Is this your first visit? Then you must first start an RA. You already started with an e-mail address and a password. After that you give the RA a title. Next you can start the RA.
Once you have started an RA, you will be able to stop before the end. Log out: the data will be stored. If you forgot to log out and just ended the RA, the data will be stored too. For security reasons it is better to officially log out. Of course your must remember your e-mail address, password and the title that you have given the RA. You can start the stored RA again at a later date: select the title of the RA. You can save more than one RA, provided you have given them different titles names.
Just start. The programme will point you in the right direction.
You will find buttons:
You will also see:
Why do you need a company profile?
Before starting with the RA, you must first determine your company profile. This is particularly important if your company consists of more than one business unit. For example, if your store has more than one branch, then you must answer the RA questions separately for each branch. By indicating the composition of your company here, this means that it will be automatically included in the Inventory. It is useful to give company sections a clear name.
How to determine a company profile?
Have you forgotten to determine your company profile? Start again with the RA and give the RA a different name. Remember that what you have already filled in will have to be filled in again.
Once you have answered all the questions, you can evaluate. That means that you will receive a summary of all the bottlenecks in your company. Please bear in mind that: one bottleneck may be more severe than another. Therefore, the magnitude of the risk is determined here.
The step Evaluate is performed by answering three questions for each bottleneck. Your three answers will be used in a calculation, based on which the programme determines whether the risk is high, medium or low. In the next step, ‘Action Plan’, you will find more information about the outcome of this calculation.
Bottlenecks are questions in the phase Identify that were answered with a ‘No’. These questions are flagged again here. However, it is possible that you answered ‘No’ to certain questions but these questions do not pop up in the phase “Evaluation”. There are two possible reasons for this.
You will assign priorities to these bottlenecks yourself in the Action Plan.
They will appear in the Action Plan with the warning ‘Risk: not defined’.
That is possible. This is good as it means there are no health or safety risks in your company. You can simply skip the steps ‘Evaluation’ and ‘Action Plan’.
The step Evaluation is performed by answering the following three questions for each bottleneck:
There are hazardous substances in a storeroom. The employees enter this room briefly several times per week. The storage has been fitted with an extractor. The chance of hazardous substances being released (for example by leakage or vaporisation) is estimated to be medium (there are various substances in different types of packaging). The exposure is defined as regular (the employees enter the room several times per week). And the severity is significant (the substances are irritating, but not toxic).
Use your common sense when filling in the forms. Do not pay any attention to all sorts of other possible and conceivable effects.
You have defined the bottlenecks in your company. You have determined the level of risk for each bottleneck. The question that remains is: what can you do about it? In other words: what measures can you implement to remove these bottlenecks?
The programme runs through the bottlenecks one at a time. First you must set the priority: how important do you think it is that this bottleneck is tackled quickly? The programme automatically assigns a high priority to a bottleneck with a high risk et cetera. You can modify the priorities yourself.
Now there are two options for each bottleneck: you select one of the standard measures suggested by the programme. These are measures that are normally used in your sector. Some sectors list several standard measures, others do not. Or you decide on the best measures by yourself.
You select a high, medium or low priority for the bottleneck. You leave the priority as set by the programme, or you modify it.
Sometimes one or more standard measures are suggested. You can select one or more of these measures, or you can modify the text of the measure yourself! Or you can add your own measures. If you have added at the phase Identify your own notes, you can see them at the page Action Plan.
Fill in
Why report and print? You have now completed your RA. You can print copies for yourself and your employees. Please ensure that you always have a printed version of your RA available. This is useful when a Labour Inspectorate team visits. They will ask to see this document. (This can vary in each country).
Once you have saved the report, you can modify it using your word processor (for example, Microsoft Word or Windows WordPad). Or restart the digital RA, and modify.
Note
The changes with your word processor will not be automatically adopted in the programme used to complete the RA.
If you have saved the report you can add additional information like the name of your company, person(s) who carried out the examination, date of the RA. This additional information can be useful for supervisory authorities.
Keep it safe! Store your RA safely. You have put a lot of effort into it. You can close the RA by clicking on the button ‘Log out RA’ on the top right. This will automatically save the RA and close it. Your data have been stored. Once the save has been completed you will return to the screen ‘Select RA’. Here you can open another (existing) or new RA if necessary. However, you will probably just want to close the programme.
You will start to implement your Action Plan. Conduct an RA regularly. Especially if there are any changes in your company. For example, when you buy a new machine, before and after reconstruction or moving. A rule of thumb is once every four to five years. You do not have to start the RA from scratch every time.