Your employees depend on you to provide a safe environment for them to work in. Keeping so many employees safe is a huge responsibility, but it is one that you need to take seriously.
Implementing well-defined, proactive safety programs such as a risk management process can help mitigate potential hazards at work. And for effective risk management, you need to start by identifying risks in every project. A job safety analysis, also called a job hazard analysis, can help with that.
Job safety analysis (JSA) is a technique that helps safety professionals identify potential workplace hazards before they occur and find the safest way to do the job. The JSA focuses on job tasks and the relationship between the worker, the task, the tools used, and the work environment. A JSA looks at specific job tasks individually, such as “operating a grinder” or “changing a flat tire.”
The goal of a job safety analysis is to pinpoint all potential hazards at every step of a process and then recommend the safest way to execute each task. Ideally, a JSA should be conducted at the worksite before a job begins or when an existing job process has been modified.
This article will discuss why a job safety analysis is important and the steps to conduct an effective JSA.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a whopping 2.7 million workplace injuries and illnesses in 2020, of which more than 4,500 were fatal. You can help prevent these by identifying possible workplace hazards and establishing preventive measures to create a safer work environment. A job safety analysis helps you identify and implement safe work procedures to prevent mild and severe injuries and even fatalities.
It also helps you comply with regulations, as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) mandates formal hazard assessments at sites where risks may be present (such as confined spaces). A job safety analysis and other measures like a risk assessment can help you to comply with this mandate, preventing fines and lessening the potential for a lawsuit with a large settlement if an accident does occur.
A job safety analysis also shows employees that you care about their safety. It helps foster a safe work environment and create a robust safety culture. Other benefits include:
While creating and implementing a job safety analysis process, you need to keep several variables in mind. From choosing which job to analyze to implementing safety measures to prevent incidents from occurring, there’s a lot to consider. A well-defined set of steps to follow might help.
Here are the six critical steps in any JSA process:
Ideally, you should do a job safety analysis for every job in your workplace. But if you have limited time and resources, you may not be able to tackle them all, especially because each JSA needs to be updated as new tasks, equipment, or machinery are introduced for a specific job. So, you need to start by prioritizing which jobs you’ll analyze first, based on the risk levels of the jobs.
For example, in the manufacturing industry, jobs involving heavy machinery have multiple potential hazards including worker injury due to improper lifting, ergonomic issues, and more, making them a high priority for job safety analysis. Consider the following factors when choosing which jobs to analyze:
To make this first step easier, talk to experienced workers who are doing these jobs. They are likely to know the ins and outs of their job better than anyone else and can talk about any difficulties they encounter. In addition, involving them will help you understand their concerns.
After you choose which job to analyze, you need to break it down into basic job steps. Remember that specific steps are needed to identify hazards, but if they are too specific, there will be too many steps.
Typically, if a job has more than 10 steps, you should either generalize your descriptions a bit or split the job into two and create separate JSAs for each. List every step in the order that the worker faces them. For example, operating a welding machine may involve:
The best way to do this step-by-step breakdown is to consult an experienced worker and also to observe the job being performed. Having an environment, health and safety (EHS) professional participate in the observation makes this second step more effective, as their expertise will enable them to catch steps others may have missed. If not an EHS professional, the observer should be experienced and capable in all parts of the job (usually a supervisor).
It’s also a good idea to warn the worker ahead of time that they will be observed and to assure them that you’re not trying to catch them using unsafe practices. Conduct the observation during normal working hours (ex., observe at night if the job is usually performed at night), with the usual tools. After observing and recording the steps of the job, discuss the breakdown with everyone present (including the worker) to ensure that no steps were missed.
After recording the step-by-step breakdown, examine each step for potential hazards. Be sure to inspect the environment around the immediate work area to find any additional hazards.
Use your observations of the job and the work area, any historical data about accidents and near misses, and the knowledge of experienced workers to list everything that could go wrong. Perform a second observation if necessary, focusing this time on the potential hazards at every stage, rather than on listing out the steps. At each stage, ask yourself (and the worker), “Could there be an accident or injury here?”
Consider all of the following potential workplace hazards: moving objects; sharp tools; machines; heavy objects (which may fall on the worker, or they may lift incorrectly and injure themselves); slipping, tripping, and falling hazards; any temperature extremes, chemicals; lighting; and more.
Once you complete your list, review it again with everyone involved (experienced workers, the worker you observed, the EHS professional who participated, etc.) to ensure you haven’t missed anything.
After all the hazards are identified, the next step is to find and implement administrative controls to overcome the hazards. The possible control measures are:
Document the findings of the JSA clearly and communicate them to all affected employees so they know what hazards they’re likely to face. Incorporate control measures to overcome the likely hazards and let workers know the reasons for these changes. Consider if additional safety training for workers or supervisors would be beneficial.
In all communications with employees, be specific in your instructions on preventive measures. Don’t use vague phrases like “use caution.” Instead, state exactly what measures workers should take to protect themselves. If necessary, provide additional resources like a safety data sheet for hazards that can’t be eliminated so that workers understand the risks involved in the job and the best ways to stay safe.
Lastly, make your report easily accessible to all stakeholders, by providing hard copies, sending in an email, or notifying them of the report’s availability on an online platform.
The job safety analysis is not a rigid document. It needs to be reviewed regularly and revised if a new review finds safety hazards that were not included earlier. Here’s when a review may be necessary:
While conducting a job safety analysis, there's a lot to consider. You need to first analyze and prioritize which jobs to review, which requires knowledge of each job, as well as historical data about incidents and any near misses, to understand risks. Then, you need to observe the job taking place and record the basic steps of each job task accurately, identify the hazards and their risk levels, and find ways to eliminate or reduce the risks. Next, you then need to communicate your findings to everyone involved, and even revise the whole thing from time to time.
It’s difficult to do all this manually, and the sheer amount of work involved may lead to errors. In this case, such errors may even prove fatal. A cloud-based solution such as Pulpstream’s risk management platform can make the whole process much smoother and more efficient. You can use it to store your observations, record incidents, upload and access data about a job, analyze risk levels, and automate communications with stakeholders.
Be proactive about your workers’ safety with Pulpstream today! Click here for a free demo.