Tag: human factor

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a talking therapy that can help you manage your problems by changing the way you think and behave. It's most commonly used to treat anxiety and depression, but can be useful for other mental and physical health problems, as well as to improve our every day life in general.

The way in which shipping carries out risk assessments is well established. But does it adequately assess the human element, wonders Alvin Forster, Loss Prevention Executive, North P&I Club.

The IMO Sub-Committee on Human Element, Training and Watchkeeping considered a proposal to prioritize the revision of the IMO model course 1.21 on Personal Safety and Social Responsibilities, with a view to including specific content to establish appropriate maritime workplace behavioural norms and essential human elements of psychological safety.  

The last guiding OCIMF principle on human factor highlights the role of leadership in challenging situations. The worst thing leaders can do is to minimize their mistake, ignore it or try to blame it on others. It is always important leaders to take responsibility for their errors; if they don’t admit fault when they should, this can have a negative effect on team morale.

Although we are seeing improvement with enclosed space accidents, complex instructions, time pressure, poor design, poor communication and the prevailing blame culture are key factors for caution by the industry. In that regard, Capt. Kuba Szymanski, InterManager highlights that is high time to stop blaming seafarers when an accident happens; instead of asking ‘how’, let’s start questioning about the reasons behind, ‘why’.

The human factor is typically seen as the “weakest link” in cyber security risk, an approach suggesting that cyber threats can be mitigated by focusing on the behavior of end-users rather than the way information systems are designed. But in which ways can people be influenced into “behaving more cyber secure” and what is the role of leadership in establishing a cyber culture in shipping?

OCIMF published the full set of questions that may be asked during a SIRE 2.0 tanker inspection, when its new Ship Inspection Report Programme (SIRE) inspection regime is implemented during Q2 2022.

Albeit the common belief within the industry that whenever people are involved in design, construction or operation of equipment and process there is the likelihood for human error, we tend to see as cause of incidents the following human related factors: failures in tasks; unclear guidance or procedures; workload fatigue; lack of quality or insufficient training; improper communication; lack of situational awareness; complacency and; stress.

In September 2021, OCIMF released a new paper, entitled Human Factors Management and Self Assessment, providing a framework that integrates human factor into management systems.

Leadership influences company culture heavily and the seventh guiding principle out of the eight OCIMF principals on human factors comes to highlight this. Leaders can reinforce organizational culture by helping their people grow and develop through goal setting, opportunities, and recognition.