Key Principles in integrating Human Factors in Hazard Identification, Hazard Analysis, and Risk Assessments include:
- Identify safety-critical tasks or those that expose people to occupational health hazards
- Ensure there is an understanding of how these tasks are carried out and the environment in which they are performed
- This may include walking and talking through the task where it is carried out
- Involve the workforce in carrying out the assessment and the identification of appropriate controls
- Personnel carrying out the assessment should have an understanding of the different types of failure and the factors that make them more or less likely to occur
- Identify the human failures that could be made in the task which might lead to an accident of incident and the performance influencing factors that make those failures more or less likely to occur
- Identify appropriate control measures, using the Hierarchy of Controls, which prevent or mitigate the human failures you have identified
- Aim to design out the potential for human failure and design in the potential for recovery should human failure occur
- This includes the design of the plant, system, environment, and task, taking into account the needs and capabilities of users
- Reliance on procedures and training is unlikely to be sufficient
- Check that your control measures work. Regularly review your risk assessment to see if any further improvements can be made.
The approach to human factors in risk assessment should be proportionate to the hazards. For most industries, a qualitative approach will be sufficient. For some High-Risk industries, a quantitative approach may be appropriate.
Source: https://www.hse.gov.uk/humanfactors/resources/risk-assessment.htm