Step-by-step plan: Drawing up a risk assessment and evaluation (RI&E)

Do you have staff, such as employees, agency workers, interns or flex workers? If so, you are an employer and must draw up, carry out, and keep an RI&E up to date. This enables you to assess the health and safety risks to your employees within your business. There are a number of special circumstances (in Dutch) relating to the preparation of an RI&E.

Inspection by the Netherlands Labour Authority

Since 2021, the Netherlands Labour Authority has been carrying out more frequent and stricter inspections. If you do not have an RI&E, you may get a fine immediately.

The RI&E forms part of your health and safety policy.

There are different ways to draw up an RI&E:

• you can draw up an RI&E yourself, together with a health and safety officer.
• have an occupational health and safety expert draw up an RI&E
• or you can use a tool:

  • one of the Online interactive Risk Assesment tools provided by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (OSHA) on their website.
  • the tool for RI&E (in Dutch) from Steunpunt RI&E or another sector organisation.

Investigate whether there are risks in your business. List the hazards and risks in the workplace.This will give you a quick insight and show you where measures are needed to address the risks.

Well-known risks are:

• working with hazardous substances
• lifting heavy items
• stress due to irregular working hours

Also consider physical risks. Such as:

• vibrations that can cause damage to the ears
• too much time behind a computer screen
• heat or radiation that is released during work activities

You may also face risks you cannot see. Like:

• work-related stress
• discrimination

It is good to involve your employees in this investigation.

Do you know the risks? Then you can assess them. Think about:

• How many employees are at risk?
• What are the consequences?
• How often does the risk occur?

You make a list of the risks and start with the most important risk. End the list with the least important risk. This forms the basis of your action plan.

An action plan is a mandatory part of the RI&E. In your action plan:

• what you will do to ensure your staff can work safely and healthily
• what measures you will take to manage the risks. Who will do what, and when

Find more information on the action plan (in Dutch) here.

In most cases, you must let a certified occupational health and safety service or occupational health officer assess your RI&E and action plan. This way you will know whether you have taken the right measures. And whether your employees are properly protected against the risks.

Whether you need to have your RI&E assessed depends on the size of your business. Businesses with up to 25 employees that use the recognised RI&E for their sector (in Dutch) are exempt from the RI&E assessment.

There is no fixed cost for having an RI&E assessed. So, request a price quotation from the occupational health and safety service.

Check if you are required to have your RI&E assessed (in Dutch)

Make sure your staff are aware that there is a RI&E. Do you have a works council (ondernemingsraad, OR) or staff representation (personeelsvertegenwoordiging, PVT)? Then your employees have the right to express their opinion about the RI&E and the action plan. This is called the right of consent.

You can draw up the RI&E together with your employees and keep it up to date. What risks do your employees identify? Which measures are the most important? This way, you involve your employees in safety within your business and they contribute to improvements or additions.

You should regularly review your RI&E and adjust it if necessary. For example when:

• you change the work processes or workplaces
• working conditions change
• there are new insights. For example, about the health effects of a particular chemical, working with a new machine

You must then adjust the RI&E.