Think about the last time you drove down a highway in your home state. How many times did you run across road construction? I know the last time I drove from my home in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to Dallas, Texas, about a 4-hour drive, at least 6 areas were marked as construction zones. I received warnings well ahead of time about the dangers ahead and instructions about how to avoid problems as I traveled through these areas. Someone had done some upfront analysis. The third area of focus for excellence in health and safety management is worksite analysis. Worksite analysis includes a system for analyzing all new processes, materials, or equipment before they are used as well as systematically tracking and abating all hazards as they occur. Think about these 3 companies -- ZILCH, NO TOLERANCE, and ZERO INJURY -- these companies each have a distinctive approach to worksite analysis.

Company ZILCH does not even consider worksite analysis. The management of the company does not understand the concept of worksite analysis; therefore it is of no importance. Besides that, nothing ever changes at ZILCH, so why bother? Right? Wrong!

It is important that companies conduct a baseline safety and industrial hygiene hazard analysis at each site, and then have a means of monitoring and updating this information as conditions or processes change.  Even if things don't change very often at ZILCH, the organization should do a baseline assessment just so they know where they are with respect to safety and health hazards. If they don't do this, they are definitely putting the employees and the profits at risk. If an unknown hazard causes a serious injury or illness, ZILCH management will wish they had done this type of analysis.

In Company NO TOLERANCE, a very detailed process for worksite analysis is in place. Management requires every employee to follow and document the process for analyzing worksites for hazards. The company made a huge effort to complete a baseline analysis about 5 years ago and every time anything changes, the employees are required to fill out what feels like mountains of paperwork and wait for approvals before proceeding with their work. The result is that employees are frustrated and often end up circumventing the tedious process. It's possible that there are hazards that have not been identified recently because employees and their supervisors just do not want to be slaves to the process.  Someone is likely to be hurt, and then heads will roll, as they say.

On the other hand, at Company ZERO INJURY, the process for worksite analysis was jointly developed and is continually refined by supervisors and employees. Information is maintained in an online information system that tracks open issues, resolutions to known problems, and reminders of due dates. The system also provides information on trends for certain types of situations. The employees understand that they have a huge responsibility for their individual safety, so they take the process seriously. They proudly discuss the "saves" that have occurred because of their collective attention to worksite analyses any time conditions or the environment changes.

One group found that no fall protection was being used during the annual maintenance on equipment located on an unprotected platform in their facility. The worksite analysis resulted in a change to the work procedure and fall protection is now required. Just 1 week after implementing the fall protection, a worker fell off the platform while performing the annual maintenance. Without the analysis and subsequent corrective action, the worker would likely have been fatally injured. Employee ownership of the worksite analysis process makes this a ZERO INJURY company.

The Theories Related to Worksite Analysis
Continuous process improvement and organizational learning are two management concepts that are strongly linked to the practice of worksite analysis. Continuous process improvement concepts have typically been applied to producing quality products, however, the same techniques are applicable to worksite analysis.

The continuous process improvement techniques of clearly defining the work process and the associated responsibilities allow managers to monitor the work and gather information abut incidents and near-misses. The information is then used to determine what changes in the process, training, or equipment must be made. These techniques may be successfully applied to safety initiatives or they may be used to integrate safety into broader organizational improvement projects. Regardless of the focus of improvement, the bottom line is that this is how organizations learn.

Some people think that organizations can't learn; only the people within them learn. It's not an either-or concept, however. Individuals learn through challenging assignments, experimentation, failure, and reflection. Organizations learn when efforts are made to improve processes and understand the impact of risk taking. They also learn through experimentation, experience, and self-assessment. The process of transferring knowledge from the individuals to the organization is known as the learning cycle.

Communities of practice such as safety committees and focus groups can stimulate learning in the organization. I've observed how companies that organize an effort to use the CPP criteria have created an environment where the entire organization learns how to make the workplace safer and healthier.

The Criteria for Worksite Analysis
The worksite analysis criteria require a systematic approach to assessing and managing worksite hazards. The system must:

1. Identify basic and unforeseen safety and health hazards,

2. Evaluate the associated risks,

3. Prioritize and recommend methods to eliminate or control hazards to an acceptable level of risk, and

4. Track the identified hazards and other findings from inspections to ensure that proper attention has been given to these situations.

Executives, manager, and supervisors must rely on this system to gain a thorough understanding of the safety and health hazards and employee risks.

Companies that demonstrate excellence in safety and health have processes that address 5 specific areas:

1. Worksite safety analysis,
2. Self-inspection,
3. Industrial health,
4. Accident investigation,
5. And trend analysis.

The criteria for the first subsystem listed, the Worksite Safety Analysis Subsystem, is discussed below.

Worksite Safety Analysis Subsystem
A system for Worksite Safety Analysis must include:

1. Documented analysis of all new processes, materials, or equipment before their use.

2. Baseline surveys that clearly identify and document common safety and health hazards associated with each site.

3. Written descriptions of how known hazards are controlled.

4. A process to repeat the analysis when processes, equipment, hazard controls, or other conditions change.

5. The use of nationally recognized procedures for all sampling, testing, and analysis with written records of results.

6. A documented job briefing process for routine work that includes job hazards analysis or process hazard analysis to determine and recommend adequate hazard controls.

This type of analysis is required when routine jobs:

• Include written procedures,

• Have had injuries or illnesses associated with them or have experienced significant incidents or near-misses, or

• Are perceived as high-hazard tasks that could result in a catastrophic explosion, electrocution, or chemical over-exposure.

Job briefings should also be conducted when they:

• Have been recommended by other studies and analyses for more in-depth analysis, or

• Are required by a regulation or standard or in any other instance when the hazard analysis is warranted.

All job hazard analyses should be documented and include:

• Consideration of both health and safety hazards,

• Identification of steps for the task or procedure being analyzed, hazard controls currently in place, recommendations for needed additional or more effective hazard controls, dates conducted, and responsible parties, and

• Information about how the findings are used in training safe job procedures, in modifying work sites, equipment or materials, and in future planning efforts.

Information about the Self-Inspection Subsystem, Industrial Health Subsystem, Accident Investigation Subsystem, and the Trend Analysis Subsystem will be explained in the December 2009 OSP Safety online column.

This is an excerpt from the book "ZERO! Responsible Safety Management by Design" by Deb Potter, PHD with Carl Potter, CSP. Right Attitude Publishing. Purchasing information for this book, and others by Carl and Deb Potter, can be found at Right Attitude Publishing's website: www.rightattitudepublishing.com.