Hi Carol

Our formal risk register of more than 150 significant risks sits on a database with the H&S team, and no-one looks at it. What it supports are:
A set of 7 critical risk bowties developed by the workers.
A matching set of 7 key critical risk controls that the workers have influence and control over. These are distilled down to an A4 page and are attached to all tailgate forms, and every SWMS'.
Where a SWMS needs to drill down further then the information from the formal register is used.

We find that it has been simplier and easier for our workers to understand and explain, as they are only dealing with what they have influence and control over.

For context we are a electricity supply company working on live electricity up to 66 kV, at heights and in excavations, lots of plant and machinery, working 24/7 including adverse weather - so some significant hazards.

The auditable part of this is that there is a obvious pathway back to the detail in the formal risk register.

Cheers
Stephen.

We tried to make relatable to each area instead of a whole lot of info in a system. Our H&S reps helped to develop a short doc summarising the key risks in their area with photos and easy to read text. The first page is the same in all areas explaining how to get into the incident & risk management system & who to contact if you have any issues, questions etc. Feedback so far has been positive.

We're a trucking company and our risk register is large. It includes on-road and off-road hazards and risks as well as site risks. It's an integral part of our on-boarding process. It's not just words - there's photos as well and each risk often has a story so it's also conversational.

Risks can also be singled out and the controls reviewed at health and safety meetings.

The register is also supported by our critical risk standards.

Away from the coal face, our most significant organizational risks are reported to our Board every month, alongside mitigations that have been planned/implemented. We have approximately 18 Org-wide risks so our top 3 - 5 can change, hence the Board knows our priorities and vice a versa.

So looking at how it is actually used? We start with the larger risk register and filter it down into a smaller documents with those bite-sized chunks the worker needs.

I'm in a horticultural operation with orchards, coolstores, trucking and processing facilities. Obviously the risk register has a number of hazards that are relevant to all employees and there are other hazards only be relevant to those working in a certain area or role. This led to us splitting our risk register into a Common Hazards section and location specific hazards sections. You will see some hazards duplicated across locations in the register because of the way we classify the hazards by location. I have mixed feelings about the duplication but it seems to work alright for us.

The risk register provides a basis from which to develop inductions, SOPs, and other material. It is used by senior, H&S and HR staff in preparing those materials. Although the risk register is available to regular staff, none are expected to read it or use it day-to-day. The worker on the ground ends up with a location-specific induction and an SOP with what they need to know in their role.

Great feedback... thank you all!

My takeaway now is to drill down to the top 10 risks, integrate those into our SOP's and link them back to our OH&SMS/Risk Register so that we have an auditable pathway and one for workers to follow should they choose. Great comments across a wide variety of industries - this is so good :)

Perfect...
I also put a short excerpt from the risk register of the top few risks in the back of the SOP to give some context to why the procedures are there, and give some feeling to the overall level of risk in an activity.

We have started aligning our identified risks(business unit) with our reported incidents/ events and or injuries. And this is also used in reporting at all levels of HS meetings. Trying to "socialize" the Risks of our Business Unit with all staff, from frontline to GM. Generating discussion