Risk Management Assignment Exploring Hazards At ADCO

Question

Task: Individual report: This assessment task will involve evaluation and preparation of an industry style report (Format: Technical report) as per the marking guide (rubric will be provided). This reports will be based on key elements of the subject. Students will need to demonstrate the following:
• Understanding of risk elements - consequences, likelihood and controls
• Understanding of risk criteria and application
• Understanding of the use risk tools and techniques and when to apply them
• Identification of suitable controls and their suitability and effectiveness
• Role of risk management in elements of a WHS system. Students will compare and contrast OHS risk management systems designed to improve WHS performance within an organisation, appraise their effectiveness and propose recommendations to improve health and safety outcomes.

Answer

Executive summary
Construction industry like ADCO explored in the present risk management assignment faces a number of hazards that risk the health and the life of the employees. In this context, the most crucial ones include the issues with the respiratory system, along with the injuries that are caused by falls and strips. In such a situation, it is crucial that the organisations will have to take into consideration the usage of the risk assessment matrix so that the hazards could be identified within this risk management assignment. As a result of this, the organisation will be able to mitigate the identified risk. As per this risk management assignment, usage of PPR kits along with the clearing of the surfaces is the most vital ways that could help to deal with the situations.

1.0 Introduction
The present risk management assignment will highlight the diverse risks that are associated with a construction industry as per the WHS act. In this regard, the features of the workplace will be discussed along with the operational hazards that are associated with the workplace. Out of this identified hazards, 5 potential hazards will be selected to display the scenario. Followed by this the risk matrix and consequence likelihood table will be formulated for the workplace. Form the list of 5 further 2 risks will be selected for analysis on risk management assignment. Along with this, an illustration of the safety journey will be provided.

2.0 Features of the organisation
The present risk management assignment selected ADCO which is a construction company that has 50 years of experience. The organisation is in Australia and is considered to be one of the most experienced construction companies. The inception year of the company dates back to 1972. The organisation has been able to steer its operations since these many years owing to its values and trust. The organisation has made committed to providing quality service to its clients. In this regard, the organisation has established a legacy of over 3,500 projects with the overall value of $14 billion. The organisation is one of the top 100 companies in Australia among the private organisation.

Location: The organisation explored in the risk management assignment is located in the North Sydney of New South Wales in Australia. It is a part of the Non-residential Building Construction Industry. At present, the company has 9 companies in its families.

Figure 1: Location of ADCO on Google maps
(Source: google.com, 2020)

The number of employees: As per the reports from the data considered herein risk management assignment, the organisation has more than 500 employees. These are the strong pillars, which are helpful for the organisation to accomplish all its projects by maintaining the core organisational values (adcoconstruct.com.au, 2020).

Hours of works and shifts: The organisation has abided by the national policy that had been formulated with respect to the working hours. In this, context the working hours of the employees is around 38 hours per week. In this context of risk management assignment, the workers work from Monday to Friday and have a timing of 7:00 am to 3:00 pm (abcc.gov.au, 2020). However, the timing is often subject to change as per environmental situations. However, the hours per week do not face significant change. In addition to this, the people working at the construction sites as per the requirement work in the day and night shifts.

The psychosocial and human factor: The psychosocial factors mentioned in the risk management assignment that are found in the construction sites of ADCO include the work environment. The work environment of ADCO is friendly it takes into consideration the needs and the demands of the workers who are the most important human resource of the organisation. In addition to this, the other crucial psychosocial factor includes organisational factors. The management of ADCO is supportive and display leadership qualities that act as the guiding light for the employees. As per the study conducted by Grill et al. (2017) considered in the risk management assignment, leaders are the most crucial pillars and human resource that help to motivate the other individuals to work in favour of the organisational objectives.

3.0 Hazards in the workplace
The construction industry is associated with several numbers of hazards. Some of them provided in the risk management assignment are as follows:

1. Falls and heights: In the construction industry, the workers often need to work at height. Although, necessary facilities are provided through which employees could be protected from this type of hazards. However, it is also mentioned in the risk management assignment that the chances increase when there is a significant increase in the restriction associated with mobility.
2. Slips and trips: The next potential hazard that is found in the construction site is related to slips and trips. According to the study conducted by Borup et al., (2017), it is mentioned in the risk management assignment that employees in the construction industry need to work on the heights, uneven surfaces along within places that are slippery and filled up with obstacles. Such an area results in a number of accidents significantly.
3. Moving objects: In a construction site, there is the number of moving objects ranging from equipment lifting heavy loads and so on. In the process of handling this equipment's often the workers may experience strain, sprain, and fractures and so on.
4. Noise: Repetitive along with excessive noise prevailing in the construction site often leads to long-term healing problems.
5. Blue finger: It is a painful and draining disease of the blood vessels, nerves and joints. This occurs due to prolonged use of the tools and the ground equipment.
6. Collapses: Collapses at the construction site may lead to severe injuries if the employees are unaware of the situation.
7. Asbestos: While dealing with materials that possess asbestos to lead the employees to suffer from asbestosis.
8. Respiratory disease: In the construction industry, employees need to work in a dusty environment. Such an environment leads to the development of diverse respiratory diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, silicosis, and other lung diseases (Dement et al., 2020).
9. Electrocutions: This is one of the hazards outlined in this section of risk management assignment, which occur during refurbishment work on the commercial as well as domestic buildings. This form of risk occurs near power lines as well as cables.
10. Heat: Heat-related injuries such as heat stroke and heat exhaustion also contribute to mortalities in the construction workplace.
11. Injury at scaffolding: Employees working in the construction site often need to work at the scaffolding. This results in several injuries.
12. Injuries in the stairs: Stair injuries are primarily occurred due to dangerous objects, debris, and materials.
13. Caught-in-Between: Employees often get caught during trenching. This results in fatalities.

The other common hazards that prevail in the construction site involve the below points mentioned in the risk management assignment:

• Hazards in lifting operations
• Exposure to chemicals
• Hazards related to working with materials.
• Water-related hazards
• Hand and arm vibration syndrome
• Cuts and open wounds
• Chronic joint and muscle condition.

However, in the above-mentioned list, the top 10 hazards are vital to be addressed without any failure.

4.0 5 Hazards and their risk scenario
The first five hazards that are of utmost importance must be considered include falls and trips, electrocution, respiratory disease, moving objects and heat.

Falls and strips: In one of the incidents, a person while carrying heavy load got stuck in the stairs that led the person to fall and face injury (Mamin, Dey & Das, 2019).

Electrocution: During electrocution, the employees at the constructions site get electric burns, which often turn out to be a serious injury.

Respiratory disease: Employees in the construction site work in a dusty environment such as working with cement or during demolition results in entry of the dust particles within the respiratory tract. This results in the occurrence of respiratory disease.

Moving objects: Moving objects can lead to diverse issues. In this context, moving objects often lead to distraction, which may lead to the occurrence of accidents.

Heat: Heat-related incidents take place at the construction sites. In such a situation, employees at the construction site often face intensive sweating at their groin parts. This results in the prevalence of discomfort (Park, 2016). In addition to this, heat waves are the nest crucial issues that affect the health of the employees in the construction site. Due to the excessive heat, the employees often experience being unconscious and so on.

5.0 Risk matrix and its importance

Table 1: Risk Matrix for the construction site
(Source: Created by the learners)

Table 2: Consequence and likelihood table for the case scenario of risk management assignment
(Source: Created by the learner)

Table 3: Description of consequences
(Source: Created by the learner)

Table 4: Description of the likelihood
(Source: Created by the learner)

As per the study conducted by Abd El-Karim, Mosa El Nawawy & Abdel-Alim (2017), the construction industry is prone to diverse types of risks. These might cause several fatal consequences. Therefore, it is vital that before the starting of the project as well as during the project the risks that may be faced by the employees of that organisation must be assessed (safeworkaustralia.gov.au, 2020). Therefore, with the help of the risk assessment matrix, it would be possible for the management of ADCO to identify the risk along with understanding the probability associated with the occurrence of that particular risk. This, in turn, will provide an opportunity to strategise the actions that will help them to avoid the occurrence of such incidents at the workplace.

6.0 What are the two potential hazards and their associated risk mentioned in the risk management assignment?
The two hazards that are associated with the highest risk include the occurrence of the respiratory borne disease along with strips and falls within the construction site.

As per the knowledge gathered from the literary finding of Hulshof & Frings-Dresen (2018) one of the most risks associated with the hazard of working in a dusty environment is that people will face severe respiratory-related diseases. One such vital risk is facing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or occupational asthma (Van der Molen et al., 2018). As a result of this, the employees will face severe issues in breathing along with inflammation in the lung.

According to the study conducted by Maliha (2018), strips and falls are the most common type of hazards that lead to diverse issues. The major risk that is associated with strips and falls include musculoskeletal injuries, along with cuts, bruises, fractures and dislocations. In addition to this, sometimes it may lead to some fatal injuries that may be related to the brain and so on. In addition to this, often the back of the body may be harmed so badly that it could make a person handicap for the later phase of the life (Ahady, Gupta & Malik, 2017). However, most of the falls at the construction site could be prevented by the usage of some precautionary steps.

6.1 Apply your risk matrix to these two risks.

Table 5: Risk Matrix for the construction site
(Source: Created by the learners)

7.0 Point to start for a safe journey
The organisation should start with the identification of the risks that would occur at the construction site. In this case of risk management assignment, the first thing that must be carried out by the employer is to clear all the pavements and the path so that no obstacles may hurt the employees while lifting heavy loads and so on. In this context of risk management assignment, it would be vital for the organisation to use the risk assessment matrix so that the probable risk, their likelihood and intensity of the effect could be assessed.

8.0 Conclusion
The construction industry faces several hazards like trips and falls, exposure to the dusty environment and so on. It is essential that the organisations associated with this industry must take up the steps so that they are able to manage the risks before it leads to severe or fatal consequence. In this regard, it is crucial that the risk assessment matrix should be used so that proper strategies could be formulated.

9.0 References
abcc.gov.au. (2020). Overtime and hours of work | ABCC. Risk management assignment Retrieved 10 May 2020, from https://www.abcc.gov.au/your-rights-and-responsibilities/wages-and-entitlements/pay/overtime-and-hours-work

Abd El-Karim, M. S. B. A., Mosa El Nawawy, O. A., & Abdel-Alim, A. M. (2017). Identification and assessment of risk factors affecting construction projects. HBRC Journal, 13(2), 202-216.

adcoconstruct.com.au. (2020). Who we are - ADCO | Construction & Building Australia. Retrieved 10 May 2020, from https://www.adcoconstruct.com.au/who-we-are

Ahady, S., Gupta, S., & Malik, R. K. (2017). A study of the causes of cost overrun in the construction industry in Afghanistan. International Journal of Engineering Development and Research, 5(3), 978-985.

Borup, H., Kirkeskov, L., Hanskov, D. J. A., & Brauer, C. (2017). Systematic review: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and construction workers. Occupational Medicine, 67(3), 199-204.

Dement, J. M., Ringen, K., Hines, S., Cranford, K., & Quinn, P. (2020). Lung cancer mortality among construction workers: implications for early detection. Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 77(4), 207-213.

google.com. (2020). ADCO construction location in australia google map - Google Search. Retrieved 10 May 2020, risk management assignment from https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1SQJL_enIN862IN862&sxsrf=ALeKk00BqAlhj29OPBIAAaTsnDC0V5Zwzw:1589113426418&ei=RPK3XqS7CYvWz7sPpKWxyAc&q=ADCO%20construction%20location%20in%20australia%20google%20map&oq=ADCO+construction+location+in+australia%2B+google+map&gs_lcp=CgZwc3ktYWIQAzIECCEQCjoECAAQR1CZVVizZGCGZ2gAcAF4AIABwQKIAa8UkgEHMC41LjYuMZgBAKABAaoBB2d3cy13aXo&sclient=psy-ab&ved=2ahUKEwit6qfqpKnpAhW0kOYKHYhNBm0QvS4wAHoECAsQHQ&uact=5&npsic=0&rflfq=1&rlha=0&rllag=-26547945,149908085,865538&tbm=lcl&rldimm=13429463364412835200&lqi=CjJBRENPIGNvbnN0cnVjdGlvbiBsb2NhdGlvbiBpbiBhdXN0cmFsaWEgZ29vZ2xlIG1hcCIDiAEB&rldoc=1&tbs=lrf:!1m4!1u3!2m2!3m1!1e1!1m4!1u16!2m2!16m1!1e1!1m4!1u16!2m2!16m1!1e2!2m1!1e16!2m1!1e3!3sIAE,lf:1,lf_ui:4&rlst=f#rlfi=hd:;si:;mv:[[-18.1486337,155.665529],[-38.9454687,113.5888738]]

Grill, M., Pousette, A., Nielsen, K., Grytnes, R., & Törner, M. (2017). Safety leadership at construction sites: the importance of rule-oriented and participative leadership. Scandinavian journal of work, environment & health, 375-384.

Hulshof, C. T. J., & Frings-Dresen, M. H. W. (2018). Association between Work and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). Journal of clinical medicine, 7(10).

Maliha, M. R. (2018). Fall Accident Causes and Prevention in the Construction Industry.

Mamin, F. A., Dey, G., & Das, S. K. (2019). Health and safety issues among construction workers in Bangladesh. International Journal of Occupational Safety and Health, 9(1).

Park, J. (2016). Will We Adapt? Temperature Shocks, Labor Productivity, and Adaptation to Climate Change in the United States. Unpublished. Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.

safeworkaustralia.gov.au. (2020). Construction Work: code of practice. Risk management assignment Retrieved 10 May 2020, from https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/system/files/documents/1705/mcop-construction-work-v1.pdf

Van der Molen, H. F., De Groene, G. J., Hulshof, C. T. J., & Frings-Dresen, M. H. W. (2018). Association between work and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Journal of clinical medicine, 7(10), 335.