What are the requirements for an APV?

All companies with employees must carry out a workplace assessment (APV).

How often a workplace assessment should be carried out is generally up to the employer. However, there is a requirement that APV'en must be revised when changes occur that affect the working environment, and this must be done at least every three years. 

There is freedom of methodology when it comes to how to approach the APV work, but there are a number of general requirements for the APV: 

• It is the employer's responsibility to ensure that the company draws up an APV and that employees are involved.
• The APV must be in writing and be accessible to both management and workers.
• Management and employees must cooperate throughout the APV process. If the company has an occupational health and safety organization (AMO), they must be involved in the process. 
• It should be clear who is responsible for putting the company's action plan into practice.

In addition, the APVmust contain five specific phases: 

Identification and mapping of the company's overall working environment

The survey should identify the physical and psychological working environment in the company. This can be done, for example, through conversations and interviews with employees or electronic questionnaires. Health Group recommends the use of questionnaires to increase the confidentiality of the employees' responses and to ensure that the majority is heard and not just those who shout the loudest.

Description and assessment of the company's health and safety problems

If the first phase identifies health and safety problems, these must be described and the company must assess how they can be solved. In the description of the solutions, the company must, among other things, pay attention to preventing the problem from recurring and that the solution is directed at the source of the problem. 

Involvement of the company's sick leave

Problems in the working environment can contribute to sickness absence, and therefore sickness absence must be included in the APV. It is not sickness absence itself that must be considered, but the company must assess whether there are any conditions in the working environment that may contribute to overall sickness absence. 

Prioritizing solutions to health and safety problems and drawing up an action plan

Solutions to the problems identified in the working environment must be prioritized and written down in an action plan. The action plan must therefore contain a prioritization of the problems identified, the order in which they should be solved, when this should be done and who is responsible for ensuring that it is done. It may also be necessary to prioritize between different proposals for solving the individual problems. Be aware that the effect of the solutions must be measurable so that it is possible to follow up on whether the solutions have had the desired effect. 

Guidelines for the follow-up of the Action Plan

Guidelines must be established for how the company will follow up on the action plan. These must state who is responsible for the action plan in question, when and how it is determined whether the solution has worked and whether the action plan needs to be revised.