Rancho Mesa's Alyssa Burley and Media Communications & Client Services Coordinator Lauren Stumpf talk about behavior-based Safety Programs and how they can be implemented using the Risk Management Center.

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Risk Management Center

Director/Host: Alyssa Burley

Producer/Guest: Lauren Stumpf

Editor: Megan Lockhart

Music: "Home" by JHS Pedals, “News Room News” by Spence

© Copyright 2021. Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc. All rights reserved.

Transcript

[Introduction Music]

Alyssa Burley: Hi, this is Alyssa Burley with Rancho Mesa’s Media Communications and Client Services Department. Thank you for listening to today’s top Rancho Mesa news brought to you by our Safety and Risk Management Network, StudioOne™.

Welcome back everyone. Today, my guest is Lauren Stumpf, Media Communications and Client Services Coordinator with Rancho Mesa. Today, we’re going to talk about behavior-based safety programs and how they can be implemented using the Risk Management Center. Lauren, welcome to the show.

Lauren Stumpf: Thanks for having me, it’s great to be back.

AB: For listeners who aren’t familiar with behavior-based safety programs, will you give a brief overview of what they are and why they’re important?

LS: So, behavior-based safety programs utilize what’s called a job hazard analysis, or JHA, to identify existing or potential hazards an employee may encounter while performing their job.

It’s important to conduct JHAs for each job to help establish and properly document safety procedures, train employees in safe and efficient work practices, determine the best way to perform a job, and establish ways to reduce or eliminate any identified hazards. And, that’s really the point of behavior-based safety programs, to reduce or eliminate hazards to the employee.

AB: Agreed, and the JHAs are what safety managers use to find hazards before they hurt an employee.  Are employers required to have JHAs or are they optional?

LS: Well, in order to be in compliance with OSHA standards, a JHA is required in any work environment where personal protective equipment, or PPE, is required. They are also required in all situations where there is a reasonable chance that an employee could be injured while performing their job. So, even if there isn’t an OSHA standard specific to the work being done that requires a JHA, you’ll still need to create one if there is a chance an injury could occur.

AB: That’s good to know.  Even if OSHA hasn’t specifically identified a situation and created a standard for it, it’s still ultimately the employer’s responsibility to ensure the employee is safe and identify any potential hazards.

So, for our listeners who are new to behavior-based safety programs, how would they go about creating a JHA?

LS: Well, for Rancho Mesa clients, they can use the BBS Track in the Risk Management Center to develop and manage their JHAs.  The job hazard analysis wizard helps users easily create a JHA from scratch, or they can start from a sample JHA found in the library that comes pre-loaded in the system.  All are fully customizable.

So, whether your employee is operating a forklift on a construction site or is home health care professional exposed to blood borne pathogens, the library is a great place to start when building your custom JHAs.

AB: Okay, once the user finds a sample JHA in the library, what should they do next?

LS: So, the safety manager will review the sample JHA and begin to make any adjustments so that it fits their specific situation. 

Using the forklift operation as an example, the sample JHA identifies the safety issues like tipping the truck, hitting pedestrians or obstacles, and falling product.

Then, the JHA lists out the job requirements associated with the issue.  They may include things like mandatory certification before use, annual training, or re-certification. You may see requirements like do not drive sideways on inclines, keep loads uphill, and handle only stable loads.

Each issue is identified and requirements are listed to ensure safe workplace.

AB: Okay, now that the safety manager has identified all the issues and requirements in the JHA, what happens next?

LS: Well, in the Risk Management Center, the JHAs can be used to create training materials.  It doesn’t do any good to identify job hazards if employees are not trained on how to avoid them.

Once the JHA is complete, the safety manager can download the JHA as a PDF or in a PowerPoint Presentation format, so it can be used to train employees.

The JHAs can also be repurposed in the Risk Management Center’s Safety Observation Track which allows the safety manager to document the observations of employees performing their jobs. But, we’ll get into that a little more in another episode.

AB: Lauren, thank you for explaining JHAs, why they are important, and how to create and manage them in the Risk Management Center.

[Closing Music]

And, thank you for joining me in StudioOne™.

LS: Thanks for having me.

AB: This is Alyssa Burley with Rancho Mesa. Thanks for tuning in to our latest episode produced by StudioOne™. For more information visit us at ranchomesa.com and subscribe to our weekly newsletter.