Covid-19 risk assessments are an essential aspect of this duty of care. The Health and Safety Executive website contains important information about risk assessments, and this article discusses some of the tools you can utilise to simplify the Covid-19 risk assessment duty for your business.
What do I need to do?
Just some aspect of assessing the risks of coronavirus in the workplace include:
1. Identifying the types of activities and locations that can cause transmission of Covid-19
2. Work out who would be at risk and how likely they are to be exposed to the virus
3. Take action to remove these situations from the workplace or control the risks
You don’t have to make written records of your risk assessment and actions if you’ve got less than five workers. Although most employers find that detailing this activity can be very helpful, as it enables better planning and safety measures to be put in place.
Some groups of people could be more at risk of infections from coronavirus than others. So, your reporting should take into account factors like age and ethnic minority status. It’s also important to be aware of the dangers of workers regularly visiting locations in which they are not based.
Some of the practical measures that can be taken in the workplace include
– social distancing in place
– working staggered shifts
– offering hand sanitation and adding more handwash facilities
If you’re struggling with safely completing your Covid-19 risk assessments there are different approaches you can take. Some of the tools you can use are discussed below.
Different tools to reduce risks when dealing with Covid-19 risk assessments
There are not many available tools for dealing with the impact of Covid-19 and associated risk assessments. The uncertainty cube is one direction taken by big businesses. This allows organisations to focus on several different scenarios, rather than just a small line-up of possibilities (https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/risk/our-insights/covid-19-implications-for-business#). What the uncertainty cube does is utilise macro-economic and financial data to project advice on the direction which a large business should take.
Proforma risk assessments are available from a variety of online sources, such as HSENI (https://www.publichealth.hscni.net/) and the Welsh government (https://gov.wales/covid-19-workforce-risk-assessment-tool). These example risk assessments can be utilised as examples of the way in which to approach making risk assessments in the workplace.
It’s important that proforma risk assessments are merely used as a guideline. They should certainly not be copied and pasted into company policy without personalisation. That’s because each business is individual, and the risks posed by the coronavirus will be different in each and every environment.
You will need to think about all potential hazards posed by Covid-19 and identify just what controls your business needs to put in place to keep workers and visitors to site safe and in good health. Different environments will pose a varying level of hazard, and the control measures to adopt may well be different from those indicated in the proforma risk assessment.
It’s also important to research the latest advice from PHE (Public Health England) and use this advice when putting control measures in place for the workplace.
Tapapp is the ideal tool for Covid-19 risk assessments and enables you to complete most work and share data safely. It is totally free to download and use; this adds automation to your data collection and sharing. The app can be used not only for surveys but inspections, checklists, audits, and interactive kiosks. Tapapp vastly improves productivity as it is excellent for the management and sharing of data.
With Tapapp in place for Covid-19 risk assessments, there will no longer be any need for paper form filling or for manual data collection. Obviously, this help enhances the safety of the workforce and can ensure your workplace is more effectively protected against Covid-19.
More about Tapapp
Your regular risk assessment inspections for Covid-19 can be totally automated using Tapapp. This means all staff members can access site reports without any need to visit insecure locations. This data transparency is the perfect way to automate the risk assessment procedure. It’s also important to ensure access to all areas of the workplace is limited to essential workers only.
Some of the principal features of Tapapp for phones include:
– free and unlimited usage
– can set up unlimited numbers of users, no matter where they are based
– forms and surveys can be sent to any worldwide device running the app
– an automated geolocation tracking and timestamp to give transparency of data
– collects instant responses any place, any time – even when offline
– 22 different question types to deal with any kind of form or survey
– can be personalised with the company logo, images, or different colours
– mandatory error notifications
– a feature where the screen is always on
In addition to all the above, Tapapp for tablets provides the ability for a useful standalone kiosk model of operations.
How it works
You just need to sign up with Tapapp on the company website (www.tapapp.cloud) or via the app. You can immediately start to design your own risk assessment forms and surveys using the simple drag and drop tools. Responses can be collected from any locations and sent out to all registered app users.
There’s no coding required for form or survey creation, and you’ll discover the intuitive design tool very easy to use. Forms or surveys can be distributed via the online link or app. Powerful analytical tools and filters enable data analytics to the nth degree, with data exportable to Excel, PDF and CSV files. Any responses can be flagged or have notes enabled for a truly interactive user experience.
Where urgent risk assessment notifications need to be sent out, the advanced notifications system takes the strain.
Tapapp is the definitive tool for creating risk assessment forms and location management at this time of heightened awareness of the risks of allowing free access to the workplace. Find out more at www.tapapp.cloud.
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