Job Safety Analysis Compared with Total Job Analysis

The job safety analysis is the formalized method that is used by safety professionals to incorporate established health and safety philosophies and systems into a specific process, action or procedure as part of the normal activities of conducting the job. The job safety analysis is normally abbreviated with the acronym JSA. The other term used to describe this procedure is job breakdown that results in a job breakdown structure.

The terms "job" and "task" are normally used interchangeably to mean a particular project, such as "operating a drill," "using a hoist," or "draining the oil from a diesel engine." The JSA technique is not suitable for jobs that are defined too broadly, for example, "building a house"; or too narrowly, for example, "tightening wheel nuts on a car."

When conducting a job safety analysis , each step of the job is identified. This is done by recording the sequence of events associated with the task. Once all steps have been individually isolated and recorded each of the steps is analyzed with the aim of identifying possible hazards in each of the step.

The analysis is done be a knowledgeable person who conducts an observation of the job. This person than utilizes knowledge of incident and injury causes, and personal experience and basically lists what can go wrong in each of the basic step.

The identified hazards are then assessed utilizing predefined criteria. The purpose of this assessment is to make recommendations regarding the approach that will result in the safest way to carry out the job.

In some cases the analysis is extended into all aspects of the job, not just safety. This approach is generally known as total job analysis. This method is based on the premise that safety is an integral part of every job and not a separate entity.

The process of comprehensively analyzing a Job is termed a total job analysis. Because of the way the job is analyzed it is determined how different stakeholders view the individual steps in the Job. This is done by the use of assessments that combines information from a number of different sources to create a complete job profile.

This complete job profile not only illustrates the safety aspects of the job but also identifies the questions the various persons who is involved in doing the job would normally ask.

The Total Job Analysis is the ideal tool to establish the required attitudes, behaviors and competencies that is essential for the successful and safe completion of the job.

In conclusion, the job hazard analysis is a systematic procedure that concentrates on job tasks as a means to isolate hazards before they occur. It focuses on the relationship between the worker, the task, the tools, and the task environment with the primary aim to identify uncontrolled hazards in order to take steps to eliminate or reduce them to a tolerable risk level.

Supervisors then use these findings to eliminate and prevent hazards in their workplaces in an attempt to reduce the incidents and injuries in the workplace.

© Carl Marx