The importance of carrying out risk assessments in any potentially dangerous situation, from school trips to nuclear power plants, might seem obvious to us now, but it was only introduced as a legal requirement in 1992. The concept dates back to the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, but it was the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations that gave it the force of law 30 years ago
As a landlord, you have a duty and a legal obligation to carry out a pub risk assessment at least once a year in order to ensure the safety of your employees. No risk assessment can eliminate 100% of hazards but it can enable you to anticipate almost any eventuality except for the most unpredictable incident or freak accident. So what is the best way of carrying out a pub risk assessment? Here is a brief guide.
If there is anything in the working environment or employees' duties that pose risks to health and safety, an assessment will be obligatory. Your starting point should be to inspect your premises and equipment in detail, considering every element that could create a problem, such as uneven floors, concealed steps, poor lighting, inadequate machinery guards or poor ventilation. If you can identify any source of harm, you need a thorough assessment, paying particular attention to the most serious threats.
Every pub is different so there is no standard risk assessment template. The most important considerations are that it should be unambiguous, written in clear, direct language and cover every foreseeable hazard. These are some of the key issues:
Risk assessment is largely a matter of common sense but it does require forethought and imagination. It is not a box-ticking exercise, but has an important role to play in protecting your employees and will be of significance in the event of any dispute, tribunal or court proceedings
Hopsy's hospitality software provides the closest thing possible to a risk assessment template. It is customisable according to the individual needs of each venue but makes exhaustive provision for every issue you need to examine. You can use its flexible functionality to evaluate all hazards and propose mitigating solutions. It will easily generate a risk assessment document from the data you input and give you real-time reporting on both compliance and failure. It offers a simple means of communicating responsibilities and policy to all employees in one venue or across an entire estate.
Ensure your employees remain safe at all times and keep your business fully compliant with the law, using Hopsy's risk assessment tool.