Campaign objectives

Risk assessment can be a challenge, especially for small and medium-sized businesses, but it need not be so. The objectives of the Risk Assessment campaign are to:

• raise awareness of the legal responsibility and the importance and practical need to assess risks in the workplace. Risk assessment is not an objective in itself, but a powerful tool for identifying the need for preventive measures,
• demystify the process and show, especially to SMEs, that risk assessment is not necessarily complicated, bureaucratic, or a task only for experts,
• promote a five-step approach to risk assessment,
• encourage enterprises to carry out their risk assessment in-house, if there is competent personnel in the workplace,
• highlight the fact that risk assessment is an ongoing process and not just a one-off obligation, 
• underline the fact that quality counts (and that it is important to document, monitor and review the risk assessment), 
• promote participatory risk assessment, the involvement of everyone in the workplace in assessing the risks, and
• promote good practices which are transferable and help make the process easier. 

The ultimate aim, of course, is to help to reduce the number of people who are being hurt or are experiencing ill health as a result of their work, now and in the future.