Warehousing combines a wide range of workplace hazards, from transport and slips and trips to manual handling and musculoskeletal risks. Regular risk assessments are therefore key to protecting people and productivity in the storage sector.

Is it illegal to operate a warehouse without a risk assessment?

For most UK employers, carrying out a risk assessment is a legal requirement. So, if a warehouse employer has failed to carry out the required risk assessment, they may be in breach of health and safety law. 

Under Regulation 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, employers must make a “suitable and sufficient” assessment of the risks to the health and safety of their employees arising from their work activities, as well as the risks to anyone else who may be affected by those activities.

This sits alongside the general duties established by the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, including an employer’s duty to protect employees’ health, safety and welfare so far as is reasonably practicable.

When does the risk assessment need to be written down?

The duty to assess risk applies regardless of the size of the business. However, where an employer has five or more employees, Regulation 3(6) requires the significant findings of the assessment to be recorded.

For most operational warehouses, this threshold will be easily met.

What should a warehouse risk assessment cover?

To be “suitable and sufficient”, a warehouse risk assessment needs to consider the hazards arising from the way the workplace operates, rather than simply being a checklist of physical defects.

Depending on the operation, this may include:

• Workplace transport: vehicle routes, pedestrian segregation, visibility, loading areas and interaction between people and forklift trucks, automated guided vehicles or other mobile equipment.
• Slips, trips and falls: damaged flooring, poor lighting, spillages, packaging materials, uneven surfaces and loading-bay conditions.
• Racking and storage: racking condition, impact protection, safe loading limits, stability and falling-object risks. A just-in-case inventory model may require more frequent risk assessments in this area.
• Fire and hazardous substances: emergency routes, fire precautions and, where relevant, the storage and handling of hazardous substances or lithium-ion batteries.
• Work activities: the risks created by the tasks employees carry out, including lifting, carrying, pushing, pulling, loading, unloading, picking and packing.

That final category is particularly important.

Why a general warehouse risk assessment may need to go further

A general workplace risk assessment can identify manual handling as a hazard, but identifying the hazard is not necessarily the end of the assessment process.

Warehousing involves many tasks where employees routinely lift, lower, carry, push or pull loads. Where this manual handling presents a risk of injury, the Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 (MHOR) require employers to take steps to reduce it.

The starting point is to avoid hazardous manual handling where reasonably practicable. Where it cannot be avoided, the risk must be assessed and reduced so far as is reasonably practicable.

This is where a more detailed, task-specific assessment can become important.

Rather than simply asking whether manual handling takes place, an assessment should consider how the work is actually being performed. For example:

• How heavy, bulky or difficult to handle is the load?
• How frequently is it lifted or moved?
• How far does it have to be carried?
• At what height is it picked up or put down?
• Does the task involve twisting, reaching, bending or other awkward postures?
• How much force is required to push or pull equipment or loads?
• Is there enough space to carry out the task safely?
• Are employees provided with suitable equipment or mechanical aids?
• Are there individual factors that could affect the person’s ability to carry out the task safely?

These considerations move the assessment beyond the physical warehouse environment and towards the ergonomics of the work itself.

Why ergonomics matters in warehouse risk assessment

The ergonomic risks associated with warehouse tasks can easily be overlooked in a broader workplace risk assessment.

A warehouse may have good housekeeping, appropriate racking, clearly marked pedestrian routes and effective workplace transport controls, while a particular picking or packing task still places employees or temporary staff under unnecessary physical strain.

Related: The importance of manual handling assessments for temporary warehouse workers

An ergonomic assessment can help identify what is driving that risk and what can be changed.

That might mean changing the layout of a workstation, reducing the distance loads need to be moved, changing storage heights, introducing mechanical handling equipment, altering the way goods are picked or packed, or redesigning a task to reduce repetitive or awkward movements.

A manual handling or ergonomic assessment should complement the wider workplace risk assessment, helping employers move from identifying a broad hazard to understanding the specific risks associated with individual tasks.

For more information on reducing ergonomics risk in warehouses, see: How to improve ergonomics in a warehouse – a guide for project and safety managers

How to manage manual handling risk assessments for warehouse workers at scale

Once you start looking at manual handling at task level, scale becomes a practical challenge. A warehouse may have dozens or hundreds of employees carrying out a wide range of tasks, and not every task presents the same level of risk.

HSE guidance recognises that not every manual handling operation requires the same level of assessment. The priority is to identify higher-risk activities, assess them appropriately and focus resources on reducing the risks that matter most.

For larger warehouse operations, technology can help make that process faster and more consistent.

Automated reporting

Creating the reports of an ergonomic assessment is one of the most labour-intensive parts of the process. Automating it can therefore significantly decrease the time it takes to go from initial assessment to intervention and results, and we designed Healthy Working Pro to do just that.

Our industrial ergonomics software can be used on-site in real-time on a laptop or tablet. Assessors choose from 13 ergonomics tools and then record assessment data directly into the system. Once logged, data is saved, risks are calculated, and standardised reports are created with minimal input required from assessors.

Inquire about Healthy Working Pro and lighten the load placed on your safety team.

Motion capture and AI risk analytics

Motion capture manual handling risk assessments take things a step further in terms of both pace and precision. When connected with AI-powered risk analytics, they provide a largely automated warehouse risk assessment for manual handling.

Evaluating the risk of movement, joint angles, and load in real time, motion capture solutions, like Healthy Working RiskAI, record highly accurate risk information rapidly. Once the assessment is complete, the raw data is automatically processed via analytics software that outputs actionable insights.

The human assessor is still essential, but they can take a step back, oversee, complete tasks far more efficiently, and focus more of their time on planning effective solutions. This level of automation can increase viable assessment frequency, helping your warehousing business reduce injury rates and enhance productivity without a higher headcount.

Learn more about Healthy Working RiskAI.

Does a warehouse need a risk assessment?

To sum up, yes a warehouse needs to be risk assessed for all likely operational hazards, and that includes the hazards workers take on when carrying out tasks that involve manual handling.

It can be a challenge to keep up with assessments manually, but automating your warehouse risk assessments where possible can make protecting both your workforce and your business far more manageable.

If you’d like to know more about our ergonomics solutions and which might be best for your warehousing business, contact Cardinus today.