Manual Handling Risk Assessments: What Small Businesses Need to Do

Lifting, carrying, pushing and pulling look like the least dramatic hazards on any workplace list, which is exactly why they get skipped. They are also one of the most common causes of injury at work, and most of those injuries are completely avoidable. Here is what the law expects from a small business and how to do the assessment without making a meal of it.

What the law says

The Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 set out a simple order of play. First, avoid hazardous manual handling if you reasonably can. Second, if you cannot avoid it, assess the risk. Third, reduce the risk as far as reasonably practicable. There is no fixed legal weight limit, which surprises a lot of people. What matters is whether the task, in your workplace, with your people, is likely to cause harm. Employees have duties too: they must follow safe systems of work and use any equipment provided.

Start by asking if the lift is needed at all

Before you assess anything, look at whether the task can be removed. Can deliveries be made to where they are used? Can a trolley, pallet truck or sack barrow do the job? Can the load be split into smaller packs? Often the cheapest fix is a piece of equipment costing less than a day's lost wages.

How to assess it: task, individual, load, environment

The simplest framework is to look at four things for each task that cannot be avoided:

  • The task: does it involve twisting, stooping, reaching above shoulder height, long carrying distances or repetitive movement without rest?
  • The individual: does anyone doing it have a health condition, an injury history, or lack of training? Pregnant workers and young workers need particular thought.
  • The load: is it heavy, bulky, awkward, unstable, hot, sharp or hard to grip?
  • The environment: are there slippery floors, steps, tight spaces, poor lighting or extremes of temperature?

Write down what you find and what you are going to do about it. If you are new to the process, my guide on how to write a risk assessment that actually holds up walks through the structure.

Practical ways to reduce the risk

Use lifting aids and keep frequently used items between knee and shoulder height. Make loads smaller or easier to grip. Clear walkways before anyone carries anything. Share heavy lifts between two people, and rotate repetitive tasks. Training helps, but it is the last layer, not the first. Showing someone how to lift with a straight back does not fix a task that is badly designed.

Review it and record problems

Review the assessment if the task, the equipment or the people change, and after any injury or near miss. If someone does hurt their back, record it properly. My article on what accident report forms must legally include covers what to capture.

The mistake I see most often

Businesses assess the obvious heavy lifts and ignore the repetitive light ones. Packing the same box 200 times a day, or stacking shelves for hours, causes just as many problems as a single heavy lift. Look at frequency and duration, not just weight.

If your premises also need a proper fire assessment, take a look at Tony Carlyon's fire risk assessment service on Fiverr.
And if you want a quick way to check where you stand across the basics, grab the free UK landlord and small business compliance checklist.

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