Template

Job hazard analysis (JHA/JSA) template

A blank JHA form you can print and use today, and the two things that decide whether it works: how finely you break the job into steps, and how you choose the controls.

Regulatory status A job hazard analysis is a recommended OSHA practice, not a federal requirement. No standard prescribes this form or any other.

EHSTEC Reviewed for technical accuracy by a Certified Safety Professional Published 23 September 2026

A JHA breaks a job into its steps, names the hazard at each step, and records the control that removes or reduces it before anyone starts work. The form below is blank on purpose — a template that arrives with example hazards already filled in gets carried to a jobsite exactly as printed.

Job hazard analysis

Organization / site:

1 · Job details

Job / task* One job per sheet. Name the work, not the department.

Location / area

Date

Supervisor / competent person

2 · Hazard assessment

PPE codes — HH hard hat · EYE eye protection · GLV gloves · HV hi-vis · FALL fall protection · RESP respirator · OTH other (write it in). These are a starting point, not a complete list.

One row per task step, in the order the work happens. Add a second sheet rather than cramming steps together.
Step	Task step*	Potential hazards	Risk level*	Controls / safe work procedure	Required PPE
1			Low Med High
2			Low Med High
3			Low Med High
4			Low Med High
5			Low Med High

* Task step and risk level are the two fields this analysis cannot be read without. A step with no risk level recorded is a step nobody decided about.

3 · Sign-off

All hazards identified above have adequate controls in place:

Yes No — work does not proceed until they do

Reviewed and approved by (name)

Signature

Date

Reviewed with the crew doing the work — names

Job hazard analysis template — ehstec.com/resources/job-hazard-analysis-template · Published 23 September 2026. Customize before use. A recommended practice, not a federal requirement; completing it does not establish compliance.

How to use this form

Pick the job. Start with the jobs that have already hurt someone, the ones with no written procedure, and the ones people describe as "you just have to be careful".
Break it into steps. Watch the job being done if you can. Write what happens, in order. See below — this is where most JHAs go wrong.
Name the hazard at each step. Not "injury" — the energy or condition that would cause it: the stored pressure, the unguarded edge, the load overhead.
Assess the risk. Low, medium or high, judged on how likely harm is and how bad it would be. The label matters less than the conversation that produces it.
Choose the controls. Work down the hierarchy below. PPE is the last line, not the first answer.
Review it with the people who do the work. They will tell you about the step you wrote down wrong, and they are the reason the analysis gets followed.

Breaking a job into steps

Step granularity is the single most common reason a JHA is useless, and it fails in both directions.

Too coarse: "Install guardrail." That is the job, not a step. Every hazard is hidden inside it, so the analysis has nothing to attach a control to.
Too fine: thirty steps down to "pick up drill". Nobody reads it, and the hazards that matter are buried among the ones that do not.

A workable step is a distinct action with its own hazard and its own control — usually somewhere between five and fifteen for a job you can describe in a sentence. If two consecutive steps would carry the same hazard and the same control, they are one step. If a single step needs two unrelated controls, it is two steps.

Choosing controls: work down, not up

The hierarchy of controls, as published by NIOSH, ranks controls by how much they depend on people behaving correctly. The further down the list, the more the control relies on someone remembering, every time, under pressure.

Elimination — remove the hazard. Do the work at ground level instead of at height; specify a different process.
Substitution — replace it with something less hazardous.
Engineering controls — isolate people from the hazard: guards, interlocks, ventilation, barriers.
Administrative controls — change how people work: procedures, permits, sequencing, exposure rotation, training.
PPE — protect the individual when the hazard is still present.

If every control on the sheet is PPE, the analysis is not finished

PPE is the last line because it protects one person, only while worn correctly, and fails silently. It is often necessary and it is rarely sufficient. A row whose only control is "wear gloves" is usually a row where nobody asked what would remove the hazard instead.

Three worked examples

Hypothetical, for illustration only. These are not EHSTEC customer data, not an industry standard, and not a substitute for analysing your own job with the people who do it. Your equipment, site, crew and jurisdiction will change every row.

Example 1 — Replacing a damaged guardrail at a loading dock

Task step	Potential hazards	Risk	Controls	PPE
Close the dock bay and barricade the opening	Vehicle enters the bay during work; fall through the open edge	High	Bay taken out of service and tagged at the yard board; hard barricade set back from the edge before the rail comes out	HH, HV
Remove the damaged rail section	Unprotected edge once the rail is out; section falls to the level below	High	Personal fall arrest anchored to a rated point; drop zone below closed off; section tethered before the last fixing is released	HH, HV, FALL, GLV
Cut and fit the replacement section	Hot work sparks; metal fragments to the eye; cuts on cut edges	Med	Combustibles cleared to 35 ft or covered; fire watch posted; cut edges dressed before handling	HH, EYE, GLV
Reinstate and load-check the rail	Rail appears sound but is not fixed to specification	Med	Second person verifies fixings against the drawing; bay stays out of service until sign-off	HH, HV

Example 2 — Changing a blade on a press that must be de-energised

Task step	Potential hazards	Risk	Controls	PPE
Shut down and isolate all energy sources	Unexpected start-up; stored hydraulic and gravitational energy released	High	The machine's written energy-control procedure followed; every source locked and tagged; stored energy bled and the ram blocked	HH, EYE, GLV
Verify zero energy	Isolation assumed rather than proven	High	Try-step performed at the controls after locking; verification recorded by the person who applied the lock	EYE, GLV
Remove the worn blade	Laceration on the cutting edge; blade drops	Med	Blade handled with a carrier, never bare-handed; two people for the lift; edge sheathed as soon as it is clear	EYE, GLV
Fit the new blade, remove locks, test-run	Person still inside the guard when power returns	High	Guard replaced and interlock proved before locks come off; each person removes their own lock; area cleared and called before the test cycle	EYE, GLV

Energy control is governed by its own OSHA standard with its own written-procedure, training and periodic-inspection requirements. A JHA sits alongside that procedure; it does not replace it, and nothing on this page satisfies it.

Example 3 — Moving palletised stock by forklift in a shared aisle

Task step	Potential hazards	Risk	Controls	PPE
Pre-use inspection of the truck	Defective brakes, horn, forks or mast taken into service	Med	Documented pre-shift check; any defect takes the truck out of service rather than onto a watch list	HH, HV
Assess the load and the route	Load beyond capacity or unstable; pedestrians in the aisle; blind corner	High	Load checked against the data plate; route walked; aisle designated one-way for the move; spotter at the blind corner	HV
Travel with the load	Struck-by; load tips at a turn; restricted forward view	High	Forks low and tilted back; travel in reverse where the load blocks the view; horn at every intersection; no pedestrian passage while the truck is moving	HH, HV
Place the load and withdraw	Racking overloaded; pallet overhangs the beam; stack destabilised	Med	Rack capacity posted and checked; pallet seated square on both beams; stack height limit observed	HH, HV

JHA or JSA?

The same practice under two names. OSHA's own publication is explicit — it describes "job hazard analyses, also known as job safety analyses" — so this template serves both, and no field on it changes depending on which acronym your organization uses. Some organizations do draw a distinction in practice; if the terminology matters where you work, the differences are set out in JHA vs JSA.

What this template does not do

It does not know your workplace. Your equipment, site, crew, shift patterns and jurisdiction are not in it. Customize it before anyone relies on it.
It does not make anyone a competent person. Where a standard requires a qualified or competent person, that comes from training and experience, not from a form.
It does not satisfy any hazard-specific standard. Fall protection, energy control, confined space entry and PPE assessment each carry their own written and training requirements. A completed JHA sits alongside those; it does not discharge them.
Completing it does not establish compliance. It is a hazard-analysis record, not evidence that a workplace is safe or that any requirement has been met.

Sources

This is a template, not legal advice

Nothing here is endorsed, approved or reviewed by OSHA, and using this form does not make an employer compliant with any standard. Which hazards are present in your work, and which controls are adequate, are judgements this page cannot make. See our editorial standards for how this content is written and reviewed.

Running JHAs in EHSTEC

This structure — job details, task steps with hazards, risk level, controls and PPE, then a sign-off — is the job hazard analysis template that ships in EHSTEC's form library. In the platform an analysis is assigned to a person, completed on a phone, tablet or laptop, signed, and retained against the job, so last quarter's analysis for the same work is something you can find rather than something in a filing cabinet. See how job hazard analysis works in EHSTEC.