Tuesday, August 22, 2017

How To Conduct Job Safety Analysis Procedures Effectively

By Helen Watson


JSA is the term usually used for Job safety analysis. Some industries may use the term Job or Task Risk Assessment, Job Hazard Breakdown, Job Safety Environment Analysis, Job Handling Analysis or JHA for their job safety analysis procedures.

Whatever your company calls it, JSA is an important part of a safety program for preventing workplace accidents. It is about critically looking at every step of the specific job to identify, assess, and document hazards and safe work practices. It is to help make sure the appropriate controls are in place so that the job is done safely.

How effective a JSA would be varies greatly depending on the understanding and experience of the crew completing it and the standard of the JSA processes. There are training available that can make one improve on the consistency and quality of JSA at the place of work.

It is important to understand that it is not the JSA form that will keep people safe on the job, but the procedures you go through to develop the JSA. It is of less value to be able to see hazards and device controls if important hazards are missed. Always ensure controls are appropriate, requirements are communicated, and controls are put in place and maintained.

The JSA is not just a piece of paper with written instructions on how a task is to be completed. If it is created well and used as it is supposed to, it is a wonderful tool. However, if a JSA is created poorly, it would not be able to prevent any injury, but may become a hazard.

A poor JSA paints the picture that all the needed controls are in place and for that matter the job would be carried out safely. For this reason, members in the team may relax, not be too cautious, and would be caught in the trap of uncontrolled and unidentified hazards that are lurking around.

JSA must be conducted by a group that is familiar with the job. The group must include those who are familiar with the task, crew members who are going to carry out that task and possibly the supervisor or any other specialist. There should be a team leader who would be charged with the responsibility of ensuring the appropriate JSA process is followed.

The team leader should be competent in developing, facilitating and writing JSAs. The team leader does not necessarily have to be familiar with the task under analysis if the selected team members are. The team should involve those who are doing the job and not those who happen to be available at the time.

If competent people are allowed to take part in the JSA and task, it would be rare to skip a step or miss any hazard, and effective or tested controls are likely to be put in place to minimize any hazardous incidence. Workers who participate in operations all the time will have rich job insight.

All those who are going to partake in the task should try and make a contribution during the JSA. It is an effective way of making sure employees take part in risk control and hazard identification. It also helps promote an understanding culture and ensure rules are complied with.




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