Strategies for promoting risk awareness

It should not be assumed that people have an inbuilt awareness of risks, or that they have any knowledge of the range of risks that surround them. It is a natural condition of the human to be optimistic towards their own welfare and to regard disasters as more likely to happen to other people.

The range of possible strategies for promoting a risk aware culture within an organisation include:

Making knowledge of risk management issues a selection criteria when recruiting staff. This can be systemised by making risk management one of the key selection criteria in Job Descriptions.
Forming a safety committee that reviews complaints,accidents, injuries and other safety incidents
Conducting risk audits and involving as many people as possible in the organisation in the risk auditing process
Staging workshops on risk management (preferably with an expert in risk management present)
Showing a training video (or making your own training video on risk management)
Displaying posters that promote safety and risk management around the organisation's premises
Benchmarking - learning about "best practice" from other organisations that have implemented risk management.
Sending organisation personnel to attend industry seminars on risk management

Some quotes on promoting risk awareness:

"The cornerstone of risk management is firstly an awareness of what the risks are. The first step in the method is thus sensitizing corporations about hazards to persons, property, the environment, assets or profits. The risk management process begins when safety becomes an integral part of corporate policy and second nature to management and the workforce." (ZURICH SWITZERLAND)

"Promoting an organizational philosophy and culture that says everybody is a risk manager: By far, the predominant practice for integrating risk management is to build an organizational culture in which everybody is a risk manager. Some organizations indicated that this is more important than developing and issuing extensive policies and procedures. Employees that take responsibility for their actions and outcomes become risk managers. Ideally, the employees intuitively understand the organization’s goals and work towards them." (Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat)