Human Error & Serious Injury & Fatality (SIF) Prevention

Our Serious Injury & Fatality (SIF) Prevention Model.

When evaluating or reviewing your Serious Injury and Fatality (SIF) Prevention Program, you will want to evaluate all elements of the above model. In this article I focus on a brief discussion of Element #3 - Human Error (H-FILEs).

This is a great starting point for organizations wishing to get to the next step in safety excellence by impacting the organization’s safety culture and increasing personal responsibility for safety. Additional articles on all 7 elements will follow.

H-FILEs Human Factors That Increase the Likelihood of Error

Element #3 Human Error is designed to:

1. Encourage personal responsibility for safety.

2. Promote human error awareness.

3. Recognize the impact of error.

4. Improve incident investigation and analysis.

5. Develop practical tools to address error.

6. Have a positive impact on the safety culture.

7. Promote awareness of Serious Injury and Fatality Prevention.

The H-FILEs model was developed to include a variety of factors that increase the likelihood of error, hence the name H-FILEs. It’s a starting point for people interested in reducing error that could result in injury, or have a negative impact on the environment, production or quality of an organization. The idea is simple; a better understanding of the impact of error and the factors that contribute to error.

H-FILEs Disc

A disc model is used to illustrate 10 Human Factors that can improve performance.

The H-FILEs Disc starts with “Awareness”, which is our 1st factor. We consider awareness in several ways:

1. Awareness

2. Safety Awareness

3. Self- Awareness

4. Situational Awareness

1. Awareness

Awareness is defined as: the quality or state of being aware: knowledge and understanding that something is happening or exists. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/awareness

We all know that people make errors. We gain knowledge about errors from personal experience. It’s not something that we necessarily learned in the workplace; our understanding of error is often a life lesson.

Our goal is to create error awareness. What does it mean to err? What are the causes? Who errs? What is a mistake? What about a violation? What is a deliberate act versus an unintentional act?

It’s the first level of learning – “You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know.

You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know

2. Safety Awareness

Let’s start with safety first. Safety is defined as:

1.    The state of being safe; freedom from the occurrence or risk of injury, danger, or loss.

2.    The quality of averting or not causing injury, danger, or loss.

3.    A contrivance or device to prevent injury or avert danger.

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/safety

If we add the state of being aware and knowledge from the definition of awareness, then safety awareness means understanding the hazards, the level of risk associated with the hazards and using the required controls to prevent injury and loss.

Some people have argued that safety awareness goes even deeper. Safety awareness is a state of mind, a way of thinking about safety, a proactive approach to managing one’s life. Safety awareness is a way of living. The descending opinion safety is common sense.

Safety Awareness varies, I believe, depending on a variety of factors. One of these factors is the workplace that you are employed in. If the workplace has an effective safety management system and a strong safety culture, you will have a high level of safety awareness. Some people reading this article (as an example) are wondering, what is a “Serious Injury & Fatality Prevention Program”. It may just be semantics, or it could be a lack of knowledge. Safety Awareness is key. Maybe we need a SIF Prevention review.  

 3. Self-Awareness

Self-awareness is defined as: good knowledge and judgement of yourself. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/self-awareness

We endeavour to improve safety and self- awareness by helping people think about safety in a slightly different way. We expand on the 10 Human Factors that Increase the Likelihood of Error (H-FILEs). We encourage employees to consider the factors and identify the 3 key factors that contribute to error. In other words, self-awareness.

? 1. Awareness

? 2. Pace

? 3. Stress

? 4. Focus

? 5. Multi-tasking               

? 6. Communication

? 7. Distraction

? 8. Frustration

? 9. Fatigue

? 10. Confidence

COUNTERMEASURES

Exploring countermeasures means that we help to develop specific tools that can be used to address human error. The H-FILEs Disc is one example of a countermeasure. The first step is to create awareness around human error. This can be done through the Serious Injury & Fatality Prevention Model, above. Additional tools are discussed and selected by our clients.

 4. Situational Awareness

Situational awareness is the perception of environmental elements with respect to time and/or space, the comprehension of their meaning, and the projection of their status after some variable has changed (such as time) or some other variable (such as a predetermined event). It is also a field of study concerned with perception of the environment critical to decision-makers in complex, dynamic areas. These areas include, but are not limited to: aviation, air traffic control, ship navigation, power plant operations, military command and control, and emergency services such as fire fighting and policing; to more ordinary but nevertheless complex tasks such as driving an automobile or riding a bicycle.

In order to have situational awareness, one must be aware of what is happening around them. This allows a person to understand the impact that information, events and even their own actions will have on their personal goals and objectives. This impact will be seen both in the here and now as well as in the future.

“One with an adept sense of situational awareness generally has a high degree of knowledge with respect to inputs and outputs of a system, i.e. an innate "feel" for situations, people, and events that play out due to variables the subject can control.” https://www.definitions.net/definition/situation+awareness

 I never said that safety was easy. As a matter of fact, the first chapter of my book, “The 7 Safety Habits That Could Save Your Life”, is dedicated to Habit # 1 – Think: Safety’s HARD. Hard stands for Hazard Assessment Risk & Duty. It is about understanding what is going on around you, seeing the hazards, understanding the level of risk and taking the required action to ensure your safety and the safety of your team.

That, of course, is part of the 1st Element in our Serious Injury & Fatality Prevention model.

Summary

Serious Injuries and fatalities are still occurring on and off the job, so maybe we need to adjust our focus. The SIF Prevention program is a step in the right direction - why not start with human error and the H-FILEs? It’s the right formula for your organization. It’s time to spin the H-FILEs Disc, a proactive approach.

A formula for Incident Reduction and Serious Injury & Fatality (SIF) Prevention.

Schedule a FREE webinar contact:

Wilson Bateman

905-941-0934

[email protected]