Small things or actions can mean a lot when analyzing a job for safety hazards. Here’s how to use Job Hazard Analysis to find how each contributes to a safer workplace.
Yesterday’s Advisor reported the views of Australian OHS consultant Lewis Stratton, who feels that all too often, workers are blamed for safety lapses when management could have anticipated job hazards and eliminated them before workers had a chance to err.
One keystone to Stratton’s recommended solution is job hazard analysis (JHA). It’s a recognized concept that if you look at any work process in a systematic way, hazards will be identifiable that are not as visible in a less disciplined analysis.
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JHA is a concept to which OSHA, among other safety groups, is highly committed. The agency has issued guidelines on how to do it and do it right. Here are some key principles the agency, and other experts, suggest:
▪ Set priorities. Do JHA first on those jobs with the highest injury or illness rates, the jobs with the greatest potential for causing disabling injuries (even if there have been no accidents), and jobs that are new or substantially changed in process.
▪ Involve your employees. They know best how the job works, where hazards are apparent, and where there have been near misses. They’re also the ones with the most to gain from increasing safety. Make it clear, however, that you’re evaluating the job, not their performance of it, or you may get less-than-complete answers.
▪ Break the job down into its component tasks and actions in the smallest steps that make sense, even individual hand movements. Experts suggest videotaping the work sequence, and doing so from several angles.
▪ For each step, ask: What can go wrong? What is the likelihood of it happening? What are the consequences if it does? How can the potential problem be prevented? Look at all possible contributing factors … the work environment, the tools, the process, and the employee’s actions. Many accidents are caused by a combination of factors that create a “perfect storm.”
▪ Document and remediate. Take all steps possible to eliminate the potential hazard, and record what you’ve done. Others at your facility should be able to know about and to learn from your experiences.
▪ Make policy match reality. Line managers need to be charged with keeping fixes in place and watching for hazards to reoccur. Put it in writing, including penalties on failure to comply.
How Will You Know Managers Have Complied?
Of course, even if you take all the steps above, how can you be sure the preventive processes you’ve put in place stay in place? You can’t be everywhere at once to check.
When we asked our editors that question, they had a two-word answer: Use checklists.
A checklist forces the user to think through all the issues involved with any procedure and to certify on record that all issues were addressed. There also was a product recommendation built on this principle—BLR’s Safety Audits Checklists.
This unique, best-selling program provides more than 300 separate safety checklists, keyed to three different criteria:
▪ OSHA compliance checklists, built right off the government standards in such key areas as hazcom, lockout/tagout, electrical safety, and many more. Have your managers complete these lists, and you’ll see first exactly what inspectors will be looking for.
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▪ “Plaintiff attorney” checklists, built around those non-OSHA issues that often attract suits. These include workplace stress and violence, alcohol abuse, and insufficient job hazard analysis.
▪ Safety management checklists, that monitor the administrative procedures you need to have in place for topics such as OSHA 300 Log maintenance, training program scheduling and recordkeeping, and OSHA-required employee notifications.
All lists are reproducible. Just make as many copies as needed for all your supervisors and managers, and distribute. What’s more, the entire program is updated annually. You get new or revised checklists automatically as long as you remain a participant. And the cost averages only about $1 a checklist.
If this method to ensuring a safer, more OSHA-compliant workplace interests you, we will be happy to make Safety Audits Checklists available for a no-cost, no-obligation 30-day evaluation in your own office. Click here and we’ll be pleased to arrange it.
I can only agree with Mr. Stratton to a point. Responsibility and accountability has to be placed at the correct level. It is hard to blame the system when an employee stabs himself in the leg with his own lock blade knife while trying to close it. Who in management would you look to when an employee uses a piece of equipment that the employee is rigging to remove with a mobile crane as the anchor point for his fall protection? Finally, no amount of training is going to prevent the employee from hitting himself in the head with a crowbar, twice. I am fairly convinced that lapses in judgment cause more injuries than paperwork not being in order.
If management or supervision placing the employees in harms way or forcing through corporate culture to take risks, yes management needs to be held accountable. If management has not looked at the job to determine than remove or mitigate hazards than the employees should work with their supervisors to determine how to perform the job safely. I do not believe that you can totally remove individual responsibility from an unsafe act.