Construction companies should make sure that safe job procedures and safe work practices are developed to address significant hazards that may present significant risks/liabilities to them. To determine the need for safe job procedures and work practices, conduct a comprehensive hazard analysis prior to the start of work on each worksite. It’s important to note that the Job Safety/Hazard Analysis is an excellent process for determining safe job procedures and safe work practices. Check out OSHAcademy course 706 Conducting a Job Hazard Analysis (JHA) for more information.
Safe job procedures are a series of specific instructions presented in steps that outline the preferred method for performing a task.
There may be many construction processes on a job site and usually a number of safe job procedures within construction process. Sample procedures include:
Some specific safety procedures are required by OSHA to be included as part of a written program. Specific written procedures should be included in the following programs and processes:
Finally, safe work practices are generally written methods outlining how to perform a task with minimum risk to people, equipment, materials, environment, and processes. A particular task, job, or procedure may include one or more safe practices.
As with procedures, safe work practices help to ensure worker exposure to hazardous situations, substances, and physical agents is controlled in a safe manner.
Below are just a few examples of safe work practices:
Safe work practices include your company’s general worksite rules and other operation-specific rules. For example, even when a hazard is enclosed, exposure can occur when maintenance is necessary. Through established safe work practices, employee exposure to hazards can be further reduced.
Depending on the type of industry and the operations, work practices for specific OSHA standards or to recognize hazards may be required.
Some of these specific areas include:
This list is not all-inclusive. Refer to the specific OSHA standard for information and guidance on the required elements for these individual programs.
Keep written safe work practices in a central location where the work is performed. Make sure they are readily available to the workforce, and review them from time to time during safety meetings.
The best way to train safe job procedures and work practices is the time-tested "show and tell" method. To do that, develop a Job Safety/Hazard Analysis for each hazardous procedure, and use it as your training plan.
Keep formal documentation that shows employees have been trained on safe job procedures and work practices. The documentation should verify that employees had an opportunity to perform the safety job procedures and work practices under direct supervision, and that they have successfully demonstrated adequate knowledge, skills, and abilities.
Developing safe job procedures and practices is an ongoing challenge. We recommend that you start by covering the most hazardous procedures first, and then continue by incrementally adding procedures and practices as needed.
If OSHA standards clearly cover a procedure, go ahead and reference it so you don't have to repeat it. Generally OSHA standards are “performance-based” and do not provide detailed procedures, so be careful in evaluating the need to develop your own procedures.
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