The occupational risk assessment is the document on which almost everything else in OHS depends: which personal protective equipment to issue, what to cover during on-the-job instruction, which medical examinations to order. Even so, in many companies it has sat in a binder since the day someone wrote it. Below: who carries it out, when it has to be updated and what the document must contain.
Legal basis
- Polish Labour Code (Kodeks pracy), Art. 226 — the employer assesses and documents the occupational risk associated with the work performed, applies the necessary preventive measures to reduce the risk and informs employees about the risk and about the rules of protection against hazards.
- Labour Code, Art. 207 — the employer is responsible for the state of occupational health and safety in the workplace; entrusting tasks to the OHS team or to an external specialist does not release the employer from this responsibility.
- Labour Code, Art. 237¹¹a — the employer consults employees or their representatives on OHS-related activities, including the occupational risk assessment.
- Regulation of the Minister of Labour and Social Policy of 26 September 1997 on general occupational health and safety regulations (§ 39) — how the assessment is carried out and what the document contains.
- Regulation of the Council of Ministers of 2 September 1997 on the occupational health and safety service — the OHS team's involvement in the occupational risk assessment.
Who carries out the risk assessment
The obligation rests with the employer and cannot be transferred to anyone else. The regulations do not, however, say that the employer has to fill in the forms personally. In practice the assessment is done by a team: a member of the OHS team or an external specialist, the department manager who knows the process, and someone who actually works at that workstation. Taking part in the risk assessment is among the OHS team's duties, but a signature on the document does not take responsibility away from the employer.
It is good to have someone from the shop floor on the team. They know that the operator removes the guard to change a tool faster, or that the issued gloves get in the way when handling small parts. You cannot see that from the office. The assessment is also consulted with employees or their representatives — that is a Labour Code requirement, not a courtesy.
When to update the risk assessment
The regulations do not set a fixed interval in years. The assessment has to be up to date, meaning it reflects how the work looks today. In particular, the following require an update:
- the creation of a new workstation,
- a change of machines, tools, technology or the substances used,
- a change in work organisation, for example a move to shift work or relocating a workstation to another part of the hall,
- a change in the regulations or standards that apply to a given hazard,
- new results of measurements of harmful agents in the working environment,
- an accident at work or an occupational disease at that workstation,
- a change in the collective or personal protective measures used.
Many companies also adopt a regular review of assessments, for example during annual OHS planning. That is good practice, but it does not replace an update after a change. An assessment from before a new machine was bought does not describe the workstation where that machine stands.
What the document must contain
The regulation on general OHS regulations lists the elements of the document confirming the occupational risk assessment:
- description of the workstation — machines, tools and materials used, tasks performed, dangerous, harmful and onerous factors present, collective and personal protective measures used, and the people working at the workstation,
- results of the risk assessment for each of the working environment factors,
- necessary preventive measures to reduce the risk,
- the date of the assessment and the people who carried it out.
The regulation does not prescribe an assessment method. Companies use, among others, the method based on Polish Standard PN-N-18002, the risk score method or other methods described in the literature. What matters is that the method is applied consistently and that the document makes it possible to trace where the result came from.
The employee must be informed about the risk at their workstation. They usually confirm this by signing the information sheet or the assessment form. That signature is the first thing a labour inspector will ask about after an accident.
Risk assessment and the rest of the OHS documentation
The risk assessment is not a separate document kept “for inspections”. Further decisions follow from it:
- personal protective equipment — the selection of PPE for the workstation and the allocation table should match the hazards in the assessment,
- on-the-job instruction — the employee must hear about the hazards and the means of protection that the assessment identified,
- medical examinations — the referral for examinations describes the harmful and onerous factors at the workstation, so it must be consistent with the assessment,
- periodic training for office staff — the exemption under Art. 237³ § 2² of the Labour Code does not apply if the risk assessment shows that training is needed.
If these documents do not match, for example the assessment lists noise but the allocation table has no hearing protectors, the inspector will notice.
Common mistakes and a checklist
The mistakes that come up most often:
- One assessment for the whole hall instead of for each workstation.
- An assessment copied from a template, with factors that are not present at the workstation and without the ones that are.
- No update after buying a machine, changing technology or an accident.
- Preventive measures written as a generality (“take care”) instead of specific actions.
- No confirmation that the employee has read the assessment, especially for people hired after it was drawn up.
Questions to check before an inspection:
- Does every workstation have its own dated risk assessment?
- Has anyone reviewed the assessment since the last change at the workstation?
- Does the document name the people who carried out the assessment?
- Does the PPE issued at the workstation match the hazards in the assessment?
- Has every employee, including new ones, confirmed that they have been made aware of the risk?
- Was the assessment consulted with employees or their representatives?
How ErgoFlow helps
No software will carry out a risk assessment — that is the work of people who know the workstation. Software can keep track of what follows from the assessment. The OHS app keeps records of training and medical examinations with their deadlines and sends notifications before a deadline passes, and employees complete periodic training in the form of guided self-study online or on a shop-floor kiosk. SmartFlow holds the workwear and PPE allocation standards for workstations and records issues with confirmation, so it is easy to check whether an employee has received what their workstation requires. More: OHS app, workwear and PPE and OHS at ErgoFlow.
Legal status as of October 2026. This article is for information only and does not replace legal advice or the opinion of your OHS team.
