1. Introduction

Risk in the business world can be defined as, any event that may have an impact on the achievement of business objectives.
Some of the relevant regulations and minimum requirements for management of risk are detailed below.

The Occupational Health and Safety Regulations 1999 require employers to ensure that:

• any task undertaken, or to be undertaken, by an employee involving hazardous manual handling is identified

• an assessment is made to determine whether there is any risk (likelihood of injury, illness or disease) of a musculoskeletal disorder affecting an employee occurring as a result of that task

• any risk is eliminated, or if that is not practicable, reduced so far as is practicable.

The Act speaks of the employer but often you are the employer, if you are running your own installation company. As employees we must also be constantly aware of the risks that our work place may present. Managing risk is simple:

• identify

• assess

• eliminate (risk control)

• monitor effectiveness of the solution.

In terms of managing OH&S, risks are generally hazard based risks.