Job Safety Analysis - What's the Catch?
What does it take to create a realistic job safety analysis document?
Do I need special training to create a job safety analysis document?
While the answers to each of these questions will vary from organization to organization we are going to try and take the mystery out of the process. Every one of us does a basic job safety analysis in our head every time we perform a task. When you start the car, you go through your head with a checklist, is the car out of gear, is the oil level Ok, is the fuel level OK, are there any alarm lights on, are there obstacles around the car I should make note of, etc. These are simply you going through a job hazard analysis for starting your car. The reason you are going through this check list is there are risks associated with each of these things not being correct – starting in gear might run through the garage door, starting without oil might ruin the engine, running without fuel might strand you somewhere walking the road with a gas can. Clearly none of these are situations are ones we want to deal with, so we do our JSA every time we start our car. Please note that it can also be a much longer list – are the tires flat, is the hood latched, is the battery level OK, is the seat adjusted correctly for me, are the mirrors adjusted correctly, are the doors shut, what are the roadway conditions, etc. You can see that a job safety analysis can get very intense and very detailed. You will need to determine the level of detail that is placed into each JSA procedure.
Once you are in your car driving to work, you do the same type of thinking every time you perform a task. For instance - when you are turning a corner – you slow the vehicle and check the speedometer, you look to make sure there are no obstructions after you turn the corner, you look to make sure you don’t have someone too close behind or passing on the right, you turn on your blinker, you might shift gears with a manual transmission, you look for other cars turning or crossing your path. Each of these steps can have hazards associated with them and PPE (like a seat belt) or mitigating instructions for reducing the risk when you are operating your car. When you write your JSA, think in a similar way using a step by step thought process to evaluate and identify what must be done to complete this job or task. Once you have adopted this thinking method you will be well on your way to producing quality Job Safety Analysis procedures for your workplace.
When you read the Job Safety Analysis guidelines from the OSHA brochure 3071 (Job Hazard Analysis), you will see that they recommend that you keep the steps for each procedure at/or below 12. And what do you do when you look at each of the steps in your analysis? You need to determine the hazards or risks associated with that step, perhaps the severity or probability depending upon how you are classifying the step. You must also look at risk reduction that can take place with each step to improve safety, use of personnel protective equipment, use of specific safety procedures or policies, use of special training or certification to perform a given task, use of a MSDS’s data, use of a lockout/tagout procedure, use of a permitting process or audit process, re-engineering through a preventative action system. Use of any of these options can reduce specific hazards as someone is performing their job.
Ideally creating a safe work environment for all employees and contractors is the result we are all aspiring towards. This process is one of many steps that can improve your program as it matures and is brought into compliance.
What the catch for many people is, finding a tool that simplifies this process into a step by step approach. Keep the JSA authoring process simple with pull down menus, buttons, and point and click methods for creating. It should be simple enough that when you are done, you look up and say, is that all there is? What's the catch? We have client’s saying that about BasicSafe’s JSA module all of the time. Clients new to the entire process like how the automated creation process prompts them to fill in the blank and create a procedure. They all like how the hazard analysis portion of the program can grow with each new hazard identified within the table. Likewise, the associated PPE can grow as additional protection is identified for performing one’s job.
When you are done creating a procedure do you say “Wow that was too easy, what's the catch”
You might want to consider enhancing your safety program with a product like BasicSafe. For a general tour of the BasicSafe Job Safety Analysis System, click the tour link below.
