Job Safety Analysis (JSA): Steps and Example

A JSA focuses on the relationship between the worker, the task, the tools and the work environment, as OSHA describes it in its guidance publication OSHA 3071. It sits between broad, plant level studies such as a HAZOP study and the daily permit to work. Where a HAZOP looks at process deviations, a JSA looks at what a person physically does, step by step.

When to use a job safety analysis

OSHA 3071 recommends giving priority to:

• Jobs with the highest injury or illness rates.
• Jobs with the potential to cause severe or disabling injuries or illness, even if there is no history of incidents.
• Jobs where one simple human error could lead to severe injury.
• Jobs that are new to the operation or have changed in process or procedure.
• Jobs complex enough to need written instructions.

In many workplaces a JSA is also required before non-routine work such as maintenance on live plant, lifting operations, confined space entry or work at height. Management system standards such as ISO 45001:2018 and ANSI/ASSP Z10.0-2019 require hazard identification and risk assessment for routine and non-routine activities, and a JSA is one of the common ways of meeting that requirement at task level.

Steps of a job safety analysis

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1. Select the job and involve workers

Choose the job using the priorities above, and form a small team that includes people who do the job regularly. OSHA 3071 stresses employee involvement: workers know the real sequence, the awkward moments and the informal shortcuts.

2. Break the job into steps

List the steps in the order they are done, starting each with an action verb (isolate, remove, lift, install). OSHA advises avoiding steps that are so broad that hazards are missed, or so detailed that the list becomes unusable. Watching the job being done, or reviewing photos and video, helps capture what really happens.

3. Identify the hazards of each step

For each step ask what can go wrong: struck by or against, caught in or between, falls, contact with energy (electrical, mechanical, pressure, thermal), harmful substances, manual handling strain, noise and environmental conditions. Record the hazard, the way it could cause harm and who could be harmed.

4. Decide controls using the hierarchy

Controls are chosen in the order set out by NIOSH and by ISO 45001: elimination, substitution, engineering controls, administrative controls, and personal protective equipment (PPE). Higher levels are more reliable because they do not depend on people doing the right thing every time. PPE is the last line of defence, not the first answer.

5. Document and communicate

The JSA is written in a simple three or four column form: job step, hazards, controls, and often a responsible person. It is used for training new workers and for a briefing at the start of each job, where the crew confirms that conditions match the JSA.

6. Review and update

Review the JSA after any change, incident or near miss, and at a set interval. Incident findings from root cause analysis often reveal a missing step or a weak control.

Scoring risk in a JSA

OSHA’s JHA method does not require numeric scoring, but many companies add a likelihood and severity rating from their own risk matrix to each step, before and after controls. This shows where controls make the biggest difference and which residual risks still need attention. The scales and acceptance limits are set by each organisation, so scores from different companies are not comparable.

The largest reductions came from engineering and procedural controls on energy (lockout and stopping the pulley), not from PPE. For the isolation step, the energy isolation and permit process is explained well in this guide to electrical isolation and permit to work.

Common mistakes in a job safety analysis

• Writing the JSA in the office without watching the job or talking to the crew.
• Steps that are too vague (“do maintenance”) to reveal real hazards.
• Relying on “be careful” or “use PPE” as the only control.
• Copying an old JSA without checking that the equipment, site and crew are the same.
• Treating the JSA as paperwork and never using it in the pre-job briefing.

JSA and other hazard identification methods

A JSA is task based and person focused. FMEA is equipment and failure focused, and HAZOP is process deviation focused. In a mature safety programme they work together: the HAZOP sets the engineered safeguards for the plant, FMEA examines how equipment fails, and the JSA makes sure each person doing a task understands its hazards and controls on the day.