A human factors approach to safety differs from traditional safety training in that the focus is less with the technical knowledge and skills required to perform specific tasks, but rather with the cognitive and interpersonal skills needed to effectively manage a team-based, high-risk activity.

A key objective is to equip the workforce with a range of non-technical skills that complement technical competency and include teamwork, situational awareness, decision making, communication and workload and fatigue management.

All staff need to recognise that human error is inevitable and that cooperative and collaborative teams are the greatest asset to achieving safety and high reliability in complex or hazardous work environments. At all levels within the workforce there should be an understanding of the human causes of error and an ability to take a more proactive approach to the avoidance, trapping and mitigating of errors.

The HF foundation course is typically 1 day of training and is suitable for employees working at all levels in safety and performance critical organisations. The training uses classroom facilitation and practical exercises, including group discussions and incident reviews to analyse the impact of human factors in the working environment, with consideration of the entire team and all supporting services. This course is usually delivered in-company and the syllabus content may be adjusted to suit the specific needs of the organisation. A typical syllabus will cover:

HF Foundation Course - typical syllabus
  • Human error
  • Workload management
  • Teamwork and behaviour
  • Communication
  • Decision making
  • Fatigue management
  • Situational awareness
  • Vigilance
  • Threat and error management
  • Industry case study
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