Summary
The Risk Matrix in the Safety App lets you define how incident severity is scored by combining a likelihood rating with an impact rating. You can customize the labels, the numeric values in each cell, and the color-coded severity bands. This gives your organization a consistent, tailored scale for assessing and prioritizing risk.
Introduction
The Risk Matrix is the scoring framework behind incident and risk severity in the Safety App. It pairs a set of likelihood levels against a set of impact levels, and every combination resolves to a numeric score and a color-coded severity band.
Safety and risk administrators use the Risk Matrix to align the tool with their organization's own risk-rating standard. Instead of relying on a fixed, one-size-fits-all scale, teams can rename the levels, adjust the numbers behind each cell, and set the thresholds at which a score becomes Low, Medium, High, or Critical. This solves the problem of inconsistent, subjective severity ratings by giving everyone a shared, transparent scale.
Key Concepts
- Likelihood labels define the probability axis of the matrix. They are shown as an ordered list, and the defaults are Rare, Unlikely, Possible, Likely, and Almost Certain.
- Impact labels define the consequence axis of the matrix. They are also an ordered list, with defaults of Negligible, Minor, Moderate, Major, and Catastrophic.
- Matrix values are the numeric scores shown in each cell of the grid. By default this is a 5x5 grid where each cell is calculated as likelihood multiplied by impact, using position values from 1 to 5 on each axis.
- Color map is the set of severity bands. Each band defines a minimum value, a maximum value, a color, and a label, so any score falls into exactly one band.
- Default severity bands map score ranges to named levels: 1 to 4 is Low (green), 5 to 8 is Negligible (light green), 9 to 12 is Medium (amber), 13 to 16 is High (orange), and 17 to 25 is Critical (red).
- Score-to-color resolution means that once likelihood and impact are chosen for an incident, the resulting cell value is matched against the color map to produce a color-coded severity rating.
Steps to Follow
Review the default matrix
When you open the Risk Matrix configuration, you start from the default 5x5 layout. The likelihood axis runs from Rare to Almost Certain, and the impact axis runs from Negligible to Catastrophic. Each cell shows a value calculated as likelihood times impact, so the grid ranges from 1 in the lowest corner up to 25 in the highest.
Caption: When you open the Risk Matrix configuration, you start from the default 5x5 layout.
Customize the likelihood labels
Edit the Likelihood labels to match the wording your organization uses on its probability scale. The labels are an ordered list, so the first label represents the least likely level and the last label represents the most likely. Keep the order consistent, because each label's position drives the numeric value used in the score calculation.
Customize the impact labels
Edit the Impact labels to match your organization's consequence scale, for example severity of injury, financial loss, or operational disruption. As with likelihood, these are an ordered list where position determines the underlying value from lowest impact to highest impact.
Caption: Edit the Impact labels to match your organization's consequence scale, for example severity of injury, financial loss, or operational disruption.
Adjust the matrix values
If the default likelihood-times-impact scoring does not fit your model, update the Matrix values directly. This is a grid of numbers, one value per cell, so you can override individual scores or apply a different scoring scheme across the whole matrix.
Define the color map and severity bands
Configure the Color map to control how scores translate into severity ratings. Each entry defines a minimum value, a maximum value, a color, and a label. The defaults are:
- 1 to 4: Low, colored green
- 5 to 8: Negligible, colored light green
- 9 to 12: Medium, colored amber
- 13 to 16: High, colored orange
- 17 to 25: Critical, colored red
Adjust the ranges, colors, and labels so that every possible score falls into exactly one band with no gaps or overlaps.
Caption: Configure the Color map to control how scores translate into severity ratings.
Confirm how scores are applied
Once your matrix is set, selecting a likelihood and an impact for an incident produces the value from the corresponding cell. That value is matched against your color map to assign a color-coded severity band, giving each incident a consistent, comparable rating.
Conclusion
The Risk Matrix gives your organization a single, customizable scale for scoring incident severity, from the labels on each axis to the numeric values and the color-coded thresholds. By tailoring the likelihood labels, impact labels, matrix values, and color map to your own standards, you ensure that every incident is assessed consistently and prioritized with a shared understanding of risk.