What is the difference between an FLHA, a JHA and a JSA?

An FLHA, or Field Level Hazard Assessment, usually helps the crew check today's work and today's conditions. A JHA or JSA looks at a job, often step by step, to find the hazards and decide how to control them. They can overlap, and sites use the names differently. This lesson gives a simple way to tell them apart.

A simple way to think about them

Here is a rule of thumb. It is a way to think about the names, not a legal definition.

Some paperwork plans how a task is usually done. It often exists before the work starts, and it is used again for the same kind of job.

Some paperwork is the crew's check for today. The crew looks at this job, in this place, in today's conditions.

The two can overlap. A site may use more than one form on the same morning, and one site's JSA can look like another site's FLHA.

The names

• FLHA (Field Level Hazard Assessment): usually the crew's check of the hazards and controls for today's work, in today's conditions.
• FLRA (Field Level Risk Assessment): on many sites, a similar check under another name. Some forms also ask how serious each hazard is.
• Pre-task plan: a broad name for going over a task before it starts. What it looks like depends on the employer or the site.
• JSA (Job Safety Analysis) and JHA (Job Hazard Analysis): often used for similar things. They look at a job, find the hazards, and decide how to control them. They may break the job into steps.
• SWP (Safe Work Procedure): written instructions for how a task is done, including the steps to follow and the controls for it, such as safety equipment.

Names and forms differ from one employer to another, and from one province to another. Your supervisor can tell you which ones your site uses, and what each one is for.

How they work together

Paperwork prepared ahead of time does not replace looking at today's work and today's conditions.

Here is an example.

In this example, your employer has a written procedure for moving materials with a cart. It describes the usual way to do the task.

Today there is water on the floor in room 3, and other workers are walking through the hallway. The written procedure is still useful, but it was not written with today in mind.

The crew records the wet floor and the people walking through the hallway on today's FLHA. Together, they decide what controls are needed and check that those controls are in place before moving the boxes.

Two ways to think about them