8. Employers’ roles and responsibilities

Employers should carefully prepare what they are going to do in order to meet their responsibilities to make a risk assessment, and put in place the measures necessary for the safety and health of workers. It is recommended that they do this through an action plan for the elimination or control of risks.

The action plan should include:

• commissioning, organising and coordinating the assessment
• appointing competent people to make the assessments
• the person carrying out the risk assessment can be:
  - the employers themselves
  - employees designated by the employers
  - external assessors and service providers if there is a lack of competent personnel in the workplace
• people can demonstrate their competence by showing that they have the following abilities:
  - an understanding of the general approach to risk assessment
  - the capacity to apply this understanding to the workplace
  - the ability to identify situations where they would be unable to adequately assess the risk without help, and be able to advise on the need for further assistance
  
  

• consulting workers’ representatives on arrangements for the appointment of those who will make the assessments

• providing the necessary information, training, resources and support to assessors who are the employer’s own employees

• ensuring adequate coordination between assessors (where relevant)

• involving management and encouraging the participation of the workforce

• determining the arrangements to be made for reviewing and revising the risk assessment

• ensuring that the preventive and protective measures take account of the results of the assessment

• ensuring that the risk assessment is documented

• monitoring the protective and preventive measures to ensure that their effectiveness is maintained

• informing workers and/or their representatives of the results of the assessment and of the measures introduced (making the records available to them).