Risk Assessment Template

Educational workplace-safety awareness — connected to industries, occupations, employment law, employment documents and company types. Informational only — not legal advice and not a substitute for mandatory workplace safety training; employers remain responsible for compliance, training and worker authorization.

What this template is for

A risk assessment template gives you a tidy structure to work through and record a basic risk assessment — listing hazards, identifying who could be harmed and how, noting the controls already in place, and capturing further actions, owners and review dates. It is a free educational starting point you can adapt to your workplace.

The template does not do the assessing — a competent person who understands the work and its hazards must judge the risks and decide the controls. It does not replace task-specific assessments, the official authority’s guidance, or the training people need. Employers remain responsible for assessing and controlling risk, following the applicable law.

What a good version covers

• The activity, area or task being assessed.
• The hazards identified — what could cause harm.
• Who might be harmed and how (including visitors and contractors).
• The controls already in place to reduce the risk.
• Further action needed, who is responsible and a target date.
• A simple way to consider how likely and how serious harm could be.
• The assessor’s name, the date and a review date.

How to use and adapt it

• Have someone competent in the work complete and judge the assessment.
• Involve the people who do the task — they often see the real hazards.
• Follow the usual order of control: eliminate, reduce, isolate, then PPE last.
• Make the actions specific, owned and time-bound, and follow them up.
• Review when the task, equipment, workforce or workplace changes.
• Defer specific limits and methods to the official authority’s guidance.

Common mistakes

• Copying a generic assessment without checking it fits the real task.
• Listing hazards but never recording or completing the actions.
• Relying on PPE first instead of removing or reducing the hazard.
• Treating the assessment as a one-off rather than reviewing it.
• Assuming the template alone makes the workplace compliant.

Preparing and sharing it

You can export, edit and complete this template and save or share it as a PDF, so assessments follow a consistent format and can be reviewed and reissued over time.

Where a completed assessment needs a signature or needs to reach managers, supervisors or the people doing the work, it can be sent securely as a PDF. The template supports awareness and recordkeeping; it does not replace a competent risk assessment or the training people must receive.