Risk Rating

As a supervisor, you will be required to rate the level of risk posed by issues raised though Incident Reports, Hazard Reports and Workplace Inspections and to decide on the appropriate corrective actions for issues. You should do this in consultation with the person who raised the issue.

First some definitions:
Hazard - a source of potential harm or a situation with a potential to cause loss to people, property or the environment
Risk - the chance of something happening that will have an impact on objectives i.e. the chance of harm occurring when exposed to a hazard. Risk is measured in the terms of a combination of the consequence of an event and the likelihood of those consequences.

We rate risk though a combination of Consequence and Likelihood using a risk rating table:

Likelihood	Consequence
	Insignificant 1	Minor 2	Moderate 3	Major 4	Severe 5
Almost Certain A	M	H	H	VH	VH
Likely B	M	M	H	VH	VH
Possible C	L	M	H	VH	VH
Unlikely D	L	L	M	M	H
Rare E	L	L	M	M	M

Step 1: Select the Consequence which you think is most probable
Step 2: Select how likely it is from the choices Almost Certain, Likely, Possible, Unlikely or Rare

The intersection of these two choices on the table above gives you the risk rating and the risk rating indicates the time frame you have to take action:

Very High -	Act Immediately
High -	Act Today
Medium -	Act This Week
Low -	Act This Month

Note: By act, we mean you must take some action, not necessarily solve the issue. Often this can be as simple as calling facilities and reporting the issue.

See here for Corrective Actions.