Understanding the Role and the Importance of Risk Assessing

When people think about risk in the workplace, it’s often easy to picture two clear categories:

• blue collar roles, where hazards are more obvious and physical, and
• white collar roles, where risks tend to be more ergonomic, stress, or well-being focused.
  

But there are roles that don’t fit neatly into either category. How do we refer to these roles?

We could use the term “grey collar” roles, referring to employees who are primarily based in office environments but also step into higher-risk, operational settings on an ad-hoc basis.

Some examples may include:

• Project managers who spend most of their time in the office but regularly visit sites.
• Engineers or IT staff who occasionally work in operational plants.
• Client-facing professionals who accompany teams into field environments.
  

A challenge with these roles, if not understood correctly, can be missed hazards and associated risk during a risk assessment process. Their day-to-day hazards may look low, but exposure to operational environments can mean risk could escalate quickly.

At Chandler Macleod, we are committed to delivering a high service not only to our valued clients but also the safety of our employees working from our client locations.

Understand How Risk Can Be Missed

How Chandler Macleod Is Addressing the Risk

1. Starting with early conversations
Before assuming a role is low-risk, we talk to the hiring manager and ask:

• Where will they spend majority of their time?
• Will they be attending sites, workshops, or client visits?
• Are there ad-hoc tasks outside of the usual environment?

These conversations not only give us a better understanding of our client’s requirements but also gives us the ability to proactively risk assess for the role requirements.

2. Understand the Role

Break the role down into all environments and tasks. For example, an engineer may spend 80% in an office but 20% onsite. That 20% may carry much of the safety risk.

3.  Risk assessing the work environment

We don’t lump a role into a single category. Risk assessing the work and  environment. This helps ensure our employees are working at a safe and suitable location.

4.  Regularly Review and Update
A “set and forget” approach means risks can quickly become outdated. We communicate regularly with our employees and complete Safety Pauses during site visits.

Grey collar roles are common across all industries. Recognising them is the first step toward preventing risks from being overlooked.

By having early conversations, understanding the full scope of the role, and risk assessing the work environments, we reduce the possibility of missed risk and ensure the safety of our employees, no matter the workplace.

After all, effective safety isn’t about ticking boxes. And at Chandler Macleod, we are all Safety Leaders.