It is important to identify potential hazards in every workplace before they cause any damage. We often hear about Job Safety Analysis but many of us still don’t know what it stands for. Job safety analysis is the process of analyzing a particular job and where It is situated to identify a number of potential hazards involved and how to keep the under control. By completing this process, it means that you have planned the job and the employees can now work safely.
For JSA to serve its purpose fully, it needs to be cater for every aspect of the work. A workplace which runs several tasks at the same time will need several job hazard analysis. JSA should be written by an experienced person who is highly knowledgeable to determine some of the hazards in a work place. In most cases, it’s the supervisor who carries out this task.
After you have completely analyzed every task involved at the workplace, you now need to break them down into easy steps. The steps should be specific to the job and also the work area. This means that the step will only change if the work area changes. Avoid making too detailed steps as they may make the JSA difficult to follow. At the same time, steps that are not adequately detailed may not cover for some of the hazards.
The next this is start identify the dangers involved in every step. This step one of the most difficult in job hazard analysis. At this stage, you ought to identify everything that may be a source of threat to the health and safety of the workers. Identify how the surrounding, people and even the materials used may become hazardous. Some of the factors you need to consider at this stage include causes of past injures, legislation requirements and manufacturer’s instructions on the machines used.
The third stage is to determine possible controls for the hazards. The control involves how you will get rid of the dangers or reduce the chances of injures. After the third step, the JSA should be complete and ready to be shared with the employees. The job hazard analysis will only serve its purpose it the when the employees have grasped every idea about it.
Before the work commence, it is of essence to go through the JSA to make sure that every employee knows what they are supposed to do in each area. Work plans often change and when this happens, it is a must for the JSA to be reviewed so that every new threat is reflected and shared with all the employees.