Human factors

Over the past two decades, the upstream oil and gas industry has been successful in reducing incident frequency by adopting improved engineering solutions and sophisticated safety management systems.

However, safety performance has reached a plateau in many companies: despite all the money and effort being spent, there is little improvement between one year’s performance and the next.

How can we achieve further improvements in HSE performance?

Progress will come by taking better and more explicit account of the way people interact with every aspect of the workplace; in other words, incorporation of Human Factors. We need to consider how individuals interact with each other, facilities, equipment, and management systems. All of this, in turn, has to be understood within the context of the local culture and environment.

What are the benefits of taking human factors into account?

• Fewer accidents
• Fewer near misses
• Reduced potential for human error and its consequences

Although the focus of this brochure is on improving HSE performance, incorporating human factors into an HSE plan can also yield operational benefits, including:

• Improved efficiency (increased reliability/reduced downtime)
• Lower lifetime costs associated with the maintenance and re-engineering of systems
• A more productive workforce

This website aims to raise the awareness of the significance of human factors in achieving improved HSE performance. It provides the basic information to determine when and how this fundamental component should be factored into HSE activities.