Safety planning at the workplace comes in many different flavors. The needs of each and every project is unique. Some are process-driven related to plant production of some sort and some relate to active tasks that are an element of more involved projects such as electrical and pipe maintenance or chemical substitution within some process, for two examples. As expected, one solution never fits all, and in addition, there are also always many common subconscious safety-behaviors that rarely get included in activity hazard analyses. Unfortunately, these behaviors also get taken for granted and rarely get discussed by work teams, yet they are common to most jobs. Many of these safety-behaviors , while universally beneficial, often cease to be discussed unless they continue to be emphasized in future risk analyses, usually as a consequence reflecting some recent incident. To enhance safety, complete risk analyses can be quickly completed using inexpensive tools such as JSA Builder, available at www.jsabuilder.com.
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In addition to risks related to the main tasks to be completed, common standard “slip, trip, fall, and step hazard ” issues are also very important topics to raise the safety awareness of your workers, before they start their work days. Wherever primary tasks might be conducted, we should also additionally consider our worker’s safety even earlier in their daily routines. This is to promote and reinforce safety-behaviors which carry through and may affect their entire days, including before they arrive for work. Safety-behavior really needs to be a shared team attribute that cannot be turned off and on, it is a 24/7 attitude that workers need to possess. It makes better sense to reinforce continually with all the individuals that you work with viewing all aspects of the day through a safety “lens,” reaching back to the moment they began their days at home. Encouraging this habit is becoming more relevant as we move forward especially when many more people will be routinely working from home as a consequence of “the new normal.” Just remember, additional thought should be invested into potential safety issues which could affect workers at home. Accidents at home (in their home offices or not) will likely affect performance of work anywhere, and if they are avoided will provide benefits to employers.
Daily workplace health & safety or tailgate discussions have always evolved to address the relevant issues that we presume to present risks to the safe completion of the planned work for that day. Despite our best efforts to describe and understand site conditions, and the risks they might impose, we must realize that these conditions may actually be different at the job site when work begins. Those changes need to be clarified, then acknowledged in safety documents such as Job Safety Analyses (JSA) or Job Hazard Analyses (JHA) to facilitate appropriate discussions communicating the changes to the individuals doing the task. Awareness is achieved painlessly through fundamental planning discussions from which we can all risk assess the changes, (1) informally annotating the JSA or (2) through a more formal Management of Change (MOC) process.
We must again stress that safety is always a 24-hour per day effort, and that workers cannot simply turn-on safe working behaviors and practices when they arrive at work. They must believe in a safe work philosophy which begins when the alarm goes off each morning. So, build a strong safety culture and save. Once completed, JSAs provide an ideal way to communicate and document the perceived risks and related mitigations to all workers.
Have your team plan their next project, and efficiently risk assess your proposed work tasks or process changes to mitigate those risks, it's FREE to try out www.JSAbuilder.com . Discover this outstanding JHA/JSA software that will help your team work safely and go home at the end of each work day without harm. If you have a distributed workforce, they can use JSABuilder.com to create a library of JSAs which then are available online to be modified and/or shared across your team. Follow JSABuilder on Twitter @JSABuilder, where we tweet about Health and Safety, post Safety tips, and provide updates on current Health and Safety topics. Remember, for a free risk assessment software tryout go to www.JSAbuilder.com.
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Note : images, links, brands discussed or displayed in this article are not endorsements or recommendations. They are for illustration of various products and types of products. JSABuilder does not recommend products, does not endorse, or express any opinion as to the applicability to any given use case or job hazard. Again, consult your safety professional to obtain opinions on applicability, selection and fitting of all the various types of PPE, then work smart and safe.