A Job Safety Analysis is a specific form of risk assessment applied to a particular work task or process. Its purpose is to identify and prevent any hazards inherent in the work from impacting on workers or other people.

All too frequently, when a case for breach of legislated safety duties is pursued against an employer, the failure to properly undertake or enforce a Job Safety Analysis or risk assessment is found to have been at fault (e.g. an example case in NSW earlier this month).

Critical failures in the JSA process noticed by QRMC during our years of working with many industries have resulted in the following recommendations:

  1. Develop a risk assessment methodology that is suitable for your organisation, and compliant with the international standard ISO31000 Risk Management.
  2. Ensure all workers are trained in the organisation’s risk assessment process and know how to apply it in their specific role.
  3. Ensure the risk assessment process has been applied to all work processes where there is a risk of injury/illness to workers or others (e.g. nearby members of the public) with work procedures updated to reflect the results (e.g. new controls).
  4. Develop and implement appropriate controls, in order of the hierarchy of controls (i.e. elimination, substitution, engineering, administration/training, and the use of personal protective equipment).
  5. Ensure that subcontractors have also carried out the above steps for their work.
  6. Conduct audits and checks to ensure that the revised work processes and new controls are actually being adhered to and that prescribed work risk assessments are being undertaken.

Contact QRMC for assistance with developing appropriate JSA/risk assessment processes, or auditing your organisation’s safety management system against legislative and best practice requirements.