Job Hazard AnalysisJHA / JSA

A Job Hazard Analysis — also called Job Safety Analysis (JSA) or, in Australia, a Safe Work Method Statement (SWMS) — breaks a task into steps, identifies the hazard in each step, and assigns a control to each hazard before the work starts. The structure is task steps, hazards per step, controls per step, residual risk. A JHA done at a desk by a safety lead is a draft; a JHA reviewed on-site by the crew performing the work, with the actual tools and the actual conditions in front of them, is the document that prevents the incident.

The common JHA failure is that it becomes a template — the same generic steps and the same generic controls pasted for every task, signed and filed without engaging the specific hazards of the specific job. A JHA that does not change when the conditions change is evidence against the program, not for it. Tying the JHA to a permit-to-work, so the controls it lists are the controls the permit enforces, is what closes the loop between the analysis and the work. See hazard, permit to work, and hierarchy of controls.