03. Human Factors

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The HSE defines human factors as:	“environmental, organisational and job factors, and human and individual characteristics which influence behaviour at work in a way which can affect health and safety.”
A simple way to view human factors is to think about three aspects:	the individual, the job, and the organisation and how they impact on people’s health and safety- related behaviour.
The Organisation 5	Culture, leadership, resources, work patterns, communications……
The individual 5	Competence, skills, personality. attitudes, risk perception……
The job 5	Task, workload, environment, displays and controls, procedures….
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) describes the culture of an organisation as:	“the ideas and beliefs that all members of the organisation share about risk, accidents and ill health."
Some key aspects of an effective culture include: 5	Management commitment Visible management Good communications Active employee participation Effective health and safety training
Factors Influencing Individual Behaviour 6	Attitudes Personality Abilities Motivation Perception Training
People are generally well motivated at work if: 3	they understand the importance of the objectives they are tasked to achieve; the objectives are realistic and achievable; and satisfactory achievement of the objective results in personal fulfilment and/or a tangible reward.
Intentional failures, or deliberate deviation from a rule or procedure, are known as	violations
Unintentional failures are known as	human errors
Active failures	have an immediate consequence and are usually made by front- line people such as drivers, control room staff or machine operators
Latent failures	are distant in time and space from the consequences. They are typically failures in health and safety management systems (design, implementation or monitoring) and are often attributed to designers, decision makers and managers
Violations are divided into three categories:	routine, situational and exceptional
Routine violations occur when	breaking the rule or procedure has become a normal way of working within the work group.
Routine violations can be due to: 5	the desire to cut corners to save time and energy; the perception that the rules are too restrictive; the belief that the rules no longer apply; lack of enforcement of the rule; and new workers starting a job where routine violations are the norm and not realising that this is not the correct way of working.
Situational violations occur when	a rule is broken due to pressures from the job such as being under time pressure, insufficient staff for the workload, the right equipment not being available or even extreme weather conditions.
Exceptional violations	rarely happen and only then when something has gone wrong. When solving a problem during an emergency it may be necessary to break a rule, regardless of the risk, because it is believed that the benefits outweigh the risks
Errors fall into three categories:	slips, lapses and mistakes.
Slips and lapses occur	in very familiar tasks which can be carried out without much need for conscious attention. These tasks are called 'skill-based' and are very vulnerable to errors if attention is diverted, even momentarily.
Slips	are failures in carrying out the actions of a task. They are described as 'actions- not-as planned', e.g. picking up the wrong component from a mixed box, operating the wrong switch, transposing digits when copying out numbers or doing steps in a procedure in the wrong order.
Typical slips might include: 5	performing an action too soon in a procedure or leaving it too late; omitting a step or series of steps from a task; performing the action in the wrong direction (e.g. turning a control knob to the right rather than the left, or moving a switch up rather than down); doing the right thing but on the wrong object (e.g. switching the wrong switch); and carrying out the wrong check but on the right item (e.g. checking a dial but for the wrong value).
Lapses	cause actions to remain undone or workers to lose their place in a task. They can be reduced by minimising distractions and interruptions to tasks and by providing effective reminders especially for tasks which take some time to complete or involve periods of waiting.
Mistakes are	a more complex type of human error where the wrong thing is done in the belief that it is right.
Mistakes may be (2 types)	Rule-based mistakes Knowledge based mistakes
Rule-based mistakes occur	when behaviour is based on remembered rules or familiar procedures. There is a strong tendency to use familiar rules or solutions even when they are not the most convenient or efficient.
Knowledge based mistakes occur	when it is necessary to solve problems from first principles. Misdiagnoses and miscalculations are natural consequences of learning by trial and error.

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