This university job safety analysis manual will help you learn how to conduct a great job safety analysis at your workplace.
Break It Down
A Job Safety Analysis (JSA) is a simple tool. You use a JSA as a method of evaluating a process or task that may involve hazards and the JSA can be used as a training tool for employees.
Good reasons to use a JSA:
- Assess personal safety, property, and equipment risks
- Evaluate current safety procedures in place
- Pre-plan safety for a new high-risk job procedure
- Assess what went wrong when a serious accident or injury occurs
- Evaluate why a certain task is correlating with multiple accidents
Once you have department JSAs filled out you can analyze the results and make recommendations for changes that will improve safety. For instance, if it's evident after reading through the JSAs that employees are constantly tripping in a specific campus lab then clearly non-slip mats or signs are needed to improve safety.
Involve University Employees
As the conductor of a major JSA project, part of your job is to encourage employees to consider all hazards associated with their job. Depending on a department's policy you will need to hand out a JSA to all or most employees. Explain how you would like them to fill out their forms.
Useful questions to ask when filling out a JSA:
Following are helpful tips you can offer employees as they get started filling out their JSA forms. Have them consider these questions about different task steps in their department.
- Can an employee get hurt doing this task?
- Could an employee fall, slip, or trip?
- Can an employee be stuck with something sharp or be cut.
- Is there a risk of exposure to harmful chemicals or fumes?
- Can any sort of transportation accident occur?
- How does the environment look?
- Is there a risk of heat, cold, or electrical exposure?
- Is anything broken that is currently putting employees at risk?
These are just some questions to get employees going. Of course there are many more questions that may arise.
University Job Safety Analysis Manual Tips
Each department must have separate JSA's conducted. Saving time by combining department JSAs will save time but your recommendations won't be personalized or as useful.
You can only make safety recommendations based on the information you learn from the JSAs. If people aren't providing useful information about their job tasks you can:
- Watch the job in action and fill out your own JSA.
- Have employees re-do their JSA forms.
- Fill out the JSA forms with the employees.
Don't forget to include ergonomic tasks, medical protective clothing issues, driving tasks, and certain campus wide safety issues such as fire safety monitoring in your JSA evaluation.
If you need more suggestions about the type of topics to include on your JSA forms look into free workplace safety tips.
Example JSA
Procedure for filling out a JSA form:
- Evaluate the task or process and determine what steps you will be taking.
- Determine and list potential hazards which could be an accidental injury, equipment damage, or exposure (such as exposure to a chemical in a chemistry lab).
- Create a list that covers proper job procedures. This includes protective equipment, proper tools, and safety procedures to follow when performing a task.
Sample Form
Date: Sept 14, 2007Department: University Library
Description of Job Task: Stocking top shelf books
Completed by: Joe Safety
| Job step | Description of step in sequence | Potential hazard | Preventive measures taken |
| Setting up movable safety ladder | Make sure ladder is securely fixed to shelving unit and that wheels are oiled. | The ladder could fall and cause injury to a library employee or student | Apply non-slip guards to ladder rails and train employees in proper ladder use techniques. |
| Hang safety signs. | Locate visible area for sign placement. | Student might miss sign and attempt to get a book form the top shelf on their own. This may result in student injury. | Word signs in easy to understand language; "Student, please get a library employee if you need a book from the top shelf." Print signs using black text on bright colored background. |
Evaluating steps to protect students from library falls may seem basic and unnecessary but every procedure in a workplace must be evaluated for safety.
If you're thinking to yourself, "Hey, this university job safety analysis manual is helpful, but where do I go from here?" try looking at what kind of safety plan you can create using your JSA forms. The University of Indiana has a great safety policy they created for eyewear safety that'll help you get some ideas.
