Companies should establish safe work practices/safe job procedures for addressing significant hazards or for dealing with circumstances that may present other significant risks/liabilities for the company. They should reflect your company's approach to controlling hazards.
Some regulations require employers to have written procedures/instructions for specific activities/conditions. The number of practices/procedures and the degree of detail will depend on the range of work activities your company performs. It is important that management and supervision are involved in the development of safe work practices and that they provide adequate training for workers likely to follow these practices.
Safe work practices
Safe job procedures
Definition
Safe work practices are generally written methods outlining how to perform a task with minimum risk to people, equipment, materials, environment, and processes.
Safe job procedures are a series of specific steps that guide a worker through a task from start to finish in a chronological order. Safe job procedures are designed to reduce the risk by minimizing potential exposure.
Development
Safe work practices should be developed as a result of completing a job safety analysis (JSA) or a hazard risk assessment (HRA) and should closely reflect the activities most common in the company's type or sector of construction.
Safe job procedures are usually developed by management and workers as a result of a JSA/HRA, accident or incident investigation, and/or as a supplement to a safe work practice.
Delivery
All safe work practices should be kept in a location central to the work being performed and readily available to the workforce. Some safe work practices will require specific job procedures, which clearly set out in a chronological order each step in a process.
Safe work procedures should be included in the company's "Worker Orientation" program. All workers should be aware of the fact that safe job procedures have been established, are in effect, are written down, and must be followed.
IHSA suggests that you build your collection of safe practices/procedures incrementally—start with a few major items and add to them as needed. Avoid simply repeating clear regulatory requirements. Rather, if needed, provide direction on how your company will implement/apply those requirements.
The samples below will help you to develop safe practices/procedures to address specific hazards.
Caution/Disclaimer
The samples provided are intended to be modified to meet company or site-specific requirements. Without such modifications, they may not be appropriate. Although IHSA believes that the information provided is consistent with the legal requirements and/or good industry practices which prevailed at the time the information was compiled, users of this information are urged to check with current regulations, local/trade practices and the most recent edition of the reference material to ensure that it is still appropriate.