what is jsa

JSA stands for Job Safety Analysis, which is a procedure that helps integrate accepted safety and health principles and practices into a particular task or job operation. In a JSA, each basic step of the job is analyzed to identify potential hazards and to recommend the safest way to do the job. Other terms used to describe this procedure are job hazard analysis (JHA) and job hazard breakdown. The JSA is usually recorded in a standardized tabular format with three to as many as five or six columns. The headings of the three basic columns are: Job step, Hazard, and Controls. The JSA is a documented risk assessment developed when company policy directs employees to do so, and workplace hazard identification and an assessment of those hazards may be required before every job. JSAs are usually developed when directed to do so by a supervisor, when indicated by the use of a first-tier risk assessment, and when a hazard associated with a task has a likelihood rating of possible or greater. The JSA is usually created by the work group who will perform the task, and the more minds and experience applied to analyzing the hazards in a job, the more successful the work group is likely to be in controlling them.