Job Task Analysis
A Job Task Analysis (JTA) breaks down a role’s physical, psychosocial, and environmental demands while focusing on workplace safety. It identifies a role’s essential tasks and the hazards associated with them. Our Occupational Health Physiotherapy specialists combine clinical and occupational health expertise to deliver accurate JTAs that facilitate safety, compliance, and support worker return to work.
Benefits
Speeding Up Return to Work
A detailed Job Task Analysis (JTA) categorizes tasks as light, medium, or heavy, simplifying the process of matching suitable duties to an injured worker’s capacity. This alignment benefits treating practitioners, employers, and workers in supporting a safe and timely return to work. With clear task descriptions, decisions are informed by evidence rather than assumptions, reducing delays and improving recovery outcomes in the context of Occupational Health Physiotherapy.
Reducing Risk
By breaking down each role into its essential tasks and physical demands, a JTA highlights risk factors such as heavy lifting, repetitive movements, or awkward postures. Identifying these hazards proactively is essential for workplace safety, allowing for targeted controls, including engineering solutions, task redesign, or training. This approach helps prevent injuries, reduce claims, and maintain a safe and productive workforce.
Supporting Pre-Employment Medicals
A JTA provides the objective data required to design role-specific pre-employment medical and functional assessments. By clearly outlining the physical and cognitive demands of each job, employers and health professionals can accurately determine whether a candidate is fit for the role and capable of performing required tasks safely. This reduces the risk of early injuries, mismatched placements, and costly turnover, further enhancing workplace safety.
Demonstrating WHS Compliance
Under Work Health and Safety legislation, employers must identify hazards and manage risks. A well-documented JTA provides clear, defensible evidence of compliance and due diligence. It demonstrates a systematic, best-practice approach to managing workplace risks and can support discussions with regulators, insurers, and health professionals in the realm of Occupational Health Physiotherapy.
What we assess
- Manual Handling (lifting, pushing, pulling, carrying)
- Postural Demands (awkward positions, bending, twisting, reaching, sustained sitting/standing, overhead work)
- Repetitive Movements (frequency of tool use, typing, assembly line tasks etc.)
- Force Requirements (measured weights, push/pull forces)
- The frequency with which a task is performed- whether infrequently, occasionally, frequently, or constantly- has a direct impact on the likelihood of risk.
- Tasks performed more often provide more exposure to potential hazards, increasing the chance that an incident or injury will occur.
- Shiftwork including rosters, hours, and night shift
- Attention, concentration, and memory requirements
- Situational awareness requirements
- Task complexity, workload, and time pressure
- Potential fatigue, stress, or environmental distractions
- Understanding these factors supports a holistic, biopsychosocial approach to injury prevention
- Temperature, humidity, and exposure to the elements
- Noise, lighting, and vibration
- Confined or restricted workspaces
- Slippery, uneven, or unstable surfaces
We identify tasks that pose the greatest potential for injury or harm, such as heavy manual handling, working at heights, or operating machinery.
These tasks can then be prioritised for a detailed risk assessment and control recommendations
Our Process
We begin with a discussion to clarify your organisation’s needs, goals, and key concerns. This may include understanding injury trends, high-risk roles, or specific operational challenges. Aligning expectations at the start ensures the JTA delivers practical outcomes for your business.
Existing workplace data provides valuable context. We review recent injury records, near misses, and incident reports to identify recurring patterns or problem areas. This helps focus the analysis on the roles and tasks with the greatest potential for improvement.
We observe workers performing their typical duties in the actual work environment. This enables accurate documentation of physical, cognitive, and environmental demands- including lifting techniques, repetitive movements, postures, and workflow.
*Desktop assessment is available
Engaging directly with workers provides insight into the real challenges, variations, and efficiencies within their role. Through brief interviews or discussions, we capture their perspectives on task demands, potential risks, and existing controls. This inclusive approach promotes worker buy-in and ensures the findings are both accurate and practical.
We measure and quantify the forces, loads, postures, and repetitions involved in each task. Using objective data (e.g., weights, reach distances, frequency counts), we classify physical demands as light, medium, or heavy. These measurements form the foundation for risk assessment, return-to-work planning, and pre-employment functional testing.
A detailed written report is provided, summarising all findings, photographs, and quantitative data. The report clearly outlines task demands and requirements.
The median time lost for a serious work cover claim is 7 weeks Musculoskeletal disorders account for 50% of serious claims
(Safework Aus 2024)
Contact Us
TaskFit
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