Most small employers do not need a consultant and do not need a system. They need to have thought about the handful of things in their own trade that actually hurt people, written the significant findings down, and told their staff. What changes between sectors is not the method but the hazards that dominate, and knowing which those are is most of the work.
An office risk assessment, and the risks that get missed
Slips and trips, which are the largest cause of workplace injury across every sector. Display screen equipment and the workstations people have quietly adjusted or never adjusted. Fire, including exits blocked by stock and deliveries. Manual handling at the print room and in the storeroom. Stress and workload, which is a health and safety risk and is where an office is most likely to be causing real harm.
Kitchens and bars: what a kitchen risk assessment turns on
Burns and scalds, knives, slips on wet or greasy floors, manual handling of stock and waste, hot oil, cleaning chemicals under COSHH, and gas appliances that need annual checking by a registered engineer. Late shifts add lone working and cash handling. Food hygiene is a separate regime with its own duties, and the two assessments are usually kept apart because different people own them.
Salons, gyms and health and safety in care homes
Salons turn on skin sensitisation from products, ventilation, and the COSHH assessment nobody has written for hair and nail chemicals. Gyms turn on equipment maintenance, member induction, cardiac emergency arrangements and lone working at unstaffed hours. Care homes turn on moving and handling people, hoists needing LOLER thorough examination every 6 months, infection control, violence and aggression, and lone working on the night shift.
Roofing and painting
Both are dominated by falls from height and both are done by small firms whose paperwork is often the barrier to winning work. Roofing adds fragile surfaces, edge protection, weather and the public below. Painting adds solvents under COSHH, ventilation, and access equipment used for long periods, which is where a tower or a MEWP beats a ladder even for a job that feels short.
The records a small employer keeps
The health and safety policy, written if you have five or more employees. The risk assessments with their significant findings. Training and induction records. Statutory examination records for any equipment that needs them. The accident book and any RIDDOR reports. Contractor arrangements. And on construction work, the health and safety file, which carries the information anyone doing future work on the structure will need.
Where an outside pair of eyes is worth paying for
When you are bidding for work that requires prequalification, when an incident has happened, when you take on a first employee or a new premises, or when the assessment has been the same document for four years. Outside those moments, a small business owner who knows the trade is usually a better assessor than a visitor with a template.
What a beauty salon risk assessment has to cover
Substances first: gels, acrylates, solvents, peroxides and the treatments that release formaldehyde, each with a data sheet, and the two health outcomes that actually happen in this trade, which are skin dermatitis and occupational asthma. So ventilation at the nail station, gloves that suit the product, and a skin check routine belong in it. Then hot tools, wax and sharps, electrical equipment near water, slips, waste, and the client's own risks including patch testing and record keeping. Staff are often young and new, so the induction and the supervision are the controls most likely to be missing.
Questions people ask about health and safety for small business
Does a small business need a written health and safety policy?
An employer with five or more employees must have a written health and safety policy. Below that a policy is still sensible but need not be written.
What health and safety records must a small business keep?
Risk assessment significant findings where five or more are employed, training records, statutory equipment examination records, accident records and any RIDDOR reports, and the health and safety file on construction work.
Do I need a consultant for a small office?
Usually not. The law requires a competent person, which can be the owner or a member of staff who knows the work and has been given time to do it properly.
What is the biggest cause of workplace injury?
Slips, trips and falls on the same level are consistently the largest single category of non-fatal workplace injury across sectors, which is why they belong in every assessment.
What does a gym risk assessment have to cover?
Free weights and the space around them, machine maintenance and inspection, slips on wet flooring, lone working at quiet hours, and the arrangements for somebody taken ill on the floor. The last is the one most often missing.
What does a salon risk assessment have to cover that an office one does not?
Substances, water and people in close contact. The products are the main event: bleaches, peroxides, formaldehyde releasing treatments and acrylate based nail systems, each with a safety data sheet and a real risk of dermatitis and asthma, so ventilation, gloves and a skin check regime belong in the assessment. Then slips on wet floors, electrical equipment near water, hot tools, sharps, waste, and the client's own risks including a patch test regime. The staff are usually young and turnover is high, which makes induction training the control most likely to fail.