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How to Complete a Risk Assessment (Step by Step)

Most risk assessments are copied, not done. This one walks a real task from blank template to signed off assessment so your supervisors can do the next one properly and it survives an auditor.
What You Will Learn
- Decide when a task needs a documented risk assessment, and when an existing safe system of work already covers it
- Scope a task and gather the information a sound assessment depends on: a walk-through, the workers who do the job, SDS, manuals and incident history
- Break a task into steps, identify the hazards at each step, and rate risk with a likelihood-consequence matrix without gaming the scores
- Select and combine controls using the hierarchy, assign owners and dates, and make an honest call on residual risk
- Finish the job properly: brief the crew on the assessment, file it where it can be found, and review it when the triggers fire
Course Content
- A risk assessment is thinking made visible
- By the end of this course, you'll be able to:
- The law asks for managed risk: the assessment is how you show your working
- When you need a documented assessment, and when you may not
- Know which document the moment calls for
- The same cycle, wherever you work
- Define exactly what you are assessing: edges and all
- Gather before you judge
- What the worked example turned up
- Break the task into steps, then hunt hazards step by step
- Rate each risk: how likely, how severe, honestly
- The two ways people game a matrix, and how to refuse
- Work the hierarchy on each significant hazard, starting at the top
- Combine controls: one layer is rarely enough
- Every control gets an owner and a date, then face residual risk honestly
- What the finished document must contain
- An assessment nobody has read protects nobody
- Review is a trigger, not just a date
- On the job: twenty minutes to assess
- The five things to carry away
Who This Course Is For
Supervisors, team leaders, small-business owners and experienced workers who are handed the template and expected to fill it in properly, in any industry.
Written by Kam Askari, Managing Director of Creative Directions Management Consulting Pty Ltd, ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 Lead Auditor. MBA, Graduate Diploma in Occupational Health and Safety, MAICD. Checked against the sources listed below.
Sources and Legal References
This course is aligned to 17 official sources. Legal and regulatory references checked between 12 August 2026 and 31 October 2026.
Sources and Further Reading
This course draws on the following official sources. Always rely on the current version on the regulator’s website.
- LegislationWork Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld)As at 12/08/2026
- LegislationWork Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (Qld)As at 12/08/2026
- LegislationOccupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (Vic)As at 12/08/2026
- LegislationOccupational Health and Safety Regulations 2017 (Vic)As at 12/08/2026
- LegislationWork Health and Safety Act 2011 No 10 (NSW)As at 03/10/2026
- LegislationWork Health and Safety Regulation 2025 (NSW)As at 03/10/2026
- Code of PracticeCode of Practice: How to manage work health and safety risks (NSW), SafeWork NSW, August 2019As at 03/10/2026
- LegislationWork Health and Safety Act 2011 (ACT)As at 31/10/2026
- LegislationWork Health and Safety (National Uniform Legislation) Act 2011 (NT)As at 31/10/2026
- LegislationWork Health and Safety Act 2012 (SA)As at 13/09/2026
- LegislationWork Health and Safety Act 2012 (Tas)As at 31/10/2026
- LegislationWork Health and Safety Act 2020 (WA)As at 31/10/2026
- LegislationWork Health and Safety Regulation 2011 (ACT)As at 31/10/2026
- LegislationWork Health and Safety (National Uniform Legislation) Regulations 2011 (NT)As at 31/10/2026
- LegislationWork Health and Safety Regulations 2012 (SA)As at 13/09/2026
- LegislationWork Health and Safety Regulations 2022 (Tas)As at 31/10/2026
- LegislationWork Health and Safety (General) Regulations 2022 (WA)As at 31/10/2026
Always rely on the current version on the regulator’s website.
Seven day refund if you have not started
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For employers and teams
Buy Seats for Your Team
$49.00 per seat, inc GST
Total inc GST$245.00
Or
What You Get
Certificate of Completion
This is to certify that
has successfully completed
All learning modules and the final assessment
Kam Askari
Director, Creative Directions Management Consulting Pty Ltd
This is a certificate of completion of a non-accredited professional development course. It is not a nationally recognised qualification, a VET statement of attainment, a competency card, a licence, or evidence of competency. It is issued by Creative Directions Management Consulting Pty Ltd, which is not a Registered Training Organisation.
Sample layout. Certificate ID WP-SAMPLE-0001 verifies as Hazardous Manual Tasks and Manual Handling Safety.
- Certificate verified by its ID
- 100% online, self-paced
- Six months of access
Bought for yourself: six months of access from the day you pay. Team seat: six months from the day the worker activates their code.
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