Guidance on human factors in risk assessment

S2305 HUMAN
FACTORS
INTEGRATION INTO
RISK ASSESSMENT

ENERGY INSTITUTE
HUMAN AND
ORGANISATIONAL FACTORS
COMMITTEE
INTRODUCTION AND DELIVERABLES
GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF The unformatted report, with examples of
THE PROPOSAL risk assessments and guidance on the
practical application of those into existing
The aim of this project is to develop risk assessment processes.
practical guidance to help HSE Managers
responsible for company risk assessment to
embed human factors/human performance
PURPOSE
into existing work planning and risk
assessment processes, including: To enable practitioners responsible for
managing and conducting risk assessments
• Enhancing existing risk assessment
to identify and address in practice a range
processes by incorporating HF
of performance shaping factors (error
components
traps) that contribute to risk, but which are
• Identifying the benefits and
not hazards and which cannot be
convincing management and the
controlled via the hierarchy of controls.
workforce of the importance of HF
integration
• Developing examples of risk
assessment forms/worksheets with
HF elements
• Establishing HF training and
competency requirements for risk
assessors
• Providing guidance on identifying and
addressing HF issues in the short and
long term
• Ensuring integration with broader risk
management processes
 PROBLEM AND SOLUTION

PROBLEM STATEMENT
Although the human factors discipline has been
long recognised by regulators, leaders, and
industry organisations as foundational to further
advance in the reduction of risk, the majority of
the materials and resources available remain
academic, conceptual, and highly technical in
nature, making it difficult to understand and
apply in practice by safety practitioners without
a specialist background in human factors or
industrial psychology.
This situation leads to either practitioners
developing their solutions that may not be
informed by the current state of knowledge
expressed in research, or technical experts
developing solutions that are too complex to be
applied by practitioners.

PROPOSED SOLUTION
Develop a guide for safety practitioners that
will:
1. Educate on key concepts using simple
language, examples, and analogies.
2. Provide examples of good practice
demonstrating the value of the effort
3. Share the lessons learned from tried and
tested practical implementation and
highlight mistakes to avoid.
4. Provide ready-to-use template options
with commentary.
5. Outline an implementation journey
aligning stakeholders and connecting with
other risk management processes.
 BASIS FOR THE CHAPTER
STRUCTURE
The chapter structure outlined below is designed to enable the
readers to integrate error traps into their risk assessment processes. It
is based on the combination of:
Dr Nazaruk’s scientific research in the areas of:
1. Causality of failure in complex systems,
2. Psychology of risk perception and hazard
identification,
3. Effectiveness of risk assessment,
4. Safety II and performance variability,
5. Work systems and human factors discipline,
6. Human performance improvement (HPI).
Dr Nazaruk’s practical experience of:
1. Integrating error traps into risk assessment in major
international high-hazard organisations,
2. Developing internal guidance for these organisations
on how to identify error traps,
3. Developing, delivering, testing, and refining training
for practitioners on how to integrate error traps
with risk assessment, including classroom and e-
learn,
4. Developing examples and case studies,
5. Developing promotional and communication
materials,
6. Demonstrating tangible reduction of risk through
the integration of HF with risk assessment,
7. Writing multiple industry guides and practitioners’
toolkits.
CHAPTER STRUCTURE (1)
• Introduction
o What are the benefits of integrating HF into risk assessment?
o Current challenges with integration of human factors with risk assessment

• CHAPTER 1 - Introduction to assessing operational risk

o Levels of risk assessment (job, project, company)
o The purpose of risk assessment
o Assumptions underpinning job-level risk assessment
o 5-steps to operational risk assessment
o How failure happens in large organisations and implications for risk assessment
o Types of operational risk assessment suitable for integrating HF component
▪ Job Safety Analysis
▪ Dynamic risk assessment / Last minute risk assessment
▪ Permit to Work
▪ Pre/post-job briefings
▪ Other identified during the writing process
o Who is the risk assessment for?
o Who are the users of risk assessment and what’s their context/needs?
o Psychology of hazard identification / risk perception and its implication for assessing risk
• CHAPTER 2 – Introduction to Error Traps
o Performance shaping factors (error traps)
▪ The impact of error traps on risk
▪ A list of error traps grouped into categories with real examples, e.g.
• Error traps related to procedures and work instructions
• Error traps related to equipment design etc.
▪ Examples of error traps related to major activities, e.g.
• Lifting
• Pressure testing etc.
o Hazards vs Error Traps vs Unsafe Acts
o Organisational factors – how error traps are created?
• CHAPTER 3 – Controls and optimisations
o Can we control error traps in the same way as we control hazardous energies, such as
pressure in a vessel? Limitation of “hierarchy of controls” when applied to error traps
o How the level of risk dynamically changes on a daily and weekly basis
o Limitations of identifying and controlling hazards in preventing accidents
o Practical limitations of quantifying risk
o Controlling Risk vs Learning from Normal Work
• CHAPTER 4 – What good looks like? Integration, Examples of Outputs and Steps
o Business case for integration with the existing risk assessment process
o Examples of completed risk assessment forms / worksheets with commentary.
o Examples of findings
o Comparison of before / after integration of error traps with risk assessment
o Common mistakes when identifying error traps
o Short term actions, e.g., stopping the job, changing the task
o Long term actions, e.g., redesign
CHAPTER STRUCTURE (2)
• CHAPTER 5 – How to ask questions to learn about error traps?
o Open questions and TEDS (Tell, Explain, Describe, Show)
o “You” Questions vs “Context” Questions
o Examples of questions aiming to identify error traps and constraints
o Examples of questions that limit insights about error traps
o Checklists/prompts vs questions and semi-structured dialog
• CHAPTER 6 – Common challenges and how to overcome them.
o Challenges with stakeholders
o Challenges with understanding error traps
o Challenges with completing the form
o Challenges with asking questions and conversations
• CHAPTER 7 - How should the findings feed into the broader risk management processes?
o Quality verification
o Sharing Insights
o Learning from insights
• CHAPTER 8 - Implementation Journey
o Align Stakeholders
▪ How to convince management about the value?
o Updated Templates
o Training structure
▪ For leaders
▪ For HSE professionals
▪ For the front-line
o Potential challenges during implementation
o Enablers of success and resources needed
• CHAPTER 9 – JSA - Give it a go
o Update the template
o Prepare your questions
o Try it out
o Use our checklist to check the quality of hazards, controls, error traps and optimizations

• Summary
• Appendixes
o Templates of JSA, Dynamic Risk Assessment, LMRA with HF elements
o Examples of completed risk assessment for selected activities.
o Common mistakes
o List of error traps divided into categories.
o Proposed training
• Glossary
 Dr Marcin Nazaruk
BACKGROUND
Technically trained in different types of
psychology (cognitive, social, behavioral, clinical,
neuro, occupational and industrial - MSc, Ph.D.,
chartered BPS), business and change
management (MBA, chartered CMI, project and
program management certified), safety
(Chartered IOSH), systems thinking, executive
coaching, instructional design and more.
Experienced in working with all levels of the
hierarchy, from front-line (shuffling coal, transfer
of chemicals, assisting with isolations) to
supervisors, to middle managers to site leaders,
regional directors, global Vice Presidents, and
CEOs.
Developed many tools for practitioners under EI,
HPOG, IOGP, SPE umbrellas, including integration
of HF with risk assessment.
HF IN RA
While at BP, Dr Nazaruk led the creation of an HP
e-learn (now available through the EI) with a
module on the psychology of hazard
identification.
While at Baker Hughes, Dr Nazaruk envisioned,
researched and tested the integration of error
traps with the Job Safety Analysis Process.
Marcin has published articles on HF in risk
assessment focusing on the psychology of risk
perception and hazard identification, e.g.
https://bit.ly/3URSGaE.
After leaving Baker Hughes, Marcin has
implemented a comprehensive integration of HF
with risk assessment in multiple global
organisations in high-hazard industries. Such
integration included:
1. Updates to forms and templates,
2. Examples with commentary,
3. Leadership engagements,
4. Internal guidance documentation,
5. Training for practitioners.
 EXPERIENCE WITH WRITING
INDUSTRY GUIDANCE
IOGP
2022 – Vice-Chair of the Human Factors Sub-Committee.
2022 – Lead Author of the IOGP Guide 642 “How to learn when nothing goes wrong – a guide to Learning
from Normal Work”.
2019 – Co-author of the IOGP Report 621 “Demystifying Human Factors: Building Confidence in Human
Factors Investigation”.

SPE
2020-2023 – Chairperson of the SPE Human Factors Technical Section.
2021 – Author of the guidance “Are you applying Human Factors / Human Performance as per the Industry
Guidance?”. The guide includes a section on Human Factors integrated into Risk Assessment.

HPOG
2019 – Lead Author – Simplified Human Reliability Assessment Tool, called Walk-Through / Talk-Through.
2020 – Lead Author – Human Performance Recommended Practice.
2021 – Lead Designer – “Task Check” - a tool to help teams identify error traps.

ENERGY INSTITUTE
2018 – Lead Designer of the Human Performance Competency Pathway.
2018 – Co-designer of the Human Factors in Incident Investigation Toolkit.
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THANK YOU

PSYCHOLOGY APPLIED LIMITED is a training

and consultancy company led by Dr
Marcin Nazaruk, specializing in enabling
practitioners and large organisations to
implement Learning from Normal Work in
practice.