Human Factors and Health & Safety

lPlease select a letter from the A-Z list below:

Human factors refers to the environmental, organisational and job factors, as well as the human and individual characteristics, which influence behaviour at work. All of these factors individually and together can then affect health and safety.

There is a lot of research that has been done on this in respect of major man made accidents and disasters e.g. at the Buncefield oil Storage Deport in Hertfordshire in 2005, or even further afield such as the US Space Shuttle Accident in 2003.

However, human factors equally apply to the more typical but still potentially life disrupting accidents that can occur here at York St John as it relates to:

what people are being asked to do (the task and its characteristics)
who is doing it (the individual and their competence)
where they are working (the team Faculty or Directorate at the University)

The HSE has a useful website at http://www.hse.gov.uk/humanfactors/index.htm

The Health & Safety Officer would be pleased to discuss this topic in more detail with staff and students as part of improving our health & safety.