Risk Assessment and Risk Controls
How to assess a site manual task and apply the hierarchy of controls — from crane deliveries and lighter products down to gloves and knee pads.
Last reviewed September 2026 · Part of Manual Handling Training for Construction and Trades Workers
Key learning points
- Work through the identify, assess, control, review cycle
- Apply the hierarchy of controls to construction and trade manual tasks
- Consider the task, load, environment, equipment and worker together
- Explain why technique and PPE are not controls on their own
- Recognise how much risk is decided before you arrive on site
The risk management cycle
- Identify the hazards — which of the day's tasks involve manual task risk factors?
- Assess the risk — how likely is harm, how serious could it be, and which factors drive it?
- Control the risk — apply the most effective control that is reasonably practicable, as high in the hierarchy as you can
- Review — check the control worked, and reassess when the task, the site or the crew changes
What to consider when assessing
- The task
- How is it actually done, not how the SWMS describes it? What postures, forces and repetitions are involved?
- The load
- Weight, size, shape, grip points, stability, how it is packaged, whether it is one or one hundred
- The environment
- Ground, stairs, ramps, headroom, weather, lighting, distance from the drop to the point of use
- The equipment
- Is a hoist, lifter, trolley or crane available, booked, working and suited to this load?
- The worker
- Training, licences, experience, fatigue, existing injury, whether it is an apprentice's first week
- Frequency and duration
- How many times today, how many days this week, and what else loads the same part of the body?
- The program
- Is a deadline pushing the crew to skip aids, double up loads or work through fatigue?
Hierarchy of controls
Most effective at the top
- Eliminate
- Remove the manual task — crane or hoist materials to the floor they are used on, order prefabricated frames, trusses and precast, order timber and pipe cut to length
- Substitute
- Use something less hazardous — 20 kg instead of 40 kg bags, lighter blocks or AAC, smaller sheets, pumped rather than barrowed concrete, lighter cordless tools
- Isolate / engineering
- Change the equipment or environment — panel lifters, brick and block carriers, vacuum lifters, material hoists, conveyors, trestles and platforms set at working height, drill stands
- Administrative
- Change the way work is done — delivery placement, sequencing to avoid double handling, two-person lifts, job rotation, trigger-time limits, pre-starts, SWMS, training
- Personal protective equipment
- Gloves and knee pads — least effective; they protect skin and joints from contact but do not reduce the force applied to the body
Technique is not a control on its own
Telling a crew to bend their knees does not change the weight of the sheet, the distance to the first floor or the number of bags. Risk should be controlled at its source so far as is reasonably practicable — by changing the load, the delivery, the equipment or the sequence. Training and technique support those controls; they do not replace them.
Practical controls on site
- Deliveries placed as close to the point of use as possible, spread across floors by crane or hoist
- Sequencing trades so materials are moved once, not stacked, shifted and stacked again
- Panel lifters for ceilings, drywall carts for moving sheets, sheet handles for carrying
- Brick and block carriers, pallets set at scaffold height, mortar boards on stands
- Concrete pumps and motorised barrows instead of wheelbarrow runs
- Platforms and trestles adjusted so work is between knee and shoulder height
- Kneeling creepers, knee pads and stand-up tools for floor work
- Sharp bits and blades, well-maintained tools, anti-vibration models and limits on trigger time
- Two-person lifts written into the SWMS with the crew rostered to allow them
- Shade, water and breaks in heat so fatigue does not remove control late in the day
Most of the risk is decided before you arrive
The largest manual handling gains in construction happen at design, procurement and programming: a designer who specifies lighter cladding panels, an estimator who prices crane time for deliveries, a supervisor who sequences the plasterboard to arrive after the stairs and hoist are in. By the time a sheet is on someone's shoulder, most of the options are gone. That is why the Code of Practice asks PCBUs to think about manual tasks when planning, and why it is worth raising handling problems at the tender and pre-start stage rather than at the injury stage.
Practical scenario
Scenario: a recurring back strain
Two members of a formwork crew report lower back pain in the same fortnight. They have been stripping 17 mm formply panels from a suspended slab soffit, prising each panel free overhead and lowering it by hand, then carrying panels to a stack at the far end of the deck.
What is the most effective response?
Reveal the explanation
Not 'be careful'. Assess the task and control at the source: use a stripping bar or prop release so panels drop under control rather than being prised overhead, stack at several points along the deck so the carry is short, use a trolley or the crane for the stacks, and make sure the crew is large enough to rotate. Review the SWMS for stripping, and check that pain reports stop after the change.
Practical scenario
Scenario: bags moved twice
A pallet of tile adhesive is delivered to the garage because that is where the truck could reach. The tiler moves the bags by hand to the laundry, and then moves them again room by room as the job progresses.
Which control would you choose, and where does it sit in the hierarchy?
Reveal the explanation
Ask the supplier for a split delivery, or use the site's telehandler or a hand trolley to place part-pallets in each area before tiling starts — one move, by machine or on wheels, instead of three by hand. That is elimination of the manual carry for most of the bags, supported by an engineering control for the rest. It also costs less than the injury it prevents.
Knowledge check
These questions are for your own learning. They are not part of the final assessment.
1. Which approach is most effective for reducing hazardous manual handling risk on site?
Risk should be controlled at its source. Technique reminders and PPE are the weakest responses to manual task risk.
2. Having plasterboard craned onto each floor instead of carried up the stairs is an example of:
The carry no longer happens. Removing the task altogether sits at the top of the hierarchy and does not rely on anyone's technique.
3. Why is a pair of gloves not an adequate control for carrying blocks all day?
PPE is the last line of defence. It does nothing about the weight, frequency or reach that cause the injury, which is why it sits at the bottom of the hierarchy.
4. When should the controls for a manual task be reviewed?
Review is triggered by change, incidents, symptoms reported by workers and evidence that a control is not being used or not working.