All employers in Washington are required to provide a safe workplace for their employees. Whether you’re a large or small employer, finding and fixing hazards helps you create that safe workplace.

Finding and fixing workplace hazards reduces the risk for injuries and illness, which decreases direct and indirect costs to your business. It is also the foundation for your required safety programs, starting with an Accident Prevention Program (APP).

You can use the information here to help you find and fix hazards on your own. We also provide no-cost, professional safety and health consultants if you need more help.

Find Workplace Hazards

Identifying and preventing workplace hazards is better than reacting to an injury caused by them. Businesses in Washington must provide a safe workplace for their employees. A safe workplace starts with identifying how workers could get hurt. Be sure to include machinery, chemical, biological, sprains & strains, and other types of hazards. This important first step will help you create your required Accident Prevention Program (APP).

Depending on where your business is at – from a new start up to an established business – you can use these tools to help identify where hazards are found your workplace:

      Assess Hazards

      Take action

      Once you’ve identified hazards in your workplace, organizing and prioritizing them comes next. The more hazards you can address, the fewer risks for injuries you have. In the long run, this will leave you with more time to run your business.

      When you've prioritized potential solutions, you are ready to take action.

      • If you can eliminate a hazard right away, do it safely.
      • If not, you may need to provide a written program to address the hazard.
      • Only use Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) as a last resort. You may have to use PPE temporarily while you work toward a permanent solution or you can use it to supplement a permanent solution.

      When fixing hazards, be sure to follow all applicable safety rules. You can find rules and resources for specific hazards using our safety topics search.

      If you have a lot of hazards to address, then prioritize those that are most likely to cause the worst harm. A risk matrix like the one below can help you with this.

      A matrix to set priorities for correcting these hazards. Hazards that are very likely to occur and cause a fatality or serious injury should be corrected first. Hazards unlikely to occur and would only cause minor injuries can be corrected last.

      Managing hazards takes time and resources. Some hazards are easy to fix right away – others take more time and require more thought. When faced with a hazard, consider three possible solutions:

      • Change what’s used – Is there a safer tool or chemical available?
      • Change how work’s done – Is there a safer way to complete a task, or can you shorten or eliminate the time a worker is exposed to a risk?
      • Change something about the location – Can you add a barrier or isolate an employee from a hazard zone? Can you modify the workstation to make it safer?

      This process is often called the "hierarchy of controls:"

      Hierarchy of Controls: Elimination, substitution, Engineering Controls, administrative controls, and PPE.

      You can use our Workplace Hazards & Solutions Worksheet to help track the hazards you need to address and possible solutions.