Job Hazard Analysis – Why should contractors use them?
Posted by Debbi Kuhne on Mon, Dec 06, 2010 @ 08:29 AM
Does your construction company use JHAs (Job Hazard Analysis’)? Or are you saying – “what’s the need; we know what the job is”? With OSHA increasing its activities and proposing increased fines along with your ongoing efforts to keep your experience mods as low as possible, one of the best tools you could be using are JHAs.
A job hazard analysis should be performed by reviewing each task associated with a particular job. They help employers, foremen, supervisors and even individual employees recognize workplace hazards they might not have noticed otherwise. Recognizing and eliminating these hazards can help to reduce the possibility of workplace injuries in addition to increasing the productivity of your employees. Once the hazards are identified they can then be addressed and eliminated, adding extra training, or developing other company programs to reduce the hazard and/or the exposure to it.
With OSHA’s push for the recording of MSD (musculoskeletal disorders) on your OSHA 300 logs, JHAs may become even more important and helpful in identifying these particular hazards, and assist with designing of appropriate ergonomic remedies. Under the proposed OSHA regulation changes, all companies with MSD claims will be required to have company programs to implement full ergonomic programs.
Once again you can invest in your company by spending the extra time to review the job hazards and reduce the potention exposures or you can just start working and wait to suffer a Workers’ Compensation claim and/or OSHA fine. How would you prefer to spend your company’s dollars?
For help with establishing a JHA program you can begin by reviewing the OSHA JHA manual HERE