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How to write a risk assessment in Documents

Applies to user roles: Account Owner, Manager, User

Available on platforms: Vatix Workspace web app

You can keep your risk assessments in Vatix with the rest of your safety documents and share each one with the people it applies to. Every version you publish is saved, follow-up actions can become Tasks assigned to someone, and acknowledgement requests give you a signed, timestamped record of who has read it.

A risk assessment looks at one task, activity or area, such as working at height or fire safety in a building, and sets out its hazards, who might be harmed and how, and the controls that keep the risk down.

Follow the steps below to write your risk assessment and share it.

Step 1: Create the Document

Your risk assessment lives in its own Document, so it keeps a version history and can be shared and acknowledged.

  1. Go to 'Documents' in the left sidebar.
  2. Click the '+' icon next to the 'Documents' header and select 'New Document'.
  3. Enter a name, such as 'Working at height risk assessment', and select the folder.
  4. Click 'Create'.

If your risk assessments are already in Word, you can import them instead and carry on working on them in Vatix. See How to import a Word document into Documents.

Step 2: Set out the hazards in a table

A table gives every hazard its own row, so each one is recorded the same way.

  1. Type '/' and select 'Table'.
  2. Use the first row for your column headings. A common layout is 'Hazard', 'Who might be harmed and how', 'Controls', 'Further action' and 'Owner'.
  3. Hover over the edge of the table and use the add and remove controls to give yourself a row for each hazard.

For anything in your 'Further action' column, you can create a Task from the Document's 'Related' tab, so it's assigned to someone and followed up. See How to link Documents to other records.

Step 3: Score each risk with a risk matrix

A risk matrix rates a risk by how likely it is and what its impact would be, so you can see which hazards need attention first.

  1. Type '/' and select 'Risk Matrix'.
  2. Click the cell where the likelihood meets the impact. A new matrix starts with the middle cell selected, so change it to your own rating.

Each cell shows its score and band, and your selection appears below the grid. You can add a risk matrix for each rating you need, for example one before and one after a hazard's controls. To change the size of the grid or rename its levels to match your own scoring, see How to add a risk matrix to a Document.

Step 4: Publish it and share it with the people it applies to

Publishing makes the risk assessment the version everyone sees, and an acknowledgement request gives you a record that the people it applies to have read it.

When it's ready, click 'Publish' in the top right. Each time you publish, a new version is saved, so you can see what changed and restore an earlier one. See How to publish drafts and manage version history in Documents.

You can then send an acknowledgement request so the people the risk assessment applies to can confirm they've read and understood it, with a signature and timestamp for each. See How to send and track Document acknowledgement requests.

You can also share it with a Group, or with people outside Vatix through a read-only link, and export it as a PDF or Word file. See How to export and share Documents.

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