Control Hierarchy Level Definitions
Every control measure records which level of the hierarchy of controls it represents. This list is where those levels are defined.
The hierarchy is the one piece of safety doctrine that is genuinely universal: remove the hazard if you can, and issue protective equipment only when you cannot. Recording the level per measure is what makes an organization's actual choices visible.
The conventional hierarchy
Most organizations use the standard five, in this order of effectiveness:
| Order | Level | Approach |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Elimination | Remove the hazard entirely. |
| 2 | Substitution | Replace it with something less hazardous. |
| 3 | Engineering controls | Isolate people from the hazard — guarding, extraction, interlocks. |
| 4 | Administrative controls | Change how people work — procedures, training, signage, rotation. |
| 5 | Personal protective equipment | Protect the individual at the point of exposure. |
The order matters more than the names. Keep the sort order consistent with effectiveness, because it is what reports read down.
Fields
-
Code
Unique identifier, issued from the list's number template if left empty. -
Name
The level. Keep it recognizable — auditors and external reports use the standard names. -
Description
What qualifies as this level, and what does not. This is worth filling in: the boundary between engineering and administrative controls is where most misclassification happens. -
Active
Inactive levels are no longer offered when a new measure is defined.
Why this list earns its place
A risk register shows scores going down. It does not, on its own, show how they went down — and the two answers are not equally durable.
A risk reduced by elimination stays reduced. A risk reduced by a procedure and a pair of gloves has been reduced conditionally: on the procedure being followed, on the gloves being worn, on training being repeated after every staffing change. Recording the level per measure is what lets a management review ask the question that matters — whether the organization is solving its safety problems or transferring them to the people exposed.
Watch for registers where the final scores have all come down and every measure is administrative or PPE. That pattern is not a safety improvement; it is a scoring habit. The final scoring should reflect how conditional the reduction really is.
Excel import and export
The list exports to Excel and re-loads from a filled-in template, and rows can be bulk-deleted. A blank code column on an imported row is filled from the list's number template.
Bulk delete refuses the entire selection if any row is still named by a measure — a partial delete would leave some measures unclassified with nothing recording which.