How I Use the Manual Handling Risk Assessment Template in Pilla

Understanding What's Required of You

A manual handling risk assessment identifies the lifting, carrying, pushing, and pulling tasks in your workplace and evaluates what controls are in place to reduce the risk of injury. It's not a one-off exercise. It's a living document that should be reviewed regularly and updated whenever tasks, equipment, or working conditions change.

In the UK, the Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 require employers to assess and reduce the risk of manual handling injuries. If you employ five or more people, you must record your findings. But regardless of where you operate or how many staff you have, if your team lifts, carries, or moves things as part of their job, you need one. I spent years in construction and builders merchants before moving into health and safety consultancy, and manual handling was the single biggest source of injuries I saw. Not falls from height. Not machinery. Lifting.

You should carry out several manual handling risk assessments by grouping activities together. Lower risk activities like moving empty trays and cutlery can be grouped because they're similar in weight and risk. Higher risk activities like handling heavy deliveries or moving items stored high in a warehouse should each have their own assessment. Every area of your business has different manual handling demands, and each needs focused attention.

I'd always have the person who manages the area complete this. They know the layout, the equipment, the daily routines, and where staff actually cut corners. I've reviewed assessments completed by people who've never done the lifting themselves, and the gaps are obvious. Set a reminder to review it at least once a year, or sooner if you introduce new tasks, change equipment, have an incident, or bring in inexperienced staff.

Setting It Up as a Work Activity

I've built a manual handling risk assessment template in Pilla covering the 9 sections below. It gives you a structured starting point, but depending on how your business operates, you may need to add extra items to cover all your specific hazards.

When you create the work activity, tag it (e.g. "Manual Handling Risk Assessment"). Tags make it easy to find and filter later, and they're what Poppi uses to track completion across different risk assessment types in automated reports.

You've got two options. Create it as a one-off work form, complete it, and manually create a new one when it's due for review. Or set it up as a recurring yearly work schedule, and Pilla will create the next one automatically. I'd recommend the recurring option. In my experience, the "I'll remember to create a new one" approach fails about 90% of the time.

1. List the Manual Handling Tasks Being Assessed

What tasks are being assessed: List the specific manual handling tasks that need to be assessed. Focus on tasks that involve lifting, carrying, pushing, or pulling heavy or awkward loads, and concentrate on those that pose a higher risk of injury. What I'd do is walk through your workplace and watch where manual handling actually happens. Note tasks that involve repetitive movements or awkward postures. Talk to staff about which tasks they find hardest on their bodies. They'll tell you things you won't spot from observation alone.

Who carries them out and how could they be harmed: Identify the staff roles involved in each task and describe how they could be injured. I'm looking for specifics: back injuries from heavy lifting, muscle strains from repetitive movements, injuries from dropping or losing control of loads. Don't just write "staff could get hurt." Tell me exactly what could happen to whom.

What good answers look like:

Tasks: "Changing beer barrels in the cellar, unloading stock from delivery vehicles, moving waste bins to external storage areas, restocking walk-in fridges with heavy crates."

Who and how: "Bar staff and cellar staff handle barrel changes and could suffer back injuries. Kitchen Porters and delivery staff unload stock and are at risk of muscle strains. All staff who move waste bins risk injury from heavy, awkward loads."

Common mistakes I see:

"We do manual handling all the time; everything could be assessed!" Too broad. Focus on the tasks that carry the most risk. You can't assess everything at once, and trying to will water down the whole document.

"We've listed the obvious ones." Don't forget seasonal tasks like moving outdoor furniture, or less frequent tasks like deep clean days. I once reviewed an assessment for a pub that hadn't mentioned barrel changes because they happened in the cellar and the manager who wrote it never went down there.

2. Equipment to Minimise Manual Handling

What equipment is available: List the equipment your business provides to reduce or eliminate the need for manual handling. Trolleys, sack barrows, pallet trucks, barrel trolleys, lifting aids, anything mechanical. What I also want to see is honesty about where you don't have equipment yet and how you plan to fix that.

Maintenance and training: Describe how the equipment is maintained and how staff are trained to use it. I need to see maintenance schedules, who is responsible for checks, where equipment is stored, and what training staff get during induction and ongoing. Equipment that exists but sits unused in a corner is the same as having no equipment at all.

What good answers look like:

Equipment: "Flatbed trolleys for moving deliveries from the door to storage, a barrel trolley for changing heavy kegs, and carts for handling heavy crates where the path is uneven."

Maintenance and training: "All equipment is checked monthly and maintained as needed. Staff are trained on correct use during induction. Equipment is stored near the areas where it's used so it's always accessible."

Common mistakes I see:

"The team just carries things." This is the one that frustrates me. I've walked into businesses that own trolleys and sack barrows but nobody uses them because they're stored in a locked room at the other end of the building. If equipment exists but isn't used, it's a training and accessibility problem, not a staffing one.

"We share one trolley between multiple areas." If two areas need a trolley at the same time, someone's carrying by hand. Separate tasks may need their own equipment.

3. Avoid Lifting Large Loads

Which tasks involve large loads: Identify the tasks where staff handle large, heavy, or awkward loads. Deliveries, equipment, stock, anything that's difficult for one person to manage safely. Be honest about what your team is actually lifting, not what they should be lifting.

What measures are in place: Tell me what you're doing to eliminate or reduce the lifting of large loads. Task redesign, splitting loads into smaller parts, team lifts, negotiating with suppliers for smaller packaging, mechanical aids. I want to see thought behind this, not just "we tell people to be careful."

What good answers look like:

Tasks: "Receiving bulk deliveries of stock in large boxes, moving commercial kitchen appliances during deep cleans, and handling large bags of dry goods."

Measures: "We ask suppliers to deliver in smaller boxes where possible. Team lifts are required for items over 20kg. Staff are trained to break down deliveries into smaller loads before moving them to storage."

Common mistakes I see:

"We lift large loads because it's quicker." I heard this exact line from a warehouse manager two weeks before one of his team went off with a herniated disc. Speed over safety is short-sighted. Injury costs more than the time you saved.

4. Reduce Stooping and Twisting

Which tasks involve stooping or twisting: Identify where staff regularly bend, stoop, or twist while handling loads. Think about how storage is arranged, where items are collected from and placed, and whether staff have to turn their bodies awkwardly to move things. This is one of the less obvious injury sources, and it's one of the most common.

What measures are in place: I want to see storage layout changes, shelf height adjustments, training on safe movement techniques (pivoting feet rather than twisting at the waist), and workspace design. The fix for stooping and twisting is almost always about the environment, not the person.

What good answers look like:

Tasks: "Staff stoop to access items stored at floor level in the dry store, and twist when transferring stock from delivery pallets to shelving."

Measures: "Frequently used items are stored at waist to chest height. Staff are trained to pivot their feet towards the direction of the load rather than twisting at the waist. Visual reminders are posted near storage areas. Storage layout is reviewed regularly based on staff feedback."

Common mistakes I see:

"We rearranged the storage but staff still bend out of habit." Rearranging shelves without retraining staff is half a job. New layouts only work if people adopt them. Retrain, reinforce, and follow up.

5. Reduce Over-Reaching and Upward Reaching

Which tasks involve over-reaching: Identify where staff regularly reach above shoulder height or stretch beyond a comfortable range to access items. High shelving, awkward storage positions, items placed out of easy reach. I see this most in dry stores and cellars where space is tight and everything gets stacked as high as it will go.

What measures are in place: I'm looking for shelf positioning, step ladders, storage rules (heavier items lower, lighter items higher), and regular checks to make sure items haven't crept back up to unsafe positions. Staff will always find the quickest route to something. If that route involves standing on a crate to reach the top shelf, your system has failed.

What good answers look like:

Tasks: "Staff reach above shoulder height to access items on the top shelf of the dry store, and stretch across counters to reach supplies stored at the back."

Measures: "A step ladder is provided for accessing items stored above shoulder height. Heavy items are always placed at or below waist height. Regular checks ensure nothing heavy is placed at high levels. Storage is organised by frequency of use, with the most used items at the easiest heights."

Common mistakes I see:

"We don't have step ladders because there isn't space." Find space or rethink your storage layout. The cost of a step ladder is far less than the cost of an injury.

"Staff would ask for help if they couldn't reach something." Most won't. Especially during a rush. Provide equipment and set clear rules about accessing high items.

6. Reduce Travel Distances During Manual Handling

Which tasks involve long carry distances: Identify where staff carry heavy loads over significant distances. The route from delivery point to storage, from storage to work areas, from work areas to waste disposal. Map it out. I've measured these routes in businesses before and the distances are always longer than people think.

What measures are in place: Tell me how you reduce carrying distances. Trolleys and carts, intermediate drop-off points, repositioning storage closer to where items are used, planning delivery and collection points to minimise distance. Even if you can't move walls, you can break the journey into stages.

What good answers look like:

Tasks: "Stock is carried from the delivery entrance at the front of the building to the storage room at the back, roughly 30 metres. Waste is carried from the kitchen to the external bins."

Measures: "Trolleys are used for all stock movements. Staff move stock in stages using designated drop-off points along the route. Waste bins are positioned as close to the kitchen exit as possible."

Common mistakes I see:

"The route is what it is." I understand you can't knock down walls. But I've seen businesses accept 40-metre manual carries as inevitable when a £50 trolley would solve the problem. Don't write off long distances without considering what equipment or staging could do.

7. Ensure Loads Are Balanced and Stable

Which tasks involve unstable loads: Identify where staff handle loads that could tip, shift, or fall during transport. Stacked boxes, liquids, unevenly packed deliveries, items loaded onto trolleys or carts. Liquids are the worst for this. A crate of bottles that looks stable on a trolley can shift the moment you hit a bump or a slope.

What measures are in place: I need to see training and procedures for ensuring loads are stable before they're moved. How staff are trained to arrange loads, what securing methods are used, and how overloading is prevented. This is about habits, not just rules.

What good answers look like:

Tasks: "Stacking crates of bottles onto trolleys, moving unevenly packed delivery boxes, and transporting trays of glassware."

Measures: "Staff training includes how to balance loads on carts and trolleys. Boxes are checked to ensure they are secure and stacked safely before moving. Trolleys have a clearly marked maximum load and staff are trained not to exceed it."

Common mistakes I see:

"Staff just need to be more careful." Careful behaviour doesn't replace proper training and procedures. Teach staff how to check and secure loads before moving them.

"We overload the trolley to save trips." I see this constantly. Overloading causes instability and increases the risk of injury. More trips with lighter, stable loads is always safer than one overloaded run.

8. Identify Additional Controls

Now that you've covered the core areas, think about what else you're doing that doesn't fit neatly into the sections above. Risk assessments often uncover gaps or opportunities in the process of completing them. This is where you capture those.

I'd look at environmental factors most people miss: lighting in storage areas (poor visibility leads to poor lifting), floor surfaces (wet or uneven floors change how you handle loads), temperature (cold muscles are more prone to strain), and fatigue from long shifts.

What good answers look like:

"Retraining sessions scheduled quarterly to reinforce manual handling best practice. Exploring procurement of electric pallet movers in high-traffic areas. Noise and light levels in storage areas examined to reduce fatigue during handling tasks."

Common mistakes I see:

"There's nothing else to add." There usually is. Ask your staff what they find difficult. Review near-miss reports. Think about the things that make a task harder but don't obviously count as "manual handling risk." Lighting, temperature, floor condition, time pressure. These all affect how safely people lift and carry.

9. Monitor and Review Your Controls

This is where I see most assessments fall apart. The controls in sections 1 to 8 mean nothing if nobody checks whether they're still working. Equipment breaks. Staff forget training. New people join and never get shown the right way. I need to see a plan for ongoing monitoring, not just a commitment to "review annually."

What good answers look like:

"Injury incidences and near-miss reports reviewed monthly during health and safety meetings. Spot checks and observations conducted quarterly. Feedback on manual handling practices actively encouraged and reviewed via anonymous staff surveys twice a year. The risk assessment is formally reviewed annually, or sooner if tasks, equipment, or staffing change."

Common mistakes I see:

"We review it once a year." Annual reviews are the minimum, not the standard. Monitor continuously and update whenever something changes.

"We assumed the controls were still working." Controls degrade over time. I've gone back to businesses six months after helping them set up manual handling procedures and found that half the changes had been quietly abandoned. Build regular checks into your routine so this doesn't happen.

Automate the Follow-Up with Poppi

This is the part most people skip, and it's the part that matters most. I've seen hundreds of risk assessments completed once and never looked at again. They sit in a folder until an auditor asks for them, or until someone gets hurt. The problem isn't laziness. There's just no system reminding anyone to check.

Once your manual handling risk assessment is set up as a work activity in Pilla, you can use Poppi Actions to set up a scheduled report that tells you when it was last completed. The report also shows how many incomplete instances exist since the last completion, so you can spot anything that was assigned but never finished.

I'd set this up to cover all your risk assessment types in a single rule. Tag your manual handling risk assessment, kitchen risk assessment, fire risk assessment, and any others, then include all the tags in one rule. Poppi sends the report on whatever schedule you choose. I'd recommend monthly to start with. You can always change it.