It is very important for businesses to properly conduct a job safety analysis. You can check out our guide here to learn more. According to official statistics, over 1,000 people die each year as a result of workplace accidents. Job safety should be of the utmost importance to business owners. Keeping the workplace hazard-free is essential for protecting the workplace safety of employees and visitors.
To maintain the highest levels of safety, a job safety analysis (JSA) needs to be carried out. But what is a JSA? In this article, we’ll discuss safety analysis and the steps that your business needs to take to protect its workforce.
What is a Job Safety Analysis?
Sometimes referred to as a job hazard analysis or a job task analysis, a JSA is a full and thorough analysis of a particular job in a specific location. The report identifies the hazards and determines what controls and measures need to be in place.
By carrying out a JSA, you’ll ensure that all planned work can be completed safely. Carrying out the JSA and producing a written document counts as due diligence.
To ensure that a job safety analysis is as effective as possible, it must cover all aspects of the task in question. For instance, the JSA should include unloading any materials and tools, setting up the job, as well as completing the task and clearing up after it.
Who Should Write the Job Safety Analysis?
The JSA should be carried out by a competent person. Whoever completes the JSA needs to have an awareness of all of the various hazards which will be present on the site.
Usually, the person carrying out the JSA is the supervisor or foreperson.
How to Write a Job Safety Analysis?
There are four steps involved in creating the JSA. Compiling the JSA involves following the specific process before generating a report at the end.
Let’s take a look at each step so that you can understand what is involved.
Step One: Choose the Job to Be Analyzed
In an ideal world, every job that gets completed in your workplace should have its own JSA. That said, sometimes it is not possible to take care of them all at once, and you may need to prioritize which workplace safety areas you tackle first.
You should look at the jobs that have the most significant risks attached and prioritize them. If you are unfamiliar with which tasks to carry out an analysis of first, then you should examine the data on where incidents occur the most.
Check your safety records to find out whether there has been a high proportion of accidents on specific jobs.
You should consider the following:
- Jobs where human error could cause an accident
- Jobs that have a high rate of incident or illness
- Complicated jobs that need detailed instructions
- Jobs in which processes have been recently altered
Once you have found the areas of most concern, you should move onto the second step.
Step Two: Break Down the Tasks of the Job
Every task or job in the workplace can be broken down into a set of individual steps. Once you’ve chosen your task, you should observe all aspects of it. That way, you can ensure that you cover everything for workplace safety.
When observing someone carrying out the tasks, it is an excellent idea to let the team know what you’re doing. Explain the JSA process and the importance of getting all of the right information. Once the person you’re observing has completed the task, ask them to review your findings with them to ensure you’ve covered every aspect.
It is essential that you provide a detailed step-by-step analysis of the entire job; however, you don’t want to break the job down into too many steps, or the task will become too complicated. You need to keep your JSA as straightforward and easy to understand as possible.
Make sure that you list all of the steps in the order that they will be carried out. Mixing up the order, or making mistakes when identifying hazards may render the JSA useless.
Step Three: Identify the Hazards
Step three needs completing as soon after step two as possible. That way, everything will be fresh in your memory. You may find that specific steps in the task will need to be observed again so that you can get additional workplace safety information.
The aim of the third step is to record everything that could possibly go wrong during every step of the job.
Some examples of hazards encountered may include:
- Are there risks of slips, trips, or falls at any stage of the job?
- Are there any hazards associated with any machinery or equipment?
- Is there a risk of any body parts or clothing to become trapped in moving parts or machinery?
- Is there any vibration or loud noise as a result of the job?
- Will the worker need to lift, push, or pull anything?
- Is there a risk of falling objects?
- Are there any dangerous chemicals, fumes, or toxins associated with the job?
- Are there any extremes of temperature?
List any potential hazards next to each of the steps.
Step Four: Find Ways of Reducing or Eliminating Hazards
Using the information gathered in the first three steps, you should start to look for ways of reducing the risks associated with the different steps in the job.
You should follow this order of prioritization for each hazard:
- Elimination – If possible, altogether remove the hazard
- Containment – If you cannot eliminate a risk, find ways of restricting the hazard using guards or enclosures
- Revision– You may need to change the way that the job is carried out.
- Reduction – Find ways of lowering the worker’s exposure to the risk In your descriptions of how to prevent a hazard, be specific about how you will do this. Avoid using vague language.
Keeping Your Workers Safe
The job safety analysis does require a lot of work; however, once produced, it will be invaluable in workplace safety and preventing future accidents.
