If you run crews in Alberta construction, the FLHA is likely the form you complete most often — and the first one an Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) officer or COR auditor will ask to see. This guide explains exactly what it is and how to do it properly.
What FLHA stands for
FLHA stands for Field Level Hazard Assessment. It's a short, task-specific hazard assessment completed by the workers doing the job, at the work site, before the work starts. You'll also hear it called a Field Level Risk Assessment (FLRA) or a pre-job hazard assessment — they describe the same thing.
It's different from a formal or site-specific hazard assessment. A formal hazard assessment looks at the whole operation or site; the FLHA zooms in on the specific task in front of the crew, right now, in the conditions that exist today.
Why the FLHA matters under Alberta OHS
Alberta's OHS legislation requires employers to assess a work site and identify existing and potential hazards before work begins, and to take measures to eliminate or control them. The FLHA is how a crew demonstrates that assessment happened at the field level — that the people doing the work actually looked for hazards and put controls in place.
It also directly supports a worker's Right to Know about hazards, one of the three fundamental worker rights protected under the Alberta OHS Act. Completing an FLHA with the crew is a documented way of communicating known and reasonably foreseeable hazards before the shift.
In a COR audit: auditors verify that hazard assessments are conducted, documented, and signed before work begins on every task. Missing or blank FLHAs are one of the most common findings — not because the work was unsafe, but because it wasn't documented.
What goes on an FLHA
A good FLHA is short enough that a crew will actually fill it out, but complete enough to prove the assessment happened. Most include:
- Job and location details — company, project, site, date, and the specific task.
- The crew — who is doing the work, with their sign-off.
- Hazards identified — the actual hazards for this task and these conditions (weather, ground, overhead work, traffic, energized equipment, and so on).
- Risk ranking — a simple assessment of how likely and how severe each hazard is.
- Controls — what will be done to eliminate or control each hazard, following the hierarchy of controls.
- PPE required for the task.
- Sign-off — every worker signs to confirm they took part and understand the hazards and controls.
The hierarchy of controls, briefly
When choosing controls, work top-down: eliminate the hazard, then substitute it, then use engineering controls, then administrative controls, and finally PPE. PPE is the last line of defence, not the first — an FLHA that only ever lists "wear PPE" for every hazard tends to get flagged.
Who fills it out, and when
The crew doing the task completes the FLHA, led by the supervisor or competent worker — not an administrator back at the office. It's completed before the task begins, and it should be revisited if conditions change materially during the day: new weather, a new hazard, a different crew, or a change in scope.
Paper FLHAs vs. digital
The classic failure mode is the paper FLHA: it gets completed on site, photographed, texted at end of day, and then lost. When the OHS officer arrives unannounced, the record for that exact task and date can't be found. Digital FLHAs solve this by filing each submission automatically under the right project and site, with signatures, timestamps, and photos attached — retrievable in seconds.
See a digital FLHA built for Alberta & BC
Berg Safety Management includes a mobile FLHA your crew completes on site, filed automatically and ready for any OHS or COR audit.
Book a DemoThis article is general information, not legal advice. Requirements change and specific obligations depend on your work and jurisdiction. Always refer to the current Alberta OHS Act, Regulation and Code, and WorkSafeBC requirements where applicable. Berg Safety Management is a documentation tool; companies remain responsible for their own compliance.