Understanding the Scope of the JHA Process
The process I presented in the last JHA blog is one that I have used to show that the JHA represents only one aspect (an important one) of the risk review. A combination of risk/hazard analysis, consequences analysis and organizational design are essential to improving the potential for an effective safety process. When these phases are out of balance or not aligned, the potential for loss increases. If the hazards have severe consequences, then losses will be greater.
It is essential that an organization develop an in depth understanding of the nature and scope of the risk and hazards related to all of its activities. I believe the Job hazard Analysis, if used routinely and comprehensively, can increase the effectiveness of the safety process. In workshops of supervisors and employees I have lead, I have seen examples time and again of additional safety issues that surface during the selection and development of the designated JHAs.
The second phase is to review the behavior involved. A “consequences” analysis is needed to determine if the organization has unconsciously or accidentally designed actions or guidelines that will drive behavior away from safety. Safe behavior reinforcement requires an understanding of what happens after a specific behavior and recognizing the type of feedback employees receive when they do a job or task.
The consequences of working safe and following the rules may be found to be outweighed by the consequences of getting the job done. Employees may take reducing the risk of a supervisor’s criticism about productivity (high probability) over the risk of injury as the probability that something injurious will happen is usually a low probability for most tasks. We appear to have a built in bias towards “if there is no immediate loss, there is no immediate risk.” Add in long term public education via film and TV where horrific risk are taken by the hero/heroine and they always come through unharmed – even when jumping off tall building or from moving cars!
Many safety processes are still developed around punishment and negative reinforcement. As an example, consider the organization whose primary focus is on keeping its OSHA incident rate low. Since any injury increases the incident rate, the system is designed to punish those who increase the rate. A consequences analysis would predict that with small limited severity incidents, a pattern of suppressing injury reports will develop. Risk managers are constantly on the alert for such hidden claims within their organizations.
A rule of thumb is that if you have good safety rules and guidelines in place and are finding that they are not being followed, then hidden consequences are driving behavior away from the controls implemented. Even the best JHA can’t overcome strong consequences that drive behavior.
The third phase is to assure that the organization has effective processes that bring people with the correct skills and knowledge into the system; that training and orientation are in place and an understanding about what is needed for human performance improvement is in place. The human-social element matches the needs of the tasks and technology required to reach desired goals. The structure of supervision effectively manages, provides adequate resources and communicates. The environment is understood and goals are set that account for these five elements (French and Bell).
The fields of Human Performance Improvement and Organizational Development provide insight into the needs of phase three. A great overview of HPI was provided in Professional Safety, June 2009, by Crossman, Crossman and Lovely.
Balancing all of this is the holy grail of organizational development! With an understanding of all three phases, your time and effort can be more effectively focused.
Nathan Crutchfield
Crutchfield Consulting, LLC | Safety and Risk Control http://ow.ly/eWl5
Reference
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavior-based_safety
http://www.changingminds.org/disciplines/hr/performance_management/abc_analysis.htm
http://www.amazon.com/Organizational-Development-Wendell-L-French/dp/0136416624
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2009