Human factors training for businesses – where should you start?
06 Dec 23
Human Factors
BY Tug Wilson
If I ran a company, and was thinking about investing in some human factors training for the first time, the first question I would ask would be “What does a defence company think it can do for my business? We’ve got nothing to do with defence!”.
However, let’s think about defence organisations as being like businesses for a second. Defence organisations involve lots of moving parts and interactions that must work correctly together to provide the right output. All of those moving parts are controlled or manipulated by people. How many businesses state that “people are our most important asset,” yet do nothing to help with the performance of those people? This is where human factors training comes in.
What are human factors?
The next question would be, “What are human factors?”.
We define human factors as “our interaction with our equipment; our environment; and most importantly with other people”.
Increasing performance in any, or all, of these aspects should prove beneficial to your outcomes. Human factors training programmes have been mandatory in safety critical organisations for many years. Mostly they have been used for error reduction to improve accident and incident rates, but they have much wider applications.
In essence, a human factors training programme will help to “grease the wheels” of those three interactions - equipment, the environment, and other people. It’ll lead to better performance from individuals and teams by increasing knowledge, awareness and tolerance of the differences between the people in an organisation, and the environment that organisation creates.
We define human factors as “our interaction with our equipment; our environment; and most importantly with other people”.
Key human factors subjects
If you’re still with me – even if you’re not yet convinced of the benefits of human factors – your next question should be: “What does it cover, and which bits would be relevant for my business?”.
There are some classic human factors subjects including:
- Error management
- Blame cultures
- Mental processing
- Situational awareness
- Decision making
- Resource management
- Fatigue and sleep management
- Stress management
- Communication
Subjects such as error management, situational awareness, and communication are arguably the "classic" human factors topics.
These subjects form the backbone of human factors, but if you want to dig a little deeper and think a little more laterally, we’ll need to branch out into these sorts of areas:
- Leadership
- Team working
- Attitude training
- Motivation
- Resilience
- Loyalty
- Difficult conversations
- Trust
- Conflict resolution
- Effective briefing and debriefing
- Effective meetings
- What does good look like?
- Dealing with change
- Dealing with VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous situations)
- Personality psychometrics
The process of creating a human factors programme
“Too much information! How do I choose what I want?” Good question. I didn’t even have to think of that one for you!
Our ideal solution is to assess a customer’s needs based on real-time issues and then build a programme that would help to address those issues. Generic training programmes can be useful, but proper targeted solutions are much more effective if you are looking for tangible results. For example, you may have problems with the cost of wastage during manufacture (if that is what your business does). That wastage could be down to pure error, poor planning, conflict between sales and operations or poor procedures.
The key is to look at what the issues are and then build a training programme to fit that. If it is down to pure error, we would need to address that. Why are those errors being made? Are errors reported openly and honestly? If not, why not? Is it the blame culture that stifles that honesty? What strategies can we employ to reduce error?
We’d then suggest a unique training programme; for example, to address the questions I just posed we’d create a programme which might include work on error and blame, communication, motivation, and leadership.
Or, we could create an option which included mental processing and situational awareness – whatever the solution is, it must fit the problem in the first place.
We create unique training programmes designed just for you
Inzpire’s human factors services
Your next question is probably: “Ok I might see a bit of benefit here. So why should I choose Inzpire to deliver this?”
There are lots of human factors providers out there, but we doubt there is anyone that has a broader range of customers than us.
We train all new aviators joining the UK military. In fact, our training is a mandatory requirement, and is certified by the UK Military Aviation Authority. We have been doing this for over 15 years now and have also trained a number of foreign air forces as well as other military personnel from all trades. “So that’s defence again,” you might say. Yes it is - and this is where we cut our teeth. In fact, human factors training began in aircraft cockpits back in the 1970’s so it has a bit of pedigree as far as aviation goes.
Outside of that though, we have also trained Formula 1 Racing Teams as well as other motor racing disciplines; The NHS; heavy industry (including rail); construction companies; finance companies; schoolteachers and even farm vets! We’re pretty sure no-one else can claim that last one.
Once again, each customer gets a programme that fits their specific needs and is directly focused on them.
How much does human factors training cost?
If I were you, my penultimate question would of course be: “How much does it cost?”.
Well, it depends on the programme and how many days it would take to deliver your unique training. But the value can be truly immeasurable!
When human factors goes right, you generally don’t see an “in your face” result – which admittedly can make it difficult to track the return on investment. When human factors is a success, things just run smoothly and go well. Isn’t that what we are always looking for?
However, when this stuff goes wrong, the results can be spectacularly bad, resulting in loss of life, loss of revenue, loss of reputation etc. Just watch Formula 1 when a poor decision is made on strategy or tyres! Overall, I think you’ll find human factors training is a small investment when you compare it to the cost of something going wrong.
Still not convinced? Get in touch, and we can chat to you about what you’re trying to achieve and how we can help. There might be nothing we can do for you, and if that’s the case, we’ll tell you. I’m pretty sure that if there is a human involved though, we can do something with you; but that’s for me to convince you now isn’t it?
So, your final question should be “Can I afford to do human factors training?”
But when you take into account everything I have said above, I’d suggest that your final question should really be “Can I afford NOT to do it?”
And if the answer is "no!", then get in touch!
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