Job Hazard Analysis

Overview
 What does JHA  Identifying Basic Job
mean? Step
 Study Questions  Practice Exercise
 Establishing JHA  Determining Existing
Priorities and Potential Hazards
 Selecting a JHA Team  Recommending
 Performing a JHA Corrective Measures
 Using JHA
 Summary
Establishing JHA Priorities
Establishing priorities are based on the
following criteria:
 High frequency of accidents or near-misses

 History of serious accidents or fatalities

 Potential for serious harm

 New jobs

 Changes in procedures and standards

Establishing JHA Priorities

Note: even the most routine jobs can include

unrecognized hazards. By performing a
thorough JHA you may be able to discover a
safer or healthier way of performing the job.
Selecting a JHA Team
 Involving others in the
process reduced the
possibility of
overlooking an
individual job step or
potential hazard.
 It also increases the
likelihood of identifying
the most appropriate
measures of eliminating
or controlling the
hazards.
Selecting a JHA Team
An effective JHA team usually include:
 The supervisor

 The employee most familiar with how the job

is done and its related hazards
 Other employees who perform the job

 Experts or specialist when necessary, such

as maintenance personnel, occupational
hygienist, ergonomists, or design engineers.
Performing a JHA
Three-stage process
 List the basic steps necessary to perform the
job from start to finish
 Identify every existing or potential hazards
associated with each job step
 Develop recommendations for ways to
eliminate, or control each hazard.
 Note: it is best to complete JHA forms one
column at a time.
Identifying Basic Job Steps
 The most effective way for the JHA Team to
identify the basic job steps is to watch
carefully as an operator performs the entire
job at least once.
 Then, as the operator performs the job again,
the individual steps are noted in the JHA form
using simple action phrases that are short
and to the point.
 Job steps should be numbered to indicate the
order in which they are performed
Identifying Basic Job Steps
Two of the most common errors
made during this stage:

 Describing the job in too much detail,

or,
 Describing the step in too detail.
Identifying Basic Job Steps
 The purpose of JHA is to identify hazards
associated with a job and to make
recommendations for ways to eliminate or
control these hazards.
 Describing job steps in terms of what they are
supposed to accomplish provides maximum
opportunity to explore alternative ways of
performing the job in a safer, healthier
manner.
Practice Exercise
Identifying Basic Job steps
Job Description: As you leave
for work today, you discover
that your car has a flat tire.
The car is parked on level
ground, and the parking brake
is already set. The bumper
jack and the spare tire are
both in good condition and
stored in the car’s trunk.
Job Steps:
1. Remove a jack, spare tire,
and the lug wrench from the
trunk.
2. Loosen lug nuts
3. Raise jack
4. Remove flat tire
5. Install spare tire
6. Lower jack
7. Tighten lug nuts
8. Place flat tire, jack and lug
wrench in trunk.
Determining Existing and
Potential Hazards
Simple technique to make sure that each step
is examined thoroughly is to consider 4
focus:
1. The physical actions required for that
specific step
2. The materials used
3. The equipment used
4. The conditions under which the step is
normally performed.
Determining Existing and
Potential Hazards
1. Physical Actions
 Many jobs require the operator to perform
a specific physical activity that, if done
incorrectly can result in an injury or illness.
 Ex: lifting of heavy objects causing back
injury or muscle strain
Determining Existing and
Potential Hazards
2. Materials
 Whenever hazardous chemicals or other
dangerous substances are involved in a job
step, there is always the possibility of injury,
illness, or environmental harm.
 Carefully examine the job step for
possibilities that employees might be
exposed to material; a fire or explosion could
occur; or if the material could be released
into the environment
Determining Existing and
Potential Hazards
3. Equipment
 Examine the job step for ways
employees might be caught in, on, or by
any part of the equipment, and to see if
any electrical or other energy source or
hazards are present that poses a risk.
Determining Existing and
Potential Hazards
4. Conditions
 Consider any environmental conditions
that could threaten an employee’s
health and safety
 This could include poor housekeeping,
too much or too little light; hazardous
noise levels; exposure to temperature
extremes; and adverse weather.
 Determining Existing and
Potential Hazards
 “What if” Questions
 In addition to identifying those
potential hazards when the job is
performed in the normal manner or
under normal working conditions,
asking some “what if” questions allows
the team to anticipate hazardous
situations that might occur if normal
operating conditions were suddenly
changed or if a job step were to be
performed incorrectly or out of
sequence.
Determining Existing and
Potential Hazards
 Common problem encountered when asking
“What if” questions is deciding when to stop
considering possibilities
 Solutions:
 Keep the discussion focused only on
possibilities that the team considers most
likely.
 Consult previous JHA and accident
investigation reports
 Talk with experienced operators
Recommending Corrective
Measures
 Recommendations should be developed at
the job site whenever possible
 Recommendations should be developed in
sequence, beginning with the first hazard.
 Recommendations must be specific
 As many solutions as possible should be
listed.
Recommending Corrective
Measures
The same four factors used to identify hazards
can be used to develop an effective
recommendations for corrective measures:
1. The physical actions required for that specific
step
2. The materials used

3. The equipment used

4. The conditions under which the step is

normally performed
Recommending Corrective
Measures
1. Physical actions
 It may be possible to eliminate the risks by
modifying, rearranging or combining actions
 It is also good practice to list personal
protective equipment (PPE) that may be
used to control the employee’s exposure to
hazards associated with a particular
physical action – even when
recommendations for eliminating the hazard
have been proposed.
Recommending Corrective
Measures
2. Materials
 It may be possible to substitute a less
hazardous material. If this is not possible, it
may be necessary to recommend ways to
control the employee’s exposure to that
material by suggesting the use of PPE or
the installation of protective devise such as
splash guards or shields.
Recommending Corrective
Measures
3. Equipment
 Recommendations for corrective measures
may include the installation of machine
guards, automatic safeguard devices, or
perhaps even the replacement of a
particular piece of equipment.
 Recommending the use of PPE should also
be considered.
Recommending Corrective
Measures
4. Work Area Condition
 Recommendations for corrective measures
could include such things as improved
housekeeping procedures, installation of
additional lighting, ventilation, or noise
reduction systems, the use of PPE, or the
relocation or redesign of the work area.
Using Job Hazard Analysis
 The information provided by a thorough job
hazard analysis can be used as the basis
for
1. Developing or updating standard operating
procedures
2. Training employees
3. Observing employee performance
4. Conducting inspections
5. Investigating accidents
Summary
 Job Hazard Analysis is one of the most
effective tools available to help supervisors
protect the health and safety of their
employees
 To perform an accurate and completed JHA,
you need to:
 Select the job to be analyzed; and
 Assemble a team of knowledgeable and
experienced personnel to conduct the JHA
Summary
 Then, the team as a whole needs to:
 Observe the job as it is performed to break it
down into basic steps
 Analyze each step to determine what, if any,
hazards could possibly occur, and
 Develop recommendations for eliminating or
controlling the hazards associated with each
step.;