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Job Hazard Analysis - Assessing Safety and Health Training Needs
The following comments were adapted from “Job Hazard Analysis ” by James Roughton and Nathan Crutchfield. Also review ANSI/ASSE Z490-2009, Criteria for Accepted Practices in Safety, Health, and Environmental Training for further insights.
After a Job Hazard Analysis is completed, it represents only the point of beginning in the establishing of an improved safe job procedure. A well-designed safety and risk control training program must be present that can effectively deploy the specific customized training needs to meet the identified risk and hazard characteristics of the job.
More than just Job Hazard Analysis or Safety Training
Just presenting “training” is not sufficient. Organizations have the responsibility to ensure that all employees are effectively trained to achieve its safety objectives and that each employee understands the specific hazards of the work environment as well as how to protect themselves from those hazards. If the training has been presented properly and is understood, employees should be able to clearly demonstrate knowledge of hazards and associated risk.
Program management and administration should incorporate procedures for a continuous identification of training needs as an important and essential step early in the training design. For safety training to be successful, it must have the support of all levels of the organization. Management in each departmental area of operations should be included in order to assure that the comprehensive vision for maintaining a safe work environment is created and the intent of leadership is communicated throughout all levels of the organization.
Training is the transfer of knowledge from one human (the trainer) to other humans (the participants) in a way that allows that knowledge to be understood and used in the execution of their assigned job and its various tasks.
Five basic training principles can be used as guidelines for training:
- Communicate the purpose of the training - All participants should understand the purpose of the training. At the beginning of any training program, focus on why that specific safety training is important and how each individual can personally benefit. The nature of the hazards and the potential severity of the risk (frequency of exposure and its severity) must be communicated – not just “the regulations say we have to do this stuff.”
- Organize the presentation to maximize understanding - The sequence in which the material is presented must match the steps that must be taken to accomplish the task as well as the hazard control measures necessary for that step.
- Provide appropriate work practices - Arrange for personnel to practice and apply new skills and knowledge as soon as possible. We learn best when we immediately practice and apply newly acquired skills and knowledge. Instruction time should include a blend of information, demonstration, hands on practice, and application during the initial session. Our human learning curve drops quickly in a matter of hours and the details of training can be forgotten without immediate use or reinforcement. Too often, refresher training or follow-up is not provided and the knowledge learned becomes vague or subject to unwarranted influence from the pressures of the workplace.
- Provide immediate feedback (knowledge of results) – We make the mistake of thinking the personnel taking the class have the same perspective and core understanding of the topic as we do. If the instruction requires doing hands on step or tasks, practicing correctly creates the desired action and behavior to prevent injury or loss. Immediate correction feedback enhances the experience and encourages formation of the desirable safe behavior.
- Account for individual differences - To be more effective, training programs should incorporate a variety of learning techniques from written instruction, audio-visual, lectures, hands-on, coaching, even some fun or other emotional content to better imprint the specific knowledge into the participants. People also learn at different speeds and the pace of the training should recognize the differences between personnel. The attention span and focus of employees must be considered. Brief sessions allow the trainee to incorporate the information. Long sessions tend to lose the attention of most of us. Dr. John Medina’s book, Brain Rules, addresses issues on how to establish a better learning environment . This video is of interest as we need to better incorporate how the brain works in order to improve knowledge delivery (Training).
- Keep the employees involved and active in the training - An effective way to imprint learning is by having participants personally instruct each other in a controlled environment. After the initial instruction and practice, divide the group into teacher/learner teams, pairing a rapid learner with a slower learner giving them a chance to learn.
Caution - Training is not always the answer
Training professionals face the misconception that all problems are training problems and that developing a training program can solve them. Training is not the answer to all operational safety problems. What other obstacles or behavioral consequences are driving behavior towards risk-taking actions? A classic book that should be on your bookshelf is Robert Mager and Peter Pipe’s “Analyzing Performance Problems”. They provide a great map to follow in assessing training needs.
Assuring personnel understand how to improve and use their knowledge regarding the necessary controls for workplace hazards is the mission of the Occupational Health and Safety Management System. In the development of a Job Hazard Analysis process, consideration of the requirements for implementing effective training should be ongoing as the Job, its steps and subtask are analyzed for hazards and risk.
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