Sunday, August 27, 2017

How To Conduct Job Safety Analysis Procedures Effectively

By Helen Watson


Job safety analysis is also commonly abbreviated JSA. Depending on the place you work, job safety analysis procedures may also be called Job Handling Analysis or JHA, Job Safety and Environment Analysis or JSEA, Job Hazard Breakdown, Task Risk Assessment and so on.

No matter the name your company choose to give the procedure, JSA is a vital part of any safety program. It is meant to prevent accidents at the workplace. It is systematically looking at the steps involved in executing a particular job so that the hazards or safe work practices in it can be identified, assessed and documented.

The effectiveness of a JSA can vary greatly depending on the knowledge of the people completing it and the quality of the JSA procedures. It is possible to get trained in order to improve the quality and consistency of JSA at your work place.

Just filling the JSA form does not make people safe during the work. It would be of almost no value to bring out hazard and develop controls if the most critical hazards are not looked at. The controls should always be appropriate, the controls should be in place and maintained and what is required should be properly communicated.

The procedure is much more important than a piece of paper that documents the process. A well developed JSA used properly is a useful safety tool. However, a poor JSA may not only be ineffective in preventing injury, but can create an additional hazard; a false sense of safety.

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.

A JSA ought to be organized by a team familiar with the task. The team should include workers familiar with the job, workers who are going to do the job and if applicable supervisors or other relevant specialist. A team leader should be nominated who is responsible for ensuring that an appropriate JSA procedure is followed.

The leader of the team should have the competence in facilitating, developing and writing JSAs. The one leading must not necessarily be familiar with the job if the other team members are. The team should be made up of those who are going to execute the task and not just those who happen to be at the workplace.

By involving a team of people who are competent in the job and involved in the job, the likelihood of missing a step or hazard is decreased and the likelihood of efficient and effective controls increased. Workers who do the job regularly will have valuable job insight such as unsafe shortcuts, or ways to get around protective devices.

It is best to make sure all teams members put in a contribution at JSA meetings. It is one of the best ways to ensure workers participate in controlling risk and identifying hazards. Doing so is also one of the perfect ways to promote compliance with rules and a culture of understanding.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment