Health and Safety Risk Assessment

All companies with employees must complete a workplace health and safety risk assessment (APV).

The APV process includes mapping the company’s health and safety conditions, identifying areas needing action and preparing a written plan to address issues that cannot be resolved right away.

How are APVs beneficial to companies?

Conducting an APV contributes to a healthy working environment and offers the following advantages:

• Reduced costs from accidents and occupational diseases
• Lower incidences of absence due to sickness
• Decreased employee turnover
• Improved job satisfaction, motivation and productivity.

What are the requirements for the APV process?

The APV process can be carried out in different ways, and you are free to decide how to approach it. For example, you could organise the APV by specific topics, such as ergonomics or mental health, or carry out the process by each department.

Regardless of the method you choose, you must explain how you have planned and carried out the APV. This ensures that the APV process is organised and carefully thought out.

There are four key elements that must always be included in the APV process:

1. Identify the company’s health and safety conditions and assess any problems and risks.
2. Assess whether health and safety conditions could lead to sickness-related absences
3. Create an action plan that details the problems, how serious they are, and how they will be fixed, along with a timeline
4. Carry out the plan together with a follow up to make sure the solutions are effective.

You must carry out an APV whenever there are changes in work tasks, methods or processes that could affect the working environment. Also, all health and safety conditions in the workplace must be reviewed and assessed at least every three years.

The action plan must be available at the company for employees, managers and Arbejdstilsynet (the Danish Working Environment Authority) to review.

The Danish Working Environment Authority does not have to approve the APV but ensures through supervision that the process follows legal requirements. If an APV is not done or is inadequate, the company may be receive an improvement notice instructing them to complete one.

The Health and Safety Organisation must be involved in the entire APV process. For companies with nine or fewer employees, there is no need for a Health and Safety Organisation, but an employee representative must still take part in the process.

Learn more about the requirements for health and safety cooperation

Risk assessment tools

The Danish Working Environment Authority – Arbejdstilsynet – has prepared a number of checklists that you can use during a risk assessment. The checklists are especially suitable for companies with fewer than 10 employees. They contain a series of questions on working environment conditions that are typical for the sector.

Download a Health and safety risk assessment checklist

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