Human and Organisational Factors Committee activities
The Committee's strategy is focussed on producing resources that will be of use to the industry. Its work commenced by establishing what relevant research studies and practical tools are being developed and providing information to meet industry's needs; this helped to define gaps in knowledge.
Completed projects
Fatigue
Guidance document and research report on fatigue:
Improving alertness through effective fatigue management and Viability of using sleep contracts as a control measure in fatigue management.
Human factors awareness: web-based training course
This free to access web-based course aims to build awareness of human and organisational factors issues amongst those working in industry and who are responsible for people and/or safety, including senior managers, managers, supervisors, and operators. Spanning 11 modules covering the HSE key topics, it introduces pertinent human factors issues, provides case studies, common problems and solutions. It also tests users' learning with a series of short assessment questions.
Human factors in decommissioning
Decommissioning a power plant is a potentially hazardous process. This guidance aims to steer the user through the types of human factors considerations that should be taken into account during the various phases of decommissioning a facility. The example given is of a nuclear power plant; however, whilst the docommissioning phases, activities and terminology used are nuclear specific, most are also relevant across wider energy industry sectors.
Human Factors Briefing Notes
A series of briefing notes covering a variety of human factors topics, designed to introduce the issues to the reader and help them begin to make improvements. Revised for 2011.
Human factors performance indicators
A joint industry research project to explore the use of human factors performance indicators in industry, and to develop a methodology for selecting performance indicators for each of the HSE's key human factors issues.
Safety Information Bulletins
To encourage information sharing on the successful application of human factors methodologies to petroleum and allied industries operations, the Energy Institute Human Factors Working Group, with the support of EI technical partners, commissioned an external consultant to establish a series of Safety information bulletins based on lessons learned from incidents or near misses; new methods of working; or, novel human factors techniques.
Human failure types
An interactive e-learning tool exploring the different types of human failure, and providing guidance on how to handle such failures. ‘Human error’ is not an adequate description of human failure in behavioural and process safety – it is important to understand the different types of human failures and their causes in order to minimise those failures.
Incident and accident investigation
Guidance on investigating human factors aspects of incidents/accidents, focusing on the human factors investigation needs of incident/accident investigators who may need to select an investigation tool.
Safety critical task analysis
Guidance publication on incorporating human factors into safety critical task assessments (SCTA). This publication includes a step-by-step process for conducting SCTA, case studies, example outputs, as well as examples of good and bad practice.
Safe staffing arrangements
The staffing arrangements toolbox has been developed to provide those in the petroleum and allied major hazard industries with the resources necessary to better determine staffing arrangements in control rooms and similar locations.
Top ten Human Factors issues and resources
This webpage provides access to listings of resources in support of HSE’s top ten most pertinent human factors issues facing onshore major hazards sites in the chemical and allied industries.
Workforce involvement
Development of guidance on effective workforce involvement. Simple guidance on how to achieve effective workforce involvement, identifying available resources. Guidance is accompanied by a set of workforce invovlement posters and a 'campaign note' providing guidance on running a workforce involvement awareness campaign.
Current projectsGuidance on quantification of human failure in risk assessment (including SIL determination) - Integration of human factors into major hazards operations subject to safety cases/reports requires use of robust data in risk assessments; however, there lacks practical information on the use of human error probability (HEP) data in human reliability analysis (HRA). This project aims to develop practical guidance on quantification of human failure in risk assessment for a primary audience who need to be competent ‘intelligent customers’, whether such services are provided in-house or using external resource. Expected end Q1 2012. This project is being directed by the SILs/LOPAs Working Group and includes representation from HOFCOM. Human factors foundation course - this project aims to develop material for a human factors training course, to address the lack of basic competence and knowledge of human factors issues and methodologies of those working in industry. A preliminary workshop has taken place to develop a course syllabus. Expected completion of the project is Q2 2012. Guidance on crew resource management and non-technical skills - this project aims to highlight good practice on crew resource management (CRM) and non-technical skills (notechs) in the energy industry, clarifying the topics CRM/notechs training should cover and allowing the reader to act as an intelligent customer when appropriating CRM services. Expected completion of the project is Q4 2012. Improving alertness through effective fatigue management - first released in 2006, this project aims to review and update this publication for 2012. Expected completion of the project is Q4 2012. Research 1. Learning from incidents: A social approach to reducing incidents in the workplace - investigating and developing new approaches to enhancing learning from health and safety incidents in the industrial workplace. 2. The influence of senior management on safety performance: Differentiating the good from the great safety leaders - the resilience of senior managers to maintain an appropriate prioritisation of safety against competing business drivers. |
Other resources
These comprise of introductory information, case studies, workshop reports and guidance not covered above.
- Refining Human Factors: analysis of the human factors issues in the Baker and CSB reports, set against the key human factors issues used by the Human and Organisational Factors Committee.
- Report on workshop on human factors in the petroleum industry, Nov 2002 (priced publication)
- EI Human Factors Behavioural Safety Workshop January 2007 (free online)
- Prescriptive medicine and human performance, Nov 1999 (priced publication)
- Psychological wellbeing in the workplace, Mar 1999 (priced publication)
Other Energy Institute Human Factors related projects
- Energy Institute Managed Joint Industry Project: Development of a Maintenance Management Capability Maturity Model (C4M)
- Guidance on reducing human failure in petroleum product distribution loading and unloading operations, Nov 2009 (priced publication)
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