Aug 10, 2026

Hierarchy of Controls: 5 Levels to Reduce Risk at Work

Every nook and cranny in an organization can become a disaster site if management is not careful enough to eliminate risks. In fact, this oversight can land the organization in legal trouble, damage its reputation, disrupt its operations, and cause financial losses.

However, varying risk levels make it difficult to implement consistent workplace safety controls. This is what the hierarchy of controls is meant to help with. Let’s dive into what it is, its levels and common mistakes to avoid when implementing it.

What is Hierarchy of Control? What is Hierarchy of Control?

Hierarchy of controls is an occupational risk management framework that identifies and ranks safeguards from the highest level of protection and reliability to the lowest level.

It emphasizes eliminating risks or hazards from the organization and moving to further layers of hazard control measures, such as substitution and engineering controls, if this is not feasible.

What are the 5 Levels of Risk controls?

The hierarchy of controls consists of 5 levels of risk reduction and removal methods, ranked by effectiveness. These include the following:

What are the 5 Levels of Risk controls?

1. Elimination

Elimination is the most effective hazard control that focuses on removing risks from the organization. It stops the risk at the source and requires no maintenance or monitoring. For example, you can end the use of hazardous material in your processes.

2. Substitution

When you cannot eliminate the hazard and its associated risk from your processes, you substitute it with a safer alternative. For this, you must properly compare the risk of the substitution method or material with that of the current one and ensure it does not introduce new risks for the organization. For example, you can use mild detergent and hot water for cleaning instead of caustic cleaners.

3. Engineering Controls

Engineering controls reduce risk by preventing hazards from coming into contact with workers. These are incorporated into plant design, equipment or processes, thus allowing workers to do their jobs while in close proximity to hazards. Some examples of engineering controls are

Isolating hazards from workers by barriers.
Using guards around moving parts of machinery.
Putting guardrails to prevent falls.

4. Administrative Controls

Administrative controls provide workers with training, procedures, and warnings to minimize risks. However, the success of administrative control in hazard prevention depends on whether workers follow these work practices. Often, administrative controls are used alongside higher-level controls and include the following.

Training on hazard communication, safe work procedures, permit-required confined space entry, etc.
Procedures, such as planned preventive maintenance, pre- and post-task reviews, equipment inspection, etc.
Warnings, such as signs, smoke detectors, labels and backup alarms.

5. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

Personal protective equipment (PPE) is the last element in the hierarchy of controls, being the least reliable and providing the lowest level of protection. It involves using or wearing devices or clothes that protect workers from hazards. PPE may include safety glasses, respirators, hard hats, hearing protection, etc.

Both administrative controls and PPE should be used as a last resort when other safety measures are unavailable, or until you implement an effective way to control the risk.

How to Implement the Hierarchy of Controls?

While it is emphasized that workplace safety controls should be implemented from the top of the hierarchy, you often need to combine different control measures to protect workers best. You can successfully identify hazards and implement safety measures using the following risk management method.

1. Hazard Identification

Examine your organizational processes and identify vulnerabilities that could physically harm your workers or make them ill.

2. Risk Evaluation

Assess the likelihood of these risks and their potential impact on the worker’s health or on your processes.

3. Application of hierarchy of controls

Decide on the control measure based on the likelihood and severity of risk. Although it is recommended to eliminate hazards within organizations, you can also address them at other levels based on feasibility. For this, you should consider whether the control measures are

Right for the hazards
Readily available
Appropriate for the likelihood of injuries
Cost-effective in the short and long run
Consistent with organizational policies, laws and regulations

4. Monitoring and Review

Once you have implemented safety controls, you must monitor your processes and review the effectiveness of control measures over time.

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Implementing the Hierarchy of Controls

You may be trying your best to implement the hierarchy of control, yet still make mistakes that threaten your workers' safety. Here are some common mistakes that you must avoid in this process.

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Implementing the Hierarchy of Controls

1. Over-Reliance on PPE and Administrative Controls

PPE and administrative controls are two of the weakest levels in safety measures. They do not control the hazard at source and rely heavily on employee behavior and supervision. Moreover, they increase your expenses by requiring safety training and periodic PPE kit replacements. You should always prioritize eliminating or reducing its impact with substitution and engineering controls.

2. Incomplete Hazard Assessment

Your ability to control risks depends on whether you have identified all the risks in your organization. This often results from ignoring employee input on risks and failing to update the assessment when new processes or equipment are introduced in the organization.

3. Inadequate Monitoring

Eliminating or reducing hazards with other control measures once is not sufficient, as new risks may arise in the organization or your previous control measures may become inefficient. You must continuously monitor and review your processes and control measures to identify risks and implement better mitigation strategies.

4. Lack of Documentation

Documenting risk and control measures is necessary to meet compliance standards such as the OSHA Act and ISO 45001. Moreover, it helps you analyze your organization’s occupational health and safety risk profile and take corrective actions before risks materialize. Lacking documentation leaves you blind to active hazards in the organization and invites legal scrutiny from regulatory authorities.

Wrapping Up

The occupational health and safety landscape in your organization can always change with the introduction of new equipment and processes. In every scenario, you should follow the hierarchy of controls and try to eliminate risk or move to substitution and go further down the line when the previous method is not feasible.

However, it can be difficult to keep track of all the hazards and control measures in your organization while focusing on other processes. This is what Effivity’s health and safety management software helps you with.

Effivity’s cloud-based software comes with a risk management module that helps you identify and monitor risks across the organization and formulate risk control measures based on severity and impact. Moreover, it assists with regulatory compliance by keeping your occupation-hazard-related documents in a centralized repository and generating reports whenever you require them.

Book a free trial with Effivity and streamline health safety management!

Shanker

Co-Founder & CEO at Effivity Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

Shanker brings over 20+ years of tech experience, including senior roles at Intel. At Effivity, he built the IT team from Scratch, managed budgets, and improved the product based on customer feedback. Shanker's leadership keeps Effivity at the forefront of the tech industry.

View All Posts

Improve Workflow & Profitability with Superior Integrated Management System Software free-demo

Schedule a Free Demo