Human Factors

We are all human. Our actions have consequences and those actions can be influenced by many factors. The Step Change in Safety Human Factors Workgroup seeks to understand and appreciate how mental and physical limitations can impact on safe working activities.

Human factors is an established science that incorporates many disciplines, including anatomy, physiology, physics and biomechanics, to understand how people perform in different situations. It also explores the relationship between humans and the tools and equipment they use in the workplace and their working environment.

The objective of the Human Factors Workgroup is to improve the basic knowledge and understanding of human factors to ensure that human factor-related risks are properly managed and controlled through practical application.

Along with working with the industry, the Human Factors workgroup is committed to sharing knowledge and findings with regulators.

Contact Workgroup

To contact the Human Factors workgroup, e-mail info@stepchangeinsafety.net

Human Factors Online Assessment Tool

Human Factors; How to take the next steps – is designed to be relevant to everyone working in the oil and gas industry. It allows companies, worksites and individuals to explore their current relationship with human factors in order to understand where their strengths lie and identify areas for improvement.

Visit the assessment portal

Human Performance Oil and Gas

We have partnered with HPOG in our mission to improve safety through engagement, leadership and collaboration in the UKCS.

Workscope

Our Human Factors workgroup supports companies and individuals in improving safety performance within the oil and gas industry by demonstrating how a range of human factors can impact safety.

An integral part of the workgroup is the free Human Factors online self-assessment tool, which enables companies, worksites and individuals to audit their relationship with different human factors. It helps guide people towards improving their safety performance.

The workgroup reviews the information collected from the free online self-assessment tool to ensure that relevant Safety Alerts, Safety Moments and case studies are produced to address issues raised.

The workgroup works in conjunction with other Step Change in Safety workgroups, helping to highlight the important role of Human Factors. It also holds a quarterly forum to review industry themes and share learnings openly and honestly, with lessons from incidents shared by the HSE.

A series of Webinars and Forums are held throughout each year and can be booked here: Step Change in Safety | Events . These events offer an opportunity to learn more about the work being done by the workgroup and allow attendees to gain a better understanding of how to apply human factors within their organisation. Visit the events page for more information.

Step Change in Safety is committed to working with the UK oil and gas industry to continually improve safety and make the region the safest oil and gas province in the world in which to work. The Human Factors workgroup is helping to achieve that.

WORKGROUP LEADERSHIP

David Jamieson
Human Factors Lead
Shell UK Ltd
David Jamieson is Human Factors Lead at Shell, a Chartered Member of the Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors and he has 23 years of experience of working in Human Factors, firstly in consultancy and for the last 12 years with Shell Upstream UK. While at Shell, David has developed the strategy and been responsible for the HF programme of work for the business, including safety critical task analysis, HF input to investigations, organisational change, HF in projects and HF assurance.
David has been involved with the Step Change HF Working Group since around 2015 in which time he has been working with the team to actively promote best human factors practice in a way which will provide real practical value to Step Change member companies.
Dr. Jared Dempsey
Director of Kognivate
Kognivate
An industrial psychologist, Jared has spent over 20 years researching, teaching and consulting in the area of human behaviour and human factors. He has a fascination with how people manage risk. Chartered by the British Psychological Society and a Fellow with the Higher Education Academy, Dr. Dempsey is passionate about making human factors accessible and meaningful for everyone.

Human Factors Sub-topics

At Step Change in Safety we have divided Human Factors in 12 more manageable sub-topics that cover people, plant and process.

LEADERSHIP AND BEHAVIOURAL SAFETY

Behavioural safety aims to promote safe working behaviours and prevent practices which are unsafe, through observation and individual feedback.

CRITICAL COMMUNICATIONS

Different companies often do similar tasks differently. Understanding the steps a contractor takes to complete a task is crucial to identifying hazards, risks and controls.

FATIGUE

Fatigue means tiredness. A fatigued person is likely to be less alert, slower in processing information and reacting, and potentially making more mistakes.

HUMAN FACTORS IN DESIGN

Design can impact human performance. Poorly designed systems, plant, equipment or instructions can cause frustration or ill health, impacting safety.

INCIDENT INVESTIGATION

Incorporating human factors into incident investigation is crucial. Identifying the underlying cause is key to learning from and preventing similar incidents.

LEARNING FROM NORMAL WORK

To improve safety an organisation must continually learn from its own experiences and those of its workforce. Looking beyond its own boundaries can also avoid complacency.

ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE

Organisational change can range in scale and type, while its impact on staff can vary. Identifying how changes could affect safety is crucial when planning such changes.

PROCEDURES

Effective processes and procedures should contain all of the information required to do every aspect of what a company does and should be easy to find, read and understand.

RISK ASSESSMENT

An effective risk assessment should highlight everything that could potentially go wrong in any given situation and is critical to understanding what we are to be involved in.

ALARMS MANAGEMENT

Different types of communication can be critical to safety in the workplace. Ensuring that a message is correctly delivered and understood is as important as delivering it.

STAFFING AND WORKLOAD

People have natural physical and mental limits. If they have too much to do, performance can slow and mistakes can happen. Staff levels and workload can be linked to safety.

TRAINING AND COMPETENCE

Although related, training and competence are separate things. Training is one of many important inputs into competency. Being trained does not equal being competent.

Human Factors Online Assessment Tool

The Human Factors online assessment tool – Human Factors; How to take the next steps – is designed to be relevant to everyone working in the oil and gas industry. It allows companies, worksites and individuals to explore their current relationship with human factors in order to understand where their strengths lie and identify areas for improvement.

Each question set takes no longer than 10 minutes to complete. Upon completion of each question set you receive instant feedback on each of the categories assessed. All of the data which is collected remains anonymous.

This tool is free for members and their workforce to use, and aims to guide people towards improving their safety performance.

Visit the Human Factors online assessment portal to get started

Download Human Factors Case Studies

A selection of human factors case studies, available to download, which may provide a safety moment for your meetings. Download all 12 in one file or each individually.

Cross-Industry Knowledge Sharing

Worker fatigue is an issue of concern in any industry. Here are some useful examples from other industries in managing fatigue, including PDF files - kindly provided by external organisations - and links to webinars on our YouTube channel.

VIDEO OF EVENT PRESENTATION

Human Factors in Medicine

Consultant Surgeon Mr Manoj Kumar a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons delivered a presentation on how patient safety is addressed in the medical industry.

Watch on YouTube

Cross Industry Sharing Human Factors in Nuclear

VIDEO OF EVENT PRESENTATION

Human Factors in the Nuclear Industry

At our Human Factors and Competence event in 2017, Stephen Kennedy from EDF Energy delivered a presentation on human factors in the nuclear industry.

Watch on YouTube

PDF DOCUMENT DOWNLOAD

Fatigue Checklist for investigating tired driver crashes

Download PDF

Latest Alerts & Moments

Our searchable catalogue of hundreds of Safety Alerts and Safety Moments are all designed as learning resources that can help improve workplace safety.