Task Analysis

A Task Analysis, also known as a Safe Working Method Statement (SWMS), Job Safety Analysis (JSA), etc., is a detailed plan for carrying out a specific task or job safely. It provides a methodical approach to determining whether work is safe to perform, and what measures need to be in place to make it safe.

Some terminology:

Hazard:

Any potential source of harm, injury, or loss.

Risk:

The degree of danger posed by a hazard, in terms of (1) how likely it is that something bad will happen, and (2) how severe the consequences will be if it does.

Control:

Something put in place to either eliminate a hazard or reduce the risk it poses to a safe level.

In broad terms, creating a Task Analysis involves doing the following:

1. Breaking the task down into steps
    
2. For each step, identifying all the hazards that may be present
   
   
3. For each hazard:
   
   
   • Determining a ‘risk score’ (known as the ‘Initial Risk’) for the danger posed by the hazard
   • Deciding on appropriate safety measures (controls) that should be put in place
   • Determining a new ‘risk score’ (known as the ‘Residual Risk’) for the danger still posed by the hazard with the ‘controls’ in place.
   • Based on the ‘Residual Risk’, deciding whether the selected controls are adequate, and changing or adding controls as required to ensure the risk is reduced to an acceptable level

The Task Analysis page can be accessed from the home screen and contains 4 buttons for the following: creating a TA from a blank template, creating a TA from a partially filled template, editing a draft TA and reviewing an active TA.

TA = Task Analysis