A job hazard analysis is an investigative process that helps safety managers identify and analyze hazards before they occur. By examining how a worker executes a task in your workplace operations, you can control, reduce or eliminate hazards as early as possible to ensure compliance, protect workers and save lives.
One of the most crucial undertakings your company can take, the job hazard analysis form guides safety managers through a thorough and accurate analysis at any type of worksite in construction, manufacturing, and other high-risk industries.
When completing a job hazard analysis, safety managers are prompted to describe each step of a job and record what tasks are completed at each step, including who performs it, where it is happening, and what equipment is used.
Following this, the potential hazards for each task are described, listing who or what is exposed during its execution, what are the potential triggers for a hazardous event, and what are the likely outcomes for each scenario. Finally, list and describe what hazard controls are already in place, how effective they are, and how they could be improved.
Visual records, such as photos of the physical space or the equipment, can also provide a more complete safety picture.
A job hazard analysis helps fulfill an employer’s responsibility to protect its workers. To do this, safety managers should work directly with employees because they can provide valuable insight into the mechanics of specific tasks to help identify hazards.
Safety managers can then use their findings to eliminate and prevent hazards in their workplaces, which can have many benefits: fewer worker injuries and illnesses; safer, more effective work methods; reduced workers’ compensation costs; increased compliance with regulatory safety measures; and increased worker productivity. And because the job hazard analysis form establishes proper job procedures, it can also be a valuable training tool.
With worker safety at stake, relying on paper forms to analyze job hazards is risky. Prone to errors, difficult to modify and update, and with a limited physical capacity to capture all the relevant information, data collected on paper runs the risk of being incomplete or, worse, missing potentially harmful situations.
A job hazard analysis app template can be modified and updated in real-time as frequently and in as many ways as you like. And because photos can be attached directly to the report and all your data is automatically geo-tagged, you get the complete picture you need to properly analyze and address the full extent of a potential hazard.
