What is the difference between a JSA and a JHA?

Nothing that matters in practice. Job safety analysis, job hazard analysis and job safety risk assessment are names for the same method: break a job into steps, find the hazards at each step and set controls. Some companies use JSA for the form and JHA for the process, but the content is the same.

Who should fill in a job safety analysis?

The people who do the job, with their supervisor and someone from safety. The workers know the shortcuts and the awkward steps that a desk review misses.

What is the hierarchy of controls?

An order for choosing controls, from the strongest to the weakest: eliminate the hazard, substitute something less hazardous, engineering controls such as guards, administrative controls such as procedures and training, and PPE. Try the top of the list first.

How is the risk score worked out?

Severity times likelihood, each scored from 1 to 5, gives a score from 1 to 25. This template bands it as low (1 to 4), medium (5 to 9), high (10 to 16) and very high (20 to 25). Use your company's own scale and bands if it has them.

Is a JSA required by law?

It depends on where you work and what the job is. In the US, OSHA publishes a guide to job hazard analysis, and many companies and customers require one. Check the regulations that apply to your site.

Free template

Job safety analysis (JSA) template

A job safety analysis (JSA) breaks one job into its steps, lists what could go wrong at each step, and records the controls that make it safe. The same method goes by several names: job hazard analysis (JHA), job safety risk assessment (JSRA) or task risk assessment. The names are used interchangeably, and the sheet is the same. This template scores each hazard for severity and likelihood from 1 to 5 before the controls, asks for controls from the top of the hierarchy (eliminate, substitute, engineer, administrative controls, then PPE), and scores the risk again with the controls in place. Page 2 has more rows, the PPE for the job, the rating guide and a sign-off for the people briefed on it. The Excel version works out both risk scores and their bands, and flags any step still high after the controls.

Free to use: print it, copy it and edit it for your team. Enter your name and work email once to download.

Page 1 of the job safety analysis template: fields for the job, area, date and who prepared it, a key for the risk bands and control types, and a table with columns for the job step, hazards, severity, likelihood and risk before, the controls and their type, risk after and who makes sure. — Job steps and hazardsRisk before: severity × likelihoodControls by the hierarchyRisk afterPPE for the jobRating guideBriefing sign-off

When to use it

When to use a job safety analysis

Before a new job, a new machine or a changed process goes live.
For jobs with a history of injuries or near misses, and for jobs where a mistake could be serious.
For non-routine work such as maintenance, cleaning inside machines or working at height.
To train a new starter on how a job is done safely, step by step.

How to fill it in

1
Pick the job and the team
One job per sheet. Fill it in with the people who do the job, not only the safety lead.
2
Break it into steps
Watch the job and write the steps in order, in a few words each. Most jobs have five to twelve steps.
3
List the hazards at each step
What could go wrong and who could be hurt: caught in, struck by, cut, lifting strain, a fall, a chemical, noise.
4
Score the risk before controls
Severity (the worst credible outcome) times likelihood, each from 1 to 5, using the guide on page 2.
5
Choose controls, strongest first
Remove the hazard if you can, then substitute, then engineering controls such as guards, then procedures and training, and PPE last. Circle the type.
6
Score again and sign off
Score the risk with the controls in place, list the PPE, and brief the people who do the job before they start.

A filled-in example

Illustrative, not a benchmark

An example: a JSA for changing the coil on a stamping press, filled in by the press team (illustrative scores).

Step: lift the new coil onto the uncoiler. Hazard: the coil rolls or drops onto a foot. Before: severity 4, likelihood 3, risk 12 (high).
Controls: a coil cradle on the forklift (engineering) and a marked no-go zone while lifting (administrative). After: severity 4, likelihood 1, risk 4 (low).
Step: thread the strip into the feeder. Hazard: cuts on the strip edge. Before: 3 × 4 = 12. Controls: cut-resistant gloves and sleeves (PPE). After: 3 × 2 = 6 (medium).
Step: clear a misfeed. Hazard: hand in the die area. Controls: lock out the press and use the hook tool. After: 5 × 1 = 5.

The team signed the JSA at the start of the next shift, and the medium risk on threading went on the list for an engineering fix: a strip guide that keeps hands away from the edge.

Common mistakes

Writing it at a desk
A JSA written without watching the job misses the real hazards. Go to the job with the people who do it.
Steps too broad
"Run the machine" hides the hazards. Break it down until each step is one action.
PPE as the first answer
PPE is the last line of defense. Look for a way to remove or guard the hazard first.
Filed and forgotten
Review the JSA when the job, the equipment or the people change, and after any incident on that job.
Never shown to the crew
A JSA only helps if the people doing the job have been through it. Brief them and have them sign.

Download the template

Free to use: print it, copy it and edit it for your team. Enter your name and work email once to download.

Run this template in LeanSuite

In LeanSuite safety procedures start from marketplace templates, including risk assessments; anyone reports a hazard as a tag from a QR code, and a serious hazard can become a CAPA project with root cause analysis.

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