Understanding your FLHA · Lesson 9 of 11
We signed the FLHA. Can we start work now?
Before work starts, the crew checks that the controls are in place and working. An FLHA, or Field Level Hazard Assessment, helps your crew find hazards and decide how to control them. It only helps when those controls are actually put in place.
FLHA · Their form
After the form
- Before work starts Make sure the controls are done. This lesson
- If something changes Look at the form again. Lesson 10
Why check before you start
Writing a control down does not make it happen. Someone may be busy. Someone may think another person did it. The only way to know is to check.
The crew loads the first boxes onto the cart. Before the cart goes into room 3, Maria walks ahead to look at the floor.
Most of the water is gone. One corner is still wet.
Maria tells the supervisor. The crew keeps clear of that corner while it is cleaned up. Before the boxes go into room 3, Maria checks that the floor is dry.
Two ways to start work
"We signed it, so let's go."
Why: The form says the water will be cleaned up. Nobody has checked if it was.
Checking that each control is in place, then starting the work it covers.
Why: Maria found the wet corner before anyone walked on it with a heavy cart.
The water is one example. The same check can help with every control on the form.
Some controls you can check by looking, like a dry floor. Others need a check by a qualified person, a test, or a sign-off. Your site decides how each control is checked.
If a control is missing or not working, tell your supervisor, or use your site's way of reporting it, before the work it covers starts. Your employer's procedures and site rules decide what happens next.
On your next FLHA
Before work starts, try reading each control on the form and asking: "Is this in place? Is it working? How do we know?"
This is general information. It does not replace employer procedures, site rules, or regulations.