Rolling out the risk assessment in your organisation

The risk assessment setting (Risk assessment for the permit) has four options: Not required · Optional, from the drop-down · Required, from the drop-down · Required, step 0. The starting value depends on the policy profile: Lenient — Not required, OPEREX recommended — Not required, Strict — Required, a new assessment for every job (step 0). The starting profile is OPEREX recommended, so unless your organisation changed it, a permit can start without an assessment, but anyone can make one voluntarily on the Risk assessment tab and start the permit from it. What each option does: Policy gates. The approver competence gate (The approver must hold an OHS qualification), however, is Off in both the Lenient and the OPEREX recommended profile, and Block only in Strict.

That is why the order matters: do the preparation steps (1–4) first, so that the prescriptions of a permit started from an assessment really show up — otherwise users would get permits with empty prescriptions and would not understand why nothing is in them. Then decide how far you tighten (5–8): first practise ad-hoc assessments, then pre-prepared assessments for the recurring jobs, and only after that make it mandatory.

Before you start

• Permission: managing templates and policy — ptw:manage.
• The assessors: assessing needs ptw:assess. By default it belongs to the Shift leader role; it can be given to others in the permission matrix (for example to an HSE role).

Steps

1. Install the risk assessment template. Permit settings → Risk assessment template → Install built-in template. This creates a copy of the built-in content — editable from then on.

2. Refresh the base work permit templates. Permit settings → Work permit templates → Refresh base permit templates. The pre-ticked items of a permit started from an assessment rest on the references (ref) of the work permit template items; on an already installed set of templates they only arrive with this step. (After the previous step the page offers this button itself.)

3. Install the document types. Person register → Competence types → Install default types. This also brings the OHS professional qualification type — the button tells you how many new types it brought.

4. Add the approvers to the Person register. Person register → People → New person, and in the Linked user field choose which signed-in colleague this person is; then record their qualification document. The approver gate finds the document through this link.

5. Practise the ad-hoc assessment. Permit settings → Policy gates, with the company (Company — all sites) or a site chosen in the Scope picker, in the Risk assessment and preparation group: Risk assessment for the permit.

   • On the Lenient and the OPEREX recommended (starting) profile it is Not required — in the first phase of the rollout leave it so: colleagues make ad-hoc assessments voluntarily and start the permit from them.
   • If needed: The approver must hold an OHS qualification → Warn (it is Off on the recommended profile).

   There is no separate save: the change is saved automatically, right away (the bottom of the page shows “Saving…”, then “Saved: …”).

6. Prepare assessments for the most frequent recurring jobs. Set the option to Optional, from the drop-down. The New permit page then gets a drop-down (the pre-prepared assessments, starting a new ad-hoc one, and “No risk assessment”), but it stops nobody. The safety specialist now makes the pre-prepared assessments for the recurring jobs — at plant, site or company level. Their validity is set by the Validity of a prepared risk assessment (months) row (default 12; 0 = no expiry). How to make one: Creating and approving a risk assessment.

7. Only then make the drop-down mandatory. When the frequent jobs have a valid pre-prepared assessment, set Required, from the drop-down: from then on no permit is created or issued without an assessment. If a type, site or plant has nothing to choose from, the New permit page says so and offers to start a new ad-hoc assessment.

8. The strictest: a new assessment for every job. The Required, step 0 option (the Strict profile’s value, which sets every gate to its strict value — it asks for confirmation) removes the drop-down and any reuse: every permit starts with a new ad-hoc assessment.

Why in this order?

While the option is Not required, colleagues make ad-hoc assessments voluntarily — the Risk assessment list shows who already uses it and for which jobs. Optional, from the drop-down stops nobody either, but shows which recurring jobs already have a pre-prepared assessment. So before you make it mandatory you can see where one is still missing, and work does not stop while the organisation gets used to the new step. Before you make it mandatory, the settings page also states the consequence of the change: how many existing drafts without an assessment can no longer be issued.

When switching to Required, from the drop-down: before saving, the page counts the affected drafts; Save anyway saves, Cancel resets the picker.

If it worked

With Optional, from the drop-down or Required, from the drop-down, the New permit page shows the Risk assessment drop-down after the type and the plant (details: Requesting a work permit).

Optional, from the drop-down: the pre-prepared assessments, a new ad-hoc assessment and “No” — it stops nobody. The picker was opened for the image.

With Required, step 0, the page does not show a template picker but step 0:

With the “Required, step 0” option, the permit starts from the risk assessment; the page also lists your own approved assessments that have not been used up yet.

On a draft started from an assessment, the prescribed items stand pre-ticked with a padlock (🔒), and at the bottom of the assessment the approver sees: “Your occupational-safety qualification is valid.”

Common problems

What you see	Why	What to do
Nothing is pre-ticked on a permit started from an assessment	Step 2 was skipped, or the template is your organisation’s own (copied) template without references.	Run step 2; on your own template, add the references in the template editor — the editor’s header tells you how many items carry a ref.
“Your organisation’s policy allows only a qualified occupational-safety professional to approve an assessment, and yours is not on record.”	Step 3 or 4 is missing: no type, no person record, or the record is not linked to the user.	Complete steps 3–4. Without the link the gate reports “no person record”, and on block nobody can approve.
The assessment prescribes a single permit although the job has several hazards	This is the built-in One permit mode: one permit per job — the main hazards decide the type, and the supplements (lifting, electrical, excavation…) are added as its boxes.	If you want a separate permit per main hazard, choose A separate permit per main hazard in the risk assessment template’s Basic settings → Permit allocation row.
In Always the combined permit mode a rule or a hand-added permit does not take effect	In this mode the combined type is always created (if it does not cover the job’s main hazard, the assessment cannot be approved).	The What did not take effect box on the assessment’s panel says item by item what was left out — switching to another mode makes it apply again.
Issuing stops: “Some items prescribed by the risk assessment were removed without a reason.”	A 🔒 item is unticked on the draft without a reason.	Tick it back, or write the reason (see A permit from a risk assessment).
The New permit drop-down is empty: “There is no valid pre-prepared risk assessment for this type at this site / plant.”	There is none yet, or its scope or type does not fit the chosen job, or it has expired.	The safety specialist makes one (Risk assessment → New risk assessment → Recurring job), or choose “＋ New risk assessment (ad-hoc)”.
Issuing stops: “The prepared risk assessment linked to this permit has expired. Create a new draft with a valid assessment.”	The assessment linked to the draft has expired or was withdrawn.	The New draft with a valid assessment button on the draft’s page walks you through it; for the expired assessment make a new version (Review).
The validity row is disabled: “Only adjustable with the two drop-down options (Optional / Required from the drop-down).”	The setting is Not required or Required, step 0, which have no pre-prepared assessment.	Set the option to one of the two drop-down options.

Worth knowing

• Reversible: the setting can be changed back at any time; the assessments already approved and the permits started from them remain. Not required is the OPEREX recommended value, and switching between the four options never asks for a reason; on the OPEREX standard tab an option other than Not required shows as a ▲ tightens deviation, with nothing to do. A validity above 12 months or with no expiry, however, is a loosening: it asks for a one-off reason.
• For the company or per site: the setting can be made for the company, and a site can override it — you can start with one site too.
• An ad-hoc assessment has no expiry; if the job changes, a new assessment is needed, from a copy. A pre-prepared assessment expires (after 12 months by default), and tightening the policy takes effect immediately on the already approved ones too. Before saving, the settings page states how many approved assessments would expire at once.
• The content review is the organisation’s job. The system only guards the expiry; whether a pre-prepared assessment is still true in substance is for the safety specialist to decide — for a no-expiry assessment your organisation needs its own review routine (for example yearly, or after a plant modification); the system does not remind you of this.
• Switch on the LMRA box for recurring jobs in the permit template (LMRA (on-site risk assessment); its gates: On-site risk assessment (LMRA) before activation, LMRA signature (per working day)): a pre-prepared assessment covers a type of work, and the last-minute on-site assessment is made on the permit.
• The whole picture: where step 0 sits on the permit’s route and what it pre-fills by the rule set — with a swimlane diagram: Permit to work — the process.

Related

The risk assessment templateStep 1: installing and editing.

Creating and approving a risk assessmentStep 6: the ad-hoc and the pre-prepared assessment.

Work permit templatesStep 2: refreshing the base templates, and the refs.

Person register and documentsSteps 3–4: types, people, the link.

Policy gatesSteps 5–8: the options for the company and per site.