Job factors

• Task. Tasks should be designed on ergonomic principles that allow for the limits and strengths of human performance. Matching the job to the person avoids overload and gets the best contribution to the business. A physical match covers the design of the whole workplace and working environment. A mental match covers the person's information and decision-making demands and how they perceive the task and its risks. Mismatches between job demands and capability create the potential for human error.
• Nature of the job. This means matching the job to the physical and mental strengths and limits of people. Mental aspects include perception, attention and decision making.
• Ergonomics. Ergonomics is the study of how efficiently people work in their working environment. Job design should use it to reduce risks such as repetitive strain injury (RSI), which can arise when a job involves repetitive tasks. A poorly designed job can also cause errors and rework, which affect productivity and quality.
• Environment, including lighting, noise and vibration. The work environment affects performance in several ways: effects that damage health (heat stress, musculoskeletal disorders); effects that reduce a person's ability to do a task (poor lighting, distraction); and effects that cause dissatisfaction, resistance to change and uncooperative attitudes ("if management thinks so little of us, why should we...").
• Workload. Humans can process only so much information (from displays, alarms, documents and communications), hold only so much in memory, and make only so many decisions at once. Excess workload slows tasks and causes slips, lapses and mistakes. Underload can also hurt performance, through boredom, loss of situational awareness and reduced alertness.
• Staffing levels. The right number of the right people in the right place at the right time. Staffing often changes during organisational change, such as downsizing, delayering or multi-skilling.
• Human-machine interface (HMI). The HMI is how people and automated systems interact and communicate. It is a user interface or dashboard connecting a person to a machine, system or device, from built-in machine screens to computer monitors. Its most important task is to show complex process variables quickly and concisely so that production information is easy to interpret.

Individual factors

People bring knowledge, skills, experience, health, attitudes and expectations to work. Assess these in relation to the task without treating personality or worker error as a complete explanation. Improve equipment, workload, procedures, supervision and work design as well as individual competence.

• Competence and skills. People need the knowledge, skills and abilities to work effectively and safely, which means training and personal development for everyone.
• Personality. Personality is a person's own pattern of thoughts, feelings and behaviours. It comes from within and stays fairly consistent through life. It does more than influence behaviour: it makes a person act in the same or similar ways across many situations.
• Motivation. Motivation is the driving force behind how a person acts. Meaningful involvement in decisions improves it, and so do incentive schemes, but employers must plan safety awards with care. A site manager who rewards a low accident count may simply get fewer accident reports. The reward should be for reporting incidents, not for having none. Recognition, promotion prospects, job security and job satisfaction also affect motivation, and self-interest in all its forms is a strong personal motivator.
• Psychological status. This covers a person's self-confidence, past experiences, stress, communication and relationships.
• Individual capabilities and needs. Consider health, mobility, hearing, vision, language and understanding in relation to the actual task. Language and intelligence are not physical-health conditions. Avoid assumptions based on age; adapt the work and communication to the individual and obtain competent advice where needed.
• Fatigue. Extreme tiredness slows reaction time, causes more errors and reduces thinking ability. Employers can manage fatigue by keeping schedules consistent and providing for naps or frequent breaks.
• Experience. Relevant experience can help people recognise hazards and handle variations. It does not guarantee safe habits: familiarity and accepted shortcuts can reduce perceived risk, so practical competence and actual behaviour still need checking.
• Stress. Under stress, workers find it hard to concentrate, make decisions and feel confident. Stress can also harm physical health in the long term, and headaches and fatigue are common symptoms.
• Attitude. Attitude is the tendency to behave in a certain way in a certain situation. It is shaped by the prevailing safety culture, management commitment, the person's own experience and the peer group. Whether someone evacuates when the alarm sounds, for example, may depend on what colleagues do.
• Risk perception. Expectations, experience, familiarity, workload and the environment can affect recognition of danger. For example, flickering light can make rotating machinery appear stationary. People can underestimate familiar hazards or lose confidence in ineffective controls. Check understanding and improve the work system rather than assume that feeling unsafe makes someone behave recklessly.
• Family and personal life. Conflict or trouble at home leads to stress and can lead to poor judgement at work. Employers can support staff through welfare or counselling services, and individuals should try, so far as they can, to keep personal problems from affecting their work.

Summary notes for Element 3 · Cheat sheet · Glossary. A study aid, not published or endorsed by NEBOSH.