To control risks and prevent accidents, incidents and ill-health, companies develop sophisticated management systems and technical solutions. We cannot rely solely on systems and technology to achieve our objectives, though. Without enabling and enhancing adequate behaviour of management and staff, efforts to improve systems and technology could be in vain. As a result, human factors should be considered systematically.

Purpose

Human factors & safety culture address the human element in SHE performance, both in terms of factors leading to human errors for specific scenarios and the broader factors defined by the safety culture. The aim of both services is to reduce human errors that contribute to accidents.

Benefits

Your organisation’s performance depends on your people. DNV helps you develop personnel, design processes and workplaces in a way that increases performance safely and responsibly.

Our approach

DNV works closely with companies to help them design processes and work systems through a sociotechnical perspective. This means that ‘people issues’ are considered carefully and systematically. Human behaviour and decision-making is always part of the picture – not only within labour-intensive production, but also in highly automated systems.

Thus, we focus closely on the possible interfaces (human-machine-organisation) within a work system:

• Accident and incident causes. The human factor is the main cause in approximately 80 percent of accidents.
• Organisational change. Companies regularly undergo change, for example, due to expansion, reorganisation, merger or takeover, downsizing or changes in staff. Such system changes have a strong impact on motivation and behaviour. People could often be better prepared for new organisational models.
• New challenges. Tasks get more complex and more individual flexibility is required. Due to global competition, human performance and efficiency has to be optimised. Individual well-being and health is an important factor of productivity. These demands cannot be fulfilled if the human factor is not adequately taken into account.

DNV can analyse and help improve work systems considering human factors throughout the whole system life cycle. This begins with feasibility studies and analysis, implementation support or continuous improvement and change of running systems.

As a client, you will benefit from DNV’s ability to combine its proven technological and management solutions, together with appropriate human factor approaches.

For example, rating tools like DNV’s ISRS (International Safety Rating System) can be used to gather information about where human factor issues need to be improved.

Possible improvement processes include the following:

• Leadership and management style. This comprises, for example, the design of communication processes, goal-setting, or the development of a culture of trust.
• Human resource management. In this field, we can help to define personnel selection criteria, or to develop preventive personnel development planning that reduces personnel risks.
• Organisation/workplace design. Here we can help you improve conditions of work, comprising issues such as task design, stress management or ergonomics.
• Group processes. The design and realisation of effective group processes is a challenge associated with many modern reorganisation measures. We can help with team-building or elaborate on your organisational concepts.
• Personality and individual factors. Processes of learning, self-management or individual risk-competent behaviour should be reinforced in every employee.

Considering the complexity of your challenges, we may combine several of the above. Subsequently, we design measures and programmes according to your specific requirements.