicate the significant information to your collegues.
And to Add to Mr B list - supervision is very important.
You need to be able to show that you know people are following the training etc.
Edited by user 08 February 2021 12:01:26(UTC)
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2 users thanked HSSnail for this useful post.
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Rank: Super forum user
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I work in a manufacturing plant with around 80 employees. If I tried to get an inductee to read through 40+ RAs they would probably leave. Not to be rude, but the sort of person that works on our factory floor, is not the sort of person that would be able to read and understand that much information in one go (I am not even sure I could). I tend to sum up the relevant findings in the inductions (entanglement hazards, cutting hazards, electrical etc.) then go through the standard controls (don't use machines without training/supervision, don't wear loose clothing, don't put your hand inside guards etc.) as part of the H&S talk. They then sign a single piece of paper saying they attended this induction. I then ensure the supervisor goes through the significant findings of the RA verbally with the new employee when training them on the relevant machines. I find this helps get past language barriers better, and any learning difficulties. Alongside this the machines have various pictorial signs of the hazards and controls on them. I then get regular feedback from the new employee, supervisor and Factory manager, and only go through the actual paper RAs if it still does not seem to be sinking in. Obviously I also speak to the new employee myself during all this, to ensure they have no questions/concerns.
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1 user thanked CptBeaky for this useful post.
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Rank: New forum user
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Hi all,
Thanks so much for your comments, this is really helpful info. I will try and relay this to my manager. I think we need to seriously rethink how we are approaching this matter so we are not going OTT with unecessary paperwork. @CptBeaky - I definitely agree with you regarding the inductee being overwhelmed with information. I am sure our new shop floor workers probably just skim read a couple of RAs at best and then sign to say they have read them all. If they were to then have an accident I doubt a signature would be enough in the company's defence!!
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Rank: Super forum user 
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It does sound a little bit from the Op that the current Manager is using the reading of the risk assessment as the actual “training”, and so feels this will be proof of training. I could be wrong, but it read that way to me. As the others note, RA’s are a management tool. Giving them to people would be completely dependant on the type of person given to. But your company will have to be able to demonstrate training and warnings. All back to HASAWA, Information, instruction training and supervision., you need all of it to varying degrees. Chris
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1 user thanked chris42 for this useful post.
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Rank: Forum user
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I believe it's the results of the risk assessments that need communicating rather the the risk assessment itself (although the assessments should be available to staff if they wish to read them and they should be involved in their writing and revision). Consider what the employee will actually think about or refer to when undertaking the work, if any control measures etc. that the RA identifies don't make it into your training/SOP/Work instruction then the exercise is largely pointless. For instance if someone in our lab want's to make a certain solution they will more likely refer to the SOP for that process than any other document. If your RA has concluded it should be done in a fume hood whilst wearing a certain type of glove that should be in the SOP. The RA is just how you reached that conclusion not the day to day instruction to staff. Edited by user 08 February 2021 15:06:22(UTC)
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1 user thanked ttxela for this useful post.
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