Korean Risk Assessment in 5 Steps: 2026 Practical Guide

Workplace Safety Field Guide 2 of 4: risk assessment and continuous review

An operator reports an unusual sound from rotating equipment. What the team does in the next hour says more about its risk assessment than any binder does. The five stages of a Korean workplace risk assessment are unchanged: preparation, hazard identification, risk determination, control planning and implementation, and recording and communication. What changed on June 1, 2026 is the weight of the closing steps. Worker participation and communication of results now have stronger statutory footing, so the record has to show who took part and what was done, and the form alone cannot show that.

This guide was reviewed against the laws and notices in force as of July 12, 2026. It explains Article 36 of the Occupational Safety and Health Act and the Ministry of Employment and Labor risk assessment guidance. Apply the current notice and workplace procedures to each operation.

The five stages and what each one asks

Stage	Key question	Evidence to retain
1. Preparation	Which process and task are in scope?	Scope, owners, schedule, and criteria
2. Hazard identification	Who could be harmed, and by what?	Walkthroughs, worker input, accident and near-miss data
3. Risk determination	Is the risk tolerable with current controls?	Decision criteria and priorities
4. Control and implementation	Were elimination, substitution, and engineering controls considered first?	Owner, due date, and completion result
5. Record and communicate	Is the action complete, and do workers know the residual risk?	Verification, training, toolbox talks, postings, or electronic notice

Figure 1. Five risk assessment stages connected to monthly, weekly, and daily review. Source: Ministry of Employment and Labor risk assessment guide and official notice.

Following one sound report through the stages

That opening report is a hypothetical, not an accident account, and it touches every stage. Writing down that the sound occurred is where the assessment starts, not where it ends.

Define the task and inspection boundary first. The operator and maintenance worker then examine when the sound occurs, the condition of guards, access during operation, and potential entanglement or crushing hazards. Apply the workplace decision criteria, assign controls such as stopping and isolating the equipment, qualified inspection, or guarding, and set the restart conditions. Before work resumes, tell the crew what risk remains.

The signal is an input to hazard identification, not the assessment itself. Risk determination, control implementation, verification, and worker communication still have to follow.

Figure 2. A worked flow from an unusual-sound report through scope confirmation, risk assessment, controls, and restart records.

Continuous review: month, week, day

Workplaces with frequently changing hazards can run a continuous assessment instead. Ministry guidance connects a monthly joint labor-management walkthrough, a weekly safety discussion, and a daily pre-work toolbox meeting.

• Monthly: review the full workplace, new hazards, and incomplete controls.
• Weekly: fold in process changes and planned work, then reset priorities.
• Daily: communicate the hazards and controls for the work about to start.

This is not the same form produced every day. Monthly findings shape weekly coordination and daily work instructions, and field observations feed the next review.

Five failure points, five fixes

1. A manager completes the assessment alone. Involve the workers who know the task in identifying hazards and reviewing controls.
2. Hazards get listed and nothing else. Give every control an owner and a due date.
3. Equipment or the process changes while the old assessment stays on file. Reassess whatever changed.
4. Nobody verifies completion. Recheck residual risk after controls go in, and record the result.
5. Results stay in a file. Communicate the outcome and pre-work precautions to workers; participation and communication are part of the statutory duty now.

Some decisions belong upstream of all five: include non-routine work such as maintenance, cleaning, and restart in the scope; set the risk decision criteria before assessing; and consider elimination and substitution before leaning on personal protective equipment.

Each pass through the stages leaves records that draft the next assessment. Over time the paperwork becomes a per-process hazard history and the participation evidence the June revision expects.

When the first clue is a sound

Acoustic and vibration data can feed hazard identification alongside human reports. Motor Sound Diagnostics watches condition signals from motors, reducers, and other rotating equipment and flags anomalies teams can use when setting inspection scope and targets. Risk determination, controls, and worker participation stay with the people on site.

Official sources

• Article 36 risk assessment, Korean Law Information Center
• Workplace Risk Assessment Guidelines, Korean Law Information Center
• New Risk Assessment Guide, Ministry of Employment and Labor

Previous guide: 2026 Korean Workplace Safety Law Changes: Dates and Checklist

Next guide: Korean Serious Accidents Act: Nine Duties and Enforcement Data