What Is a Job Safety Analysis (JSA)?

Whether you work in an industrial factory, on an offshore vessel, or on the road as a long-distance trucker, there are risks associated with your everyday tasks on the job. You have the right to be protected against these risks, and your employer is responsible to ensure that right is upheld. One of the ways that a company can be compliant with OSHA regulations is by implementing a job hazard assessment (JHA), also known as a job hazard breakdown or a job safety analysis (JSA).

What Is a Job Safety Analysis?

A job safety analysis is a procedure conducted to assess the risks associated with a particular task or job, and to integrate the accepted safety and health principles set by institutions like OSHA. Due to changing regulations, updated equipment, and other factors, it’s important to update this analysis regularly.

A JSA, and especially a written, distributed procedure based on the analysis, can serve as the basis for regular contact between an employer and an employee. More importantly, however, it can also prevent dangerous accidents as a part of initial training or briefing for infrequent jobs.

In some cases, an employer may choose to expand their job safety analysis to include all aspects of the job, which addresses the idea that safety is an important part of every task. When the scope is increased like this, the procedure is referred to as total job analysis.

What Are the 4 Steps of a Job Safety Analysis?

Regardless of whether the job is routine or non-routine, a JSA can (and should) be performed. Even a single task job should be analyzed for safety.

The four steps of completing a job safety analysis (JSA) are:

• Select the job to be analyzed. This process should be completed for every job on a work site, no matter how small or simple. Often, to address practical constraints of this implementation, an employer should assess the most critical jobs first.
• Break the job down into a clearly defined sequence. Risk can only be assessed with a full understanding of the job being analyzed. Defining the steps of a job can not only help determine the dangers associated with it, but it can also more clearly prepare the workers performing the tasks to complete the steps properly.
• Identify the potential hazards associated with each task in the job. It’s important to develop the list of hazards in the order that they are encountered by workers performing the job. Additionally, the workers themselves should be consulted for insight.
• Develop preventative measures to protect workers from hazards. This step can be further broken down into four common strategies:
  • Eliminate the hazard.
  • Contain the hazard.
  • Revise the work procedures to reduce risk.
  • Reduce hazard exposure.

Can JSAs Make a Workplace Safer?

Because a JSA’s main purpose is to define the safest way to complete a task, or a series of tasks, it is an integral part of maintaining a safe working environment.

Representing Workers Injured on the Job

At Arnold & Itkin, we are known far and wide for our commitment to our clients. Our lawyers fight for what’s right, and when a worker is injured due to their employer’s negligence, we put our experience to use to achieve the best possible outcome for our clients and their families.

If you have been injured on the job, contact our personal injury lawyers at Arnold & Itkin to schedule a consultation. We’re here for you.