Who is this article for?

Administrators responsible for risk management.

Administrator role is required.

The Risk Assessment module enables structured identification, evaluation, and control of workplace hazards. Ideal for universities, research labs, and manufacturing, it allows administrators to configure, monitor, and enhance risk assessments across departments.

This article pulls together best practices and Help resources you need to effectively monitor and mitigate risk.

1. Overview

The module offers a centralised platform to create and manage risk assessments, capturing key details like job activities, hazards, potential harm, and control measures. This helps teams understand risks and monitor mitigation effectiveness.

Its core features include:

• Configurable objects and roles - Define which object types (e.g., department, lab, machine, user group) can be assessed and who has permission to create, view, or approve assessments.
• Custom risk calculations - Set up severity, probability, and adjusted risk ratings to calculate a Risk Priority Number (RPN). Administrators can configure color coding and thresholds to highlight high-risk activities.
• Flexible notifications - Schedule automated email reminders for unapproved or expiring assessments. You can set first, second, and third reminders, expiration durations, and default approval contacts.
• Version control and tracking - Every assessment is logged with dates, team members, and follow-up actions, making it easy to maintain compliance records and generate reports for audits.

The module integrates smoothly with tools like Chemical Inventory, Biosafety, and Compliance Calendar, providing a comprehensive view of organisational risk. Risk assessment data can be included in dashboards and analytics for leadership reports.

2. Best practices

To get the most out of risk assessments:

• Establish clear approval pathways before rollout.
• Match risk assessment object types to your actual reporting units.
• Start with one lab, construction site, or production line to test severity/probability scales and approval workflows before a company-wide rollout.
• Use the label settings feature to rename fields like "Job Step" or "Potential Harm" to match familiar terms (e.g., "Task Step" in Construction or "Process Step" in Manufacturing) for better user adoption.
• Standardise the meaning of severity and probability scales (High, Medium, Low) across all sites.
• Configure expiration durations by risk profile.
• Enable multi-stage reminders to create escalating notices (e.g., 90, 30, and 7 days). This prevents assessments from expiring unnoticed.
• Give department heads or project managers view-only roster roles so they can monitor assessments tied to their assets without interfering with approvals.
• Encourage users to record not only the type of control (engineering, administrative, PPE) but also implementation details.
• Make sure end users and supervisors understand how re-notification and expiration emails work so they know when to expect reminders and who receives them.
• Every quarter, review the following to keep the module aligned with changing hazards and regulatory updates:
  • Pending approvals
  • Expiring assessments
  • RPN thresholds
  • Notification accuracy
• Regularly clean up inactive departments, job sites, or equipment in the Data Manager. Keeping the object list current prevents users from selecting outdated locations and ensures reports stay accurate.

3. Resources

3.1. Configuration

• Configuring module settings

3.2. Assessments

• Understanding the risk assessment form
• Best practices for submitting a risk assessment