It's an easy habit to slide into: something feels hazardous, so the answer becomes "wear more PPE." NFPA 70E's Job Hazard Analysis (JHA) process is built specifically to interrupt that habit, by working through a hierarchy of controls in order - and PPE sits dead last.
The hierarchy, in order
- Elimination - remove the hazard entirely. In electrical work, this almost always means: can the task be done de-energized? If yes, it must be.
- Substitution - swap in a lower-voltage or lower-energy alternative where the task allows it.
- Engineering controls - remote racking, insulating barriers, remote monitoring: physical measures that keep a worker further from the hazard.
- Awareness - labeling, signage, written boundaries that make the hazard visible before someone walks into it.
- Administrative controls - procedures, permits, training, the two-person rule for particularly hazardous energized work.
- PPE - worn by the individual worker, and the last line of defense if everything above it still leaves residual risk.
PPE sits at the bottom for a specific reason: it doesn't eliminate the hazard, it only reduces the severity of injury if something goes wrong anyway. A company (or a worker) that jumps straight to "more PPE" without working through the higher-level controls first isn't following the actual intent of NFPA 70E, even if the PPE itself is correctly rated.
What a JHA actually determines
Before any tools come out, a proper JHA works out: the shock risk and which approach boundaries apply, the arc flash risk and expected incident energy, whether any special operating condition adds requirements on top of the baseline, and only then, what PPE and tools the task actually needs given everything above. PPE selection is the output of the analysis, not the starting point.
What a JHA is not
It's not primarily a paperwork exercise. The analytical steps - identifying hazards, determining boundaries, selecting PPE based on those boundaries - are the actual hazard analysis. Documenting that the form got filled out, or confirming compliance with a workplace policy document, matters operationally but isn't itself the analysis. Depending on site policy, formal documentation of every single JHA isn't always mandatory - but skipping the analysis itself is never acceptable, paperwork or not.
The full hierarchy of controls, JHA scope, and applied decision-making scenarios (is energized work justified, which boundary applies, what to do about an unlabeled lock) are in the Study Guide, with practice questions in the Exam Companion.
Standard reference: NFPA 70E 2024, Art. 110.5.