OCIMF has developed an approach to integrate human factors into its activities. As OCIMF says, a core human factor principle to reduce risk is the acceptance that people make mistakes, and that mistakes become more likely under conditions that make work difficult.
Crises such as the current conflict can have a direct and indirect impact on the wellbeing of personnel. Emotions such as uncertainty, fear, anxiety or sadness affect mental health. For some, the conflict may also trigger difficult memories of past experiences and exacerbate such emotions.
Understanding and talking about these shared human emotions lets people know they are not alone. By ensuring that personnel are supported if they feel overwhelmed or concerned about a colleague who may be struggling, we can positively influence wellbeing and human performance
says OCIMF.
As well as the emotional impact, there will be further unpredictable challenges including shortages of experienced personnel, extended tour durations, difficulty in travel, problems paying salaries, and inter-personal tensions.
Taking the above into consideration, OCIMF urges all concerned parties to collaborate and assess the additional risks and impacts that this conflict presents to human factors and day-to-day operations.
In seeking mitigations, it is important to take a caring, empathetic and pragmatic approach with due regard for the wellbeing of personnel and their families
OCIMF also encourages all concerned parties to have competent support structures available for assessment of the physical and mental wellbeing of the crew. This can help early identification of the signs associated with potential human factors impacts on activities, performance, safety and efficiency.
Under this aspect, during 2021, OCIMF released a new paper providing a framework to integrate Human Factors into management systems. “Human Factors: Management and Self Assessment,” aims to help companies and leadership teams address the conditions and systems that influence human actions and decisions, and so promote safety and excellence across all operations.
As the paper notes, understanding and tackling underlying conditions and hard to use systems that can lead to human error, the likelihood of incidents reduces.
For this reason, the human factors development plan should:
- Identify which tasks are safety critical;
- Can all personnel operate it without error?
- Is the equipment reliable and simple for maintenance?
- Is it in the proper place and easy to get at?
- Does it make allowances for human faculties and the ways people prefer to work?
- Is there a new or alternative equipment that would be better?
