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A Guide to the Most Common Workplace Hazards

Katie Martinelli January 7, 2019

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To complete the first step in any workplace risk assessment, you must identify the hazards in your workplace. Every workplace has hazards and, although there will be a nominated person for conducting formal risk assessments, it is still everyone’s responsibility to be mindful of hazards in the workplace and minimise risk of harm.

Not all hazards are obvious and they will be unique to your workplace. This can make it difficult to immediately identify and protect your employees from them. Therefore, we have created this guide to help you understand the different categories of hazards and where they might be present.

What Are the Most Common Hazards in a Workplace?

The words ‘risk’ and ‘hazard’ are often used interchangeably. However, if you are responsible for managing the health and safety in your workplace, it’s important that you understand the difference between them. The rest of this article focuses on hazards, including where they might be found in different workplaces. We also provide you with a range of further resources to make your risk assessment process as smooth as possible.

The six main categories of hazards are:

Biological. Biological hazards include viruses, bacteria, insects, animals, etc., that can cause adverse health impacts. For example, mould, blood and other bodily fluids, harmful plants, sewage, dust and vermin.

Chemical. Chemical hazards are hazardous substances that can cause harm. These hazards can result in both health and physical impacts, such as skin irritation, respiratory system irritation, blindness, corrosion and explosions.

Physical. Physical hazards are environmental factors that can harm an employee without necessarily touching them, including heights, noise, radiation and pressure.

Safety. These are hazards that create unsafe working conditions. For example, exposed wires or a damaged carpet might result in a tripping hazard. These are sometimes included under the category of physical hazards.

Ergonomic. Ergonomic hazards are a result of physical factors that can result in musculoskeletal injuries. For example, a poor workstation setup in an office, poor posture and manual handling.

Psychosocial. Psychosocial hazards include those that can have an adverse effect on an employee’s mental health or wellbeing. For example, sexual harassment, victimisation, stress and workplace violence.

You must be appropriately trained before you carry out any workplace risk assessments. For more information, have a look at our Risk Assessment Training.

Examples of Workplace Hazards

Below you will find a non-exhaustive list of hazards that can be found in a range of work environments. The aim of this guide is to help you understand the different categories of hazards, so you can confidently identify them in your workplace.

Biological Hazardsdrop down menu

Chemical Hazardsdrop down menu

Physical Hazardsdrop down menu

Safety Hazardsdrop down menu

Ergonomic Hazardsdrop down menu

Psychosocial Hazardsdrop down menu

How to Manage Hazards in Your Workplace

If you neglect your responsibility to protect your employees, you could face financial and/or custodial penalties. Therefore, it’s vital that you properly manage all your workplace hazards. This article should have helped you to identify and consider more obscure hazards, but it’s important that you take further steps to protect you employees. For example, you should:

Carry out an appropriate risk assessment for the nature of the work and hazards. We have provided some downloadable templates for you to use throughout this article. You can find more, including those that are relevant to your industry, by searching on the Hub.

Introduce appropriate control measures. Once you have completed your risk assessment, you must introduce controls to reduce or eliminate the identified hazards. For example, you may be able to avoid work at height completely when window cleaning by using extension poles or, if those are inappropriate, you could reduce the risks by installing fall prevention equipment.

Appropriately train all your employees in their duties. All employees should have basic Level 1, Level 2, or Level 3 Health and Safety Training or Office Safety Training, in addition to training for any specific workplace hazards.

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