How to Help Workers Improve Hazard Recognition in the Workplace

Being a “hazard recogniser” in the modern workplace involves understanding and acknowledging that risks are formed by exposure to hazards at the working interface, according to Jo Doyle, principal consultant at DEKRA Insight Australia.

Through improved technology, education and data analysis, Doyle observed that Australian companies and their safety leaders have significantly improved in their ability to control and manage such risks.

However, scientific research suggests that these hazards are formed in the neuroscience of the human brain – which she said is the missing piece to unlocking consistent safety and performance reliability.

“Understanding how to align working environments, organisational culture and hazard management systems with the human brain to achieve operational excellence is crucial for risk mitigation,” said Doyle.

“There have certainly been significant inroads made by companies seeing improved systems in place that favour ways to manage cognitive fatigue and other brain-centred hazards.”

Yet organisations that have made a conscious effort to adopt brain-aligned management systems often fail to add a fatigue risk management system, according to Doyle, who explained that DEKRA’s seven brain-centred hazards highlight the increased exposure that workers experience due to the brain’s natural operation which enhances the likelihood of errors.

“An embedded systems approach is crucial to enable early hazard detection and prevent life-threatening performance errors occurring,” she said.

Doyle noted that identifying fatigue can be challenging, particularly when workers appear ostensibly well, and Doyle estimated that between 39 to 67 per cent of the global workforce experience fatigue daily, which illustrates cognitive fatigue as the leading brain-centred hazard in the modern workplace.

“Cognitive fatigue also presents severe risks within the modern workplace including poor judgment, slowed reaction times and heightened irritability which are just a few of the many examples of human performance errors that are threatened through lack of sleep,” she said.

“Fatigue is a hazard that organisations must manage so that workers are fit to complete tasks competently and safely.

“Neglecting fatigue or brain-centred hazards altogether is almost impossible, however, organisations can implement certain layers of defence designed specifically to suit their worksites, training, operating procedures and human machine interfaces that ultimately align with the brain and help mitigate exposure to risks.”

Doyle said that human behaviour is a product of different systems within the brain that compete to control the output that is behaviour.

This “dual-process” is made up of both the fast brain and slow brain: “our fast brain produces those actions that are automatic, reactive, emotion-based, habitual and pre-conscious – otherwise known as autopilot mode,” said Doyle, who added that the fast brain is in charge most of the time, allowing workers to complete tasks without thinking and focus on the speed of actions.

“In this instance, when workers are completing habitual tasks, leaders’ messages can have a huge impact on employee behaviour,” she said.

“Pair this with the improved technology on a modern worksite or in a contemporary working environment, the fast brain poses significant threats to employee wellbeing.”

The culture of an organisation can also dictate when its employees are either in fast brain or slow brain mode, and Doyle said that if leaders convey messages of urgency (ie. time pressures), this consequently weakens slow brain engagement.

As a result, the fast brain reacts by working on a task as quickly as possible – nevertheless, Doyle said a finished task does not mean it is completed error-free.

“To ensure high performance reliability, cultural messaging that primes the human brain to focus on correct execution rather than speed can be a helpful tool for leaders to embed into their operational systems,” she said.

“Furthermore, to ensure Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are brain-aligned or brain-friendly, leaders can consider clearly defining every step of procedure.”

For example, she said the “how to” action which stimulates employees to think through each phase can help prevent error-prone job execution and increase the likelihood of higher human performance reliability.

“Managing brain-centred hazards within your workplace and specifically, fatigue-related risks, begins with organisations making a conscious effort to embed a fatigue risk management policy,” she said.

“This should be built into best practices and aligned with safe work procedures, level with the company risks concerning fatigue.”

To help detect and control dangers within the workplace, Doyle said an embedded systems approach is necessary to reduce performance errors that are in favour of the safety and wellbeing of workers and their working environments.

“Furthermore, identifying brain-centred hazards and recognising certain weaknesses in safety and operational systems will allow long-lasting human performance reliability,” she said.

Article originally published by the Australian Institute of Health and Safety.