DVR: Risk assessment for businesses

The Risk Assessment Document (DVR) is a statement that presents all the risks and prevention measures adopted regarding the health and safety in the workplace of all the people involved. It is mandatory for companies with at least 1 employee. The objective is to analyze all the possible risks of the various tasks performed and seek solutions to prevent all potentially dangerous situations.

Risk assessment is therefore an analytical procedure which, through different phases (collection of information and its study, knowledge of technological cycles and substances used, analysis of environments, etc.), allows us to identify the dangers that could cause disturbance and/or damage to the health and safety of workers. The problem, however, does not arise only when there is a well-founded existence of a danger (intrinsic properties or qualities of certain entities such as substances, tools, methods, with the potential to cause damage) but above all when there is a probability that that potential level of damage will be reached in the conditions of use and/or exposure. Furthermore, the in-depth verification of the risk hypotheses allows us to establish the areas in which to carry out checks and inspections, distributed according to precise priorities depending on the extent of the risk assessed.

The element that consequently turns out to be fundamental in the evaluation investigation is the «workplace» component, which represents the set of all those elements and/or conditions that interact with the psychophysical functions of the person carrying out a work activity and deriving from it.

A restaurant, a supermarket, a shop, offices of public or private bodies, are in fact workplaces in which the search for risk factors in reference to the environments themselves is immediate; on the contrary, this approach is not very compatible with the logic that characterizes temporary or mobile construction sites as they lack a specific or stable workplace, except for the registered office of the companies or warehouses, or administrative/technical offices.

The evaluation method traced by the legislator passes through specific operational phases:

• verification of regulatory compliance;
• identification of risk sources;
• identification of exposure risks;
• estimate of exposure risks.

Everything is reported in evaluation documents, which on the one hand allow the employer to take the measures that are actually necessary to safeguard the safety and health of workers and on the other give objective evidence of having fulfilled what the reference standard requires.

Sometimes, however, risk assessment and workplace safety are not sufficient to prevent or avoid dangers. The unexpected lurks around the corner and for this reason it is good practice to take out an ad hoc insurance policy to protect yourself and your business, your employees and also your customers.

THE Lokky Civil Liability Coverage pursues the objective of covering the insured against all risks deriving from negligent, imprudent or culpable behavior that damages something or someone. Furthermore, it includes third-party liability as a primary guarantee, aimed at protecting the insured’s assets in the event of compensation due to third parties. It is often important to also include Collaborators’ TPL coverage, if the compensation requests concern the injury of one of your collaborators. The coverage can be further customized by choosing from numerous additional guarantees such as Damage to Property and Contentsto protect the premises where the work activity takes place and its contents (goods, furniture, equipment).