Human Factors According to Health

Human Factors

According to Health and Safety Executive (HSE), "Human factors refer to environmental, organisational and job factors, and human and individual characteristics, which influence behaviour at work in a way which can affect health and safety." There are three separate categories for concerned with human factors: 1) the job: such as the type of task, workload, work environment, design of displays and controls, and role of procedures. Tasks should be developed with ergonomic principles in mind to account for human strengths and weaknesses, including matching the job to a person's physical and the mental strengths and limitations. 2) the individual: such as competence, skills, personality, attitude and risk perception. Individual characteristics impact behaviour in a variety of complicated ways. Some characteristics as personality are fixed and others as skills and attitudes are variable and can be improved; and 3) the organisation: such as work patterns, workplace culture, resources, communications and leadership. Such factors are frequently forgotten in job design of jobs but have a considerable influence on individual and group behaviour.

Human factor intervention, if done in an all-inclusive comprehensive way, should resolve some of the human errors that cause the injury and/or death of hundreds of individuals. For example, in the Ladbroke Grove rail collision on 5 October 1999, 31 people died and over 400 were injured. "HSE's investigation into the causes of the collision revealed what Thames Trains itself described as 'serious omissions' in its driver training programme. Michael Hodder drove his train through signal SN109 when it was showing red. There are errors and mistakes where someone does not purposely plan to hurt others.

Human factor analysis takes preventative measures where one analyzes and evaluates situatons to determine if there could be an accident under certain situations. According to a study by the issued by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology, ineffective fireproofing and a shortage of staircases are highlighted in a preliminary federal safety report into the attacks on the World Trade Center, issued by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology, report concludes that a combination of factors caused both buildings to collapse.

The Ladbroke Grove Rail Inquiry, for example, if management had applied the lessons of past SPADs (Signal Passed at Danger), and if signallers had been adequately instructed and trained in how to react to a SPAD, it may well be the case that the signaller would have been able to send the emergency message in time to enable the (Thames) Turbo to be brought to a halt before reaching a point at which it fouled the path of the high speed train.