At the core of many safety activities is the Job Safety Analysis. In reality it is most often a “Task” Safety Analysis, an individual task is analyzed, not a job. A job will generally contain a variety of tasks.

A Job Safety Analysis is an adaptation of a Task Analysis – what do you need to know to be able to perform a given task. The classic Task Analysis identifies input and output indicators, conditions, criteria, and necessary resources. Then it breaks a task down into its component steps. The steps are analyzed to determine what knowledge and skill are required at each step.

The output of this is a lesson plan, which addresses those knowledge and skill requirements. When challenged after a serious incident, “How did you determine what to teach the worker?” a Task Analysis is the best defense. A Job Safety Analysis, on the other hand, is the same at the front end, up to the point where the steps in the task have been identified. Rather than asking what skills and knowledge are required, the Job Safety Analysis asks “What hazards or risks will be encountered at each step?” Corresponding controls are then built into the task.

The output is a procedure. REMEMBER that a procedure does not generally state what knowledge and skills are required to do a task safely, only the steps, so reading a procedure in a safety meeting, then asking “Do you understand?”, to produce a series of head nods, will leave your due diligence hanging out a mile.

Whether you’re a manager, supervisor, safety representative or safety professional, keep in mind that the use of the Job Safety Analysis to build controls into a procedure is valuable work. But when we analyze the job of ensuring that safety is taken care of, we recognize that Job Safety Analysis is only one of the tasks.

Task Analysis to determine the knowledge and skills requirements is also essential to satisfying due diligence. Setting appropriate standards, ensuring responsibility assignments are clear, keeping competence records (not training records), ensuring compliance and resource allocation, and engaging workers – are all necessary. Keep in mind as you do Job Safety Analysis that it is only part of the of the safety job, one of the essential tasks to ensure that you’ve satisfied due diligence.