Monday, August 21, 2017

How To Conduct Job Safety Analysis Procedures Effectively

By Helen Watson


Job safety analysis is often referred to as JSA. Job safety analysis procedures are sometimes called JHA or Job Handling Analysis, JSEA or Job Safety Environment Analysis, Job Hazard Breakdown, Task or Job Risk Assessment, etc. Depending on your area of work.

Whatever your company choose to call it, JSA is a very important safety. It's about looking at every step of a job systematically in order to identify, critically assess, and write down hazards and work practices that are safe. It is to make sure that the right controls are put in place so that the work can be done safely.

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.

It is not just the JSA form that makes people safe during operations, but the processes that the crew is taken through before developing the JSA. It is of almost no value to point out hazard and come up with controls if serious hazard are overlooked. Controls should always be in place and maintained, those controls should be appropriate and requirements should be well communicated.

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 may give the impression that all appropriate controls have been put in place and the job is safe. As a result, team members may relax, become less cautious and fall into the trap of unidentified and uncontrolled hazards that are waiting for them.

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 competency of the team leader in facilitating, developing, and writing JSAs should not be in doubt. It is not compulsory for the leader to be familiar with the job as long as the other members of the team are. It would be very unsafe to just pick those available for the JSA instead of the actual crew who are going to make sure the job is done.

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.

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.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment