JHA vs JSA vs AHA — Sorting the Acronyms

Three documents. Mostly the same job. If you've worked US construction or general industry for any length of time, you've been asked for at least two of these — sometimes for the same project, by two different people, on the same day. Here's what each one actually is, and which one you should produce when.

The 30-second version

• JHA — Job Hazard Analysis. OSHA's preferred term since the 2002 release of OSHA Publication 3071. Most federal OSHA inspectors and most GCs use this term.
• JSA — Job Safety Analysis. The older industry term. Same structure as a JHA, often the same template. Still common in oil and gas, refining, and marine.
• AHA — Activity Hazard Analysis. Required on US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) projects under EM 385-1-1. A JHA with additional fields for training and inspection requirements.

If a client asks for a JSA and you hand them a JHA, no one in the field will push back. If a client asks for an AHA on a federal civil works project and you hand them a JHA, you'll get it back marked up.

JHA — Job Hazard Analysis

OSHA Publication 3071 ("Job Hazard Analysis") is the federal reference document. The structure:

1. Break the job into sequenced steps
2. Identify the hazards in each step
3. Specify controls — engineering, administrative, PPE — in that order
4. Review, sign off, and update

JHA is the term most federal OSHA inspectors use. It's the term used in modern GC safety manuals and in most subcontractor prequal questionnaires — see our walkthrough on how to write a JHA for the five-step process.

JSA — Job Safety Analysis

JSA is the original industry term. It predates the JHA terminology by decades, going back to the work of writers like Heinrich in the 1930s. The format is identical to a JHA. The difference is vocabulary.

Why does the term persist?

• Older safety programs, training materials, and templates were written when JSA was universal
• Some industries (oil and gas, refining, marine) prefer JSA culturally
• The American National Standards Institute and ASSP still use JSA in some publications

Practical rule: if your client uses JSA in their forms and SOPs, use JSA on your document. If they use JHA, use JHA. The content doesn't change.

AHA — Activity Hazard Analysis

AHA is required by the US Army Corps of Engineers Safety and Occupational Health Requirements manual, EM 385-1-1 (current edition dated 15 March 2024; paragraph 01.A.14). If you're a contractor on a federal civil works project — dams, levees, military construction, environmental remediation, government building work — you'll be expected to produce AHAs, not JHAs.

The extra fields an AHA requires:

• Training requirements — what training each crew member needs for the activity
• Inspection requirements — what tools and equipment must be inspected, and how often
• Competent / qualified person designation — named individuals responsible for oversight
• Risk Assessment Code (RAC) — a numeric severity × probability score

An AHA is essentially a JHA with the training and inspection columns filled in. If you can write one, you can write the other.

Which one should you use?

What about Pre-Task Plans, JSEAs, FLRAs?

Different industries have evolved variants:

• Pre-Task Plan (PTP) — daily, task-specific version of a JHA, signed by the crew at start of shift
• JSEA (Job Safety and Environmental Analysis) — common in oil and gas, adds environmental hazards
• FLRA (Field Level Risk Assessment) — cross-border / Canadian term, daily field document
• Take 5 / SLAM — informal individual hazard checks before starting a task

These don't replace a JHA. They're done in addition. The JHA is the planning document. The PTP or FLRA is the daily verification that conditions still match the plan.

Bottom line

If you're not sure which to write, write a JHA. It's the OSHA term, it covers the structure everyone expects, and it's the easiest to defend in an audit. Add the AHA fields if a federal contract requires it. Relabel as JSA if the client culture demands it.

Build any of them with Riskora

Riskora outputs JHA format by default and supports JSA labeling. The structure, hazard libraries, and OSHA references are the same — only the document title changes. For USACE projects, the platform includes an AHA template variant with training, inspection, and RAC fields.

Related: What is a JHA · JHA generator · AHA for USACE