Human Factor & Fatigue Risk Assessments Identifying New Opportunities to Advance Safety & Performance

Risk - the sum of the probability and impact of an adverse event/outcome can manifest as financial loss, errors, accidents, environmental impact, loss of performance or reputation or any combination thereof. While risk cannot be eliminated, it can identified and understood (when, what, why) from which it can be managed.

Progressive companies are increasingly applying a risk based approach to managing their businesses. Risk assessment enables organisations to:

• Identify exposure to cost, safety & performance risks, hazards and liabilities
• Predict risks prior to implementing strategic, operational, organisational or technical changes
• Manage change
• Turn liabilities into opportunities
• Protect employees, the environment, the public, investment, assets and reputation

Effective risk management must therefore include pro-active actions to continually assess risks and actions to manage those risks. Risk management enables organisations to transform liability into opportunity to help maximise safety and performance potential and capability.

Identifying & Managing Your Human Factor Risk

Costs of human factor and fatigue risk can be measured in terms of increased vulnerability to accidents, errors, lower productivity, sickness and absenteeism. Because human factor error and fatigue poses exceptional operational and safety risks it is vital to confirm your human factors risk exposure, from which actions to manage your risk exposure can be implemented.

Human factor and fatigue risk are not resolved solely at an individual level. Absent organisationally developed strategies to manage these factors, employees may apply rudimentary ad hoc coping practices. These, however, only temporarily alleviate fatigue symptoms without addressing root cause.

Effective human factor and fatigue risk management starts with risk analysis of work organisation, work scheduling systems, the integration of organisational systems, safety culture and human factor issues. Such analysis findings can identify human factor and fatigue risks and causes, and lead to recommendations to better integrate mitigation protocols into these systems along with, as needed, introduction of new protocols to further enhance safety and operational performance.

Managing human factor error and fatigue through systematic organisation based management strategies presents a significant opportunity to proactively mitigate risk and advance safety while also improving employee quality of life, a true win-win outcome.

Working closely with you, FMS applies experience and specialised expertise in the interaction of organisational practices, shift design, work conditions and shift work lifestyle on human alertness, attentiveness and performance to analyse and identify human factor risk exposure. We recommend control measures and strategies customised to your operation to advance safety and performance.

We have specialised skills (human factors fatigue risk analysis, project management, quality control and stakeholder consensus building) supported by a systematic process to install customised human factor and fatigue management best practices into your organisation.

We apply systems and scenario analysis, conduct manager/staff interviews, site observation and key performance indicator analysis, identifying interaction of work environment/conditions, practices/policies, work and task load & shift work lifestyle on cognitive processes, data processing, decision-making, task planning/execution and the impact on performance, attentiveness, stress & accident risk.

Utilising our specialised fatigue risk software and expert based knowledge of the interaction of shift work design on alertness determinants including: circadian rhythms, sleep timing length, and regularity, we identify work schedule fatigue risk.

Our comprehensive assessments will review key factors affecting alertness and attentiveness enabling:

• Confirmation of the utility, feasibility and business case for adopting practical control measures by providing decision makers with:
• Defensible and tangible information
• Confident estimates of fatigue and human factor risk
• Identification of human factor fatigue risks/causes and impacts on employee alertness, attentiveness & performance
• Recommendations on relevant and effective control measures, and mitigation strategies/processes to address human factor and fatigue related risk and errors to sustain attentiveness, work efficiency and productivity

Our assessment can help you improve the safety and performance of your existing work place. We can also assess planned changes to your work place or new work place you are planning and recommend appropriate customised human-centered work design and work schedules. This proactive/preventative approach will avoid issues that can later manifest into inattentiveness and fatigue, impairing human performance

See summary of our FRA service. (10MB)

I. Identifying Existing Risk

We can:

• Integrate our assessment into company risk assessment processes, or
• Conduct an independent risk assessment
• Identify fatigue causes
• Estimate fatigue risk potential & consequences
• Calculate safety, sickness, sub-optimal performance costs & risks
• Recommend cost-effective fatigue management strategies

II. Predicting Risks in Organisational Change

We will:

• Review projected changes
• Identify potential fatigue risks, hazards, costs & consequences
• Outline cost-effective fatigue management options

We look forward to responding to your enquires about how our Risk Assessment Services can assist your organisation. Reaching us is easy, just click on the Contact Page, and fill in the feedback form. We will be in touch within 24 hours.