
The ANSI/ASSP Z690 Risk Management Standards are the US national standards for applying risk management for occupational safety and health.
They are the US adoption of the ISO 31000 Risk Management Standards, in case you wondered.
If you’d like to learn more, continue reading, because we’re going to give a 100-level introduction to the Z690 standards as part of a longer series of articles explaining Z690 and discussing the use of risk management for occupational safety and health.
And by the way, we’ve included a free guide to using risk-based approaches for occupational safety and health management at the bottom of this article.
- Learning Management Systems
- Online Safety and Health Training Courses
- Incident Management Software
- Mobile Safety Training Apps
What Are the ANSI/ASSP Z690 Risk Management Standards?
As we noted earlier, the Z690 standards are the US national standards for applying risk management to occupational safety and health, and they’re the US adoption of the ISO 31000 Risk Management Standards.
Here’s how the ASSP explains it:
The ANSI/ASSP Z690 standards…provide uniform guidelines for the risk management practices and procedures that can enhance work safety and improve organizational performance. The standards establish a common language for risk management, outline principles and guidelines, and explain risk management techniques.
How Many Z690 Standards Are There?
There are three plus a technical report. They’re listed below:
- ANSI/ASSP/ISO 31000-2018 Risk Management – Guidelines
- ANSI/ASSP Z690.1-2011 Vocabulary for Risk Management (National Adoption of ISO Guide 73:2009)
- ANSI/ASSP Z690.3-2011 Risk Assessment Techniques (National Adoption of ISO/IEC 31010:2009)
- ISO/ANSI/ASSP TR-31004-2014 Technical Report
Tell Me More About Using Risk-Based Approaches for Safety Management
We’ll be writing more about Z690 in coming articles, and in particular about Z690 Risk Management-Guidelines. Plus, we’ll be writing more about risk management for safety, too. So stay tuned for all that.
However, you might also want to check out the following stuff we’ve got for you right now:
- Risk and Safety
- Compliance & Risk for Occupational Safety and Health
- Systems Thinking, Safety Management Systems, and Risk Management for Safety
- 5 Steps to Implementing Risk-Based Approaches to Safety
Conclusion: The Z690 Risk Management Standards Are Great Guides to Implementing Risk-Based Approaches to Occupational Safety and Health
If you’re looking to adopt a risk-management-based approach to safety and health, possibly because you’re adopting risk and leaving a strict compliance focus behind, then the Z690 Risk Management standards are a great resource to help direct your efforts.
If you’re already using risk-based approaches to safety, use the comments section below to share your tips and experiences.
And before you leave, please do download our FREE GUIDE TO USING RISK-BASED METHODS FOR OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH, BELOW.

Free Download–Guide to Risk-Based Safety Management
Download this free guide to using risk management for your occupational safety and health management program.