A key emphasis within a safety management system is on hazard identification and risk assessment .   Inspections and general good safety practice go a long way in identifying hazards and associated risk.  However, to dig into the details of how loss producing conditions are created requires completion of a Job Hazard Analysis.    While JHAs are considered important,  finding the time to complete them  can be a task in itself.  How can you go about developing a portfolio of comprehensive JHA?

The answer is to weave their completion into other activities that may assist in improving not just the safety management system but other areas of the organization as well.  Shift the focus of the JHA being used only as in special projects to being a portable tool that can address a number of problems, concerns or issues.   Several ideas to enhance the use of JHAs include:

• Use the JHA as part of the incident investigation process.   It does not have to be only injury producing incidents but any Loss Producing incident  - injury, property, equipment, or other types of damage.
• Use the JHA as part of the inspection process – If hazardous conditions are present, some task or steps may be creating the condition or a gap may be present in how a job is completed.  Use the JHA to hunt for where gaps may have developed.
• Identify jobs that have quality or defect issues.  The quality control department may find the use of the JHA complements its efforts in reducing error rates.   What is increasing the potential for a loss producing incident may also be causing quality issues.  The JHA may be able to find steps and subtasks where increased potential for human errors or production problems are occurring.
• Look for jobs with high turnover, absentee rates or general problems.  Use the JHA to review how those jobs are being completed to determine if the job design is creating issues that  drive employees away from doing them or doing them poorly.
• When employees identify safety issues or concerns, involve the employee in the development of a JHA to work towards solving the problem.
• If a safety committee has been organized, it will need projects.  A sub-committee might be used to target jobs with steps and tasks that have high potential for severe injuries.
• Always be ready to do a Job hazard Analysis.   A number of web and device based apps are available that can assist in the completion.

Always be looking  for opportunities where the Job Hazard Analysis can be applied.

Reference

Roughton, James; Crutchfield, Nathan; “Job Hazard Analysis, A Guide for Voluntary Compliance and Beyond”, Butterworth-Heinemann, 2008