What are the requirements for a workplace assessment?

All companies with employees must conduct a workplace assessment (APV).

As a general rule, it is up to the employer to decide how often a workplace assessment should be conducted. However, there is a requirement that the workplace assessment must be revised whenever changes occur that affect the work environment, and this must be done at least every three years.

There is flexibility regarding how to approach the workplace assessment process, but there are a number of general requirements for the assessment:

• It is the employer’s responsibility to ensure that the company conducts a workplace assessment and that employees are involved in the process.
• The workplace assessment must be in writing and made available to both management and employees.
• Management and employees must collaborate throughout the entire workplace assessment process. If the company has a workplace health and safety committee (AMO), it must be involved in the process.
• It must be clearly stated who is responsible for implementing the company’s action plan in practice.

In addition, the workplace assessment must include five specific phases:

Identification and assessment of the company’s overall work environment

The assessment is intended to identify the physical and psychological work environment within the company. This can be done, for example, through conversations and interviews with employees or electronic questionnaires. Acture recommends the use of questionnaires to increase the confidentiality of employees’ responses and to ensure that the majority is heard, not just those who speak up the loudest.

Description and assessment of the company's workplace safety issues

If the first phase identifies occupational health and safety issues, these must be described, and the company must assess how they can be resolved. When describing the solutions, the company must, among other things, focus on preventing the problem from recurring and ensure that the solution addresses the root cause of the problem.

Inclusion of the company's sick leave

Problems in the work environment can contribute to absenteeism due to illness, and therefore absenteeism must be included in the workplace assessment. It is not the absenteeism itself that needs to be addressed, but rather the company must assess whether there are any conditions in the work environment that may be contributing to the overall rate of absenteeism.

Prioritizing solutions to workplace safety issues and developing an action plan

Solutions to the identified workplace issues must be prioritized and documented in an action plan. The action plan must therefore include a prioritization of the identified issues, the order in which they are to be addressed, when this is to take place, and who is responsible for ensuring that it happens. It may also be necessary to prioritize among different proposals for solving the individual problems. Note that the impact of the solutions must be measurable so that it is possible to follow up on whether the solutions have had the desired effect.

Guidelines for Following Up on the Action Plan

Guidelines must be established regarding how the company will follow up on the action plan. These guidelines must specify who is responsible for the action plan in question, when and how it will be determined whether the solution has been effective, and whether the action plan needs to be revised.