Monday, August 14, 2017

By Deborah Evans


The risk of injury is an inherent part of most constructions and a lot of heavy industry projects. We can't eliminate risk entirely, but we can reduce the risk and control it using standard procedures and good work practices. Or, we can just accept it as a normal part of doing a job. The question becomes "How much risk are you and your employees willing to accept?" job safety analysis procedures are critical in any business.

As OSHA moves towards an Illness and Injury Prevention Program (I2P2) standard, security managers may be required to better evaluate and complete a thorough review of the workplace. Executing an effective I2P2 can be enhanced by the establishing of a solid analysis process. A comprehensive hazard and risk assessment based on Job risk Analyses can help in setting priorities and the ranking of task, and procedures by loss frequency and prospective severity.

The approach to establishing an effective evaluation should include: Employees should be brought into the hazard identification and hazard analysis. One obstacle that could inhibit employees from taking part is the misperception that work risk evaluation is a form of motion and time study. While it may help with improving the job, these are not purely efficiency studies directed at employee effectiveness. Training may be needed on the basics of hazard identification and the logistics for setting up the process will need to be reviewed.

At the lowest management level, risk has to be controlled by the people doing the work and their immediate supervisors. In both the planning and execution of a task, it is essential to make sure that all those who need to be involved are given an adequate opportunity to be involved and are kept informed of developments that might increase the risks and change the measures needed to deal with them.

Is this a normal situation? After developing an evaluation, we implement the desired safe procedure without the proper training due to various reasons (budget, time, and resources) and simply hope that it just works. When someone is injured, we immediate go to the Job Hazard Analysis and question why the employee failed to recognize the hazard associated with the task. We assumed that employees had the same understanding as we do concerning the hazards and controls.

The tools and methods used to identify and qualify risks should be reviewed. Accident investigations, Inspections, maintenance records, as well as policies, rules, procedures, etc., should be effective, comprehensive, and upgraded and revised as warranted. Report tracking of recommendations, controls and issues is essential to assuring effective execution of controls.

The fact that each person's perception of risk and level of risk tolerance is different is one of the things that complicate communication of risk on a construction site. The JSA is a tool used to improve and document the communication process and ensure mutual understanding of risks and controls by all the people involved.

Formal plans for corrective actions or work modifications must be in place as risks or hazards are identified. Procedures designed to get the immediate short term controls in place while the long term fix is being developed should follow an organizational "project management" model. It is important to track and follow-up on new protocols, procedures, job, tasks and step changes. You must be guaranteed that corrective actions are monitored and that communications and administrative controls are effectively working.




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