Risk Assessment – free & workplace-ready

A risk assessment is the systematic process of identifying workplace hazards, judging who could be harmed, and putting controls in place. It is a core employer duty—not optional paperwork for "office only" businesses.

A risk assessment template gives you worksheets for hazards, ratings, and actions so you do not start from a blank page. Excel is popular because you can filter, sort, and update rows when layouts or equipment change.

Your advantages with a template

• Structure: Aligns with how US OSHA and UK HSE expect hazards to be considered.
• Time savings: Pre-built tables for likelihood, severity, and controls.
• Completeness: Checklists reduce the chance of missing slips, trips, manual handling, or stress factors.
• Evidence: Documented assessments support inspections, insurers, and incident follow-up.

United States (OSHA)

OSHA’s General Duty Clause requires a workplace free from recognised hazards. Many standards (e.g. hazard communication, personal protective equipment, recordkeeping) assume you identify risks and train staff. Written programmes are expected in several contexts even when a single federal "risk assessment form" is not mandated for every employer.

United Kingdom (HSE)

Under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, employers must make a suitable and sufficient assessment of risks and record significant findings where five or more people are employed (good practice for smaller teams too).

Who needs this: Any employer with staff—including hospitality, retail, care, and trades. Pair safety planning with our compliance checklist template for wage-and-hour and privacy reviews.

Operating in Germany? German occupational safety law requires a documented workplace risk assessment (local term: Gefaehrdungsbeurteilung)—similar in purpose to US/UK assessments but with different legal references; involve your safety specialist for Germany-specific wording.

Employers must assess work activities and implement controls before harm occurs—not only after an accident.

Who carries it out? The employer, a competent manager, or an occupational safety professional. Specialist rules apply for chemicals, biological agents, or high-risk sectors (construction, manufacturing)—add expert input where needed.

The template does not need to be perfect—it must be understandable and acted upon. After an incident or OSHA/HSE inspection, auditors ask whether hazards were identified and controls implemented.

Risk rating is the heart of the assessment: combine likelihood and severity into a priority score. High scores need urgent controls; lower scores may need monitoring.

Hierarchy of controls: Engineering fixes (guards, ventilation) and safe procedures beat relying on PPE alone. The template helps you log each measure, responsible person, and review date.

Typical hazards in hospitality and retail: wet floors, knives and slicers, manual handling, workplace violence, heat, and fatigue from long shifts. In care: patient handling, sharps, infection control, and shift work. Add site-specific rows (delivery bays, fryers, lone closing shifts).

Occupational safety sits alongside scheduling and time tracking: fair rotas and rest breaks support both US wage-and-hour compliance and UK working-time rules, while the risk assessment addresses physical and psychosocial harm.

The Ordio risk assessment template is a free Excel workbook with instructions, hazard lists, risk matrix, action plan, and summary. Download, customise for your site, and keep a version dated for each review cycle.

You document hazards, scores, and controls in one place—useful for leadership briefings, insurers, or safety committees.

Ideal for: SMEs with roughly 1-50 employees building a first assessment or refreshing an outdated file. Combine with the compliance checklist template for a broader internal audit. For day-to-day operations, Ordio time tracking and scheduling help you run safer, predictable shifts.