Job Safety Analysis (JSA)

Overview

Job Safety Analysis (JSA) should be managed through a planned system of work: identify the task-specific hazards, eliminate exposure where practical, use engineered or collective controls before relying on PPE, verify critical safeguards before starting, and stop the task when controls are missing or conditions change. This guide applies those principles specifically to breaking work into steps to identify hazards and define controls before execution.

Main Hazards

• • Important task steps omitted from the analysis
• • Controls copied from another task without field verification
• • Uncontrolled changes, unclear responsibilities or missing communication
• • People entering hazards without adequate planning or verification
• • Delayed response to changing conditions, incidents or warning signs

Essential Controls

1. 1Observe or walk through the real task and identify hazards for each meaningful step.
2. 2Assign practical controls, responsible persons and stop-work conditions before execution.
3. 3Define responsibilities, critical controls and stop-work triggers before work begins.
4. 4Communicate the plan in a way workers can understand and verify understanding.
5. 5Use field verification, observations and supervision to confirm controls remain effective.
6. 6Learn from deviations, near misses and incidents and close corrective actions.

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