What is an after-action report?
An after-action report is a written look back at a drill or a real emergency: what was supposed to happen, what did happen, and what will change.
What it means.
The phrase comes from emergency management rather than from OSHA. The emergency action plan standard, 29 CFR 1910.38, does not use it and sets no drill interval. What the standard does require is a review of the plan with each covered employee when the plan is developed or the employee is assigned to the job, when the employee's responsibilities under the plan change, and when the plan is changed.
One OSHA standard does name a look back. An emergency response plan under the HAZWOPER standard, 29 CFR 1910.120, must cover critique of response and follow-up. Outside that standard, an after-action report is good practice rather than a named federal form.
Critique of response and follow-up
Where it shows up on a job.
After a fire drill, an evacuation or a chemical release, the person who ran it writes down the timeline, who was accounted for and when, what slowed the count, and what the site will change. The useful ones end with named actions and dates rather than general lessons.
Where this comes from.
Each source was read on 22 October 2026. Guidance is advice; a regulation is the rule.
- 29 CFR 1910.38Code of Federal Regulations, Title 29. Regulation. Plan review, and the absence of any drill interval or after-action wording.
- 29 CFR 1910.120(q)(2)(x)Code of Federal Regulations, Title 29. Regulation. Critique of response and follow-up in a HAZWOPER emergency response plan.
A plain-language definition, not legal advice. For a decision on your site, read the standard that applies to it.
Related terms
- emergency action plan
An emergency action plan is the written plan that says how people report an emergency, how they get out, who stays to shut things down, and how everyone is accounted for afterwards.
- headcount
A headcount is the check, after people have left, that everyone who should be accounted for is, with the names and last known locations of anyone missing passed to whoever is in charge.
- corrective action
A corrective action is the specific fix assigned after a hazard, near miss or incident, with a person responsible, a due date and a check that it was actually done.
- incident
An incident is an unplanned event at work that hurt someone or could have: a fatality, an injury, an illness or a close call.
In PanoraEmergency muster: Start an event, account for everyone at the muster point on a tablet, and keep the after-action report.