“There is an essential human factor in every business endeavour.” – Bill Gates

As humans, we are prone to making mistakes. Our attention can waver, and we may overlook critical information. We can become distracted, tired, unmotivated, or preoccupied. Miscommunication and misunderstandings are part of our daily lives, highlighting the importance of understanding and managing human factors in the workplace.

What are Human Factors?

Human factors are about making sure that people, tasks, equipment, and the work environment all work well together. It involves understanding and managing the capabilities and limitations of people within their working environment. Using scientific knowledge and lessons from past incidents, this approach aims to improve health, safety, well-being, and overall system performance and process reliability.

While we can’t change the fundamental nature of humans, we can design activities, equipment, processes, and procedures to accommodate human imperfections and embrace human strengths. It’s about controlling everything we can control to support optimal human performance.

This is particularly key within complex organisations and systems, or a high-stakes environment where the consequences of errors can be severe. In the NHS, for example, where we deliver Human Factor Training, understanding human factors is vital in minimising risk; it helps create environments that support healthcare workers in delivering safe, effective, and patient-centred care.

It also supports a healthy, functional workplace culture. In the case of the NHS, rather than blaming individual healthcare workers for mistakes, human factors focus on system design and organisational culture to prevent errors and enhance overall performance.

By making it easy for people to do the right thing and difficult to do the wrong thing, human factors can make work safer, healthier, and more productive.

Training Human Factors

Our Human Factors training helps organisations to build better defences into their systems to prevent or reduce the likelihood of serious error. Simply telling employees to “take more care” is not enough. Effective human performance optimisation goes beyond disciplinary actions and consequences. It includes job and equipment design, clear procedures, and thorough training. This includes:

• Understanding why we make mistakes.
• Improving safety within teams and an organisation.
• Enhancing teamwork and communication.
• Identifying what went wrong.
• Predicting potential future problems.
• Improving the design of the systems and processes we work with.

The training focuses on three fundamental areas: the work being done, the people doing it, and the organisation they work in. Each of these elements is important for workplace safety, efficiency, and effectiveness. If the work, people, and organisational aspects are not well-aligned, human performance can decline, leading to increased errors:

• Work Factors: Poorly designed equipment, frequent interruptions, unclear instructions, and a stressful work environment can all lead to errors.
• People Factors: Low skill levels, fatigue, disengagement, and the inability of individuals to speak out can have an impact.
• Organisational Factors: Inefficient planning processes, hierarchical structures limiting communication, lack of safety systems, ineffective communication, and a weak safety culture can lead to accidents.

This tri-approach not only enhances safety and productivity but also contributes to a more positive and resilient workplace culture.

Human factors training also encompasses broader inquiries, such as why people violate rules, take risks, and how accidents occur. Understanding these human behaviours aids in creating improved systems, anticipating potential issues, and averting future incidents.

Who needs Human Factors Training?

Human factors training is crucial for anyone involved in designing, managing, or working within complex systems, but it is beneficial to everyone.

Industries like oil, gas, engineering, nuclear, transport, healthcare, and finance each possess distinct attributes that set them apart. However, the human, management, and organisational factors are not always unique. These industries have much in common and a great deal to learn from each other regarding human factors.

For example, one of the most documented cases of human factor incidents is NASA and the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. In February 2003, whilst trying to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere after a space mission, the shuttle disintegrated, resulting in the loss of all seven crew members. The investigation into the disaster revealed human factors issues that contributed to the tragedy, including NASA’s then-organisational culture which seemingly discouraged dissent and risk reporting. This ultimately prevented critical information from reaching decision-makers. In addition, the fact NASA was operating under intense pressure to keep to a launch schedule meant safety concerns were downplayed in favour of delivery.

Whilst incidents that take place at high-risk, high-profile organisations such as NASA might not seem initially relative to non-rocket scientists, there is a lot to take from their experiences and learnings on an operational level. Since Columbia, NASA’s broader effort to address the human element in space missions acknowledges that even with advanced technology, human performance and decision-making are critical to mission success. The same can be said within healthcare, banking, nuclear, aviation and many other fields.

By equipping individuals across your organisation with the skills to understand and address people’s limitations and strengths, human factors training helps create environments that are not only safer but also more efficient and effective, ultimately reducing errors, improving performance, and ensuring the overall reliability of complex workplace systems.

At Pro-Noctis, we work with organisations and businesses to support positive company cultures, internal functionality and effective leadership – this includes Human Factors training and guidance. We can help you improve your people management, interpret your staff feedback and drive your workplace functionality.

Get in touch today to discuss the opportunities for your organisation.