What is the purpose of a Job Safety Analysis (JSA)?

A Job Safety Analysis (JSA) serves the critical function of identifying potential hazards associated with specific job tasks and establishing a plan to mitigate those identified risks. This proactive approach ensures a safer working environment by systematically breaking down tasks to evaluate the risks involved, which can lead to accidents or injuries. By recognizing these hazards in advance, a JSA allows teams to develop strategies and implement safety measures that can be applied before work begins, thereby promoting a culture of safety and minimizing the possibility of incidents on the job site.

While scheduling project work, training new employees, and conducting safety audits are certainly important components of overall operations and safety management, they do not capture the primary purpose of a JSA, which is centered on hazard identification and risk mitigation.