What are human factors?
Humans are prone to making errors and having a short attention span hence often ignore important information when making judgments. They become distracted, bored, fatigued, or preoccupied (Phillips, 2016). Understanding and managing people’s skills and limits is what human factors are all about. It is the use of scientific ideas and information, as well as lessons acquired from prior accidents and operating experience, to improve health, security, well-being, the efficiency of the overall, and dependability. According to Reason (2015), human factors refer to job factors, organizational factors, and human characteristics which have an influence on an individual’s behavior at work.
It is notable that everyone in the work setting is just a mere human being who is fallible. Example of common human factors includes workplace culture, communication, leadership and resources, skills and competencies, employees risk tolerance, personality and attitude, work patterns and workload, etc (Ghalenooie and Sarvestani, 2016). Human factors concepts are used to create tasks that take into consideration people’s limits and capabilities. Matching work to people will prevent being overworked and that they are able to make an optimum contribution to the organization. The different personalities, skills, attitudes, and habits of people define their strengths and weakness in the workplace. A company that focuses on human factors must ensure training and education as a vital tool to enhance the skills and capabilities of the workers. The hiring process also considers work experience in a specific role so that an individual serves better in the position through harnessing the human factors he possesses for the benefit of the company. Karwowski (2015) assess that an organization cannot exist without people. Even with the increased technology and automation in many sectors, human labor remains unreplaceable. People are needed to provide leadership and decision-making that will guide the direction of the company. They are vital in managing operations and controlling machines as well as developing policies, programs and procedures.
Human factors can be grouped into physical, emotional, cognitive, cultural, and emotional. To begin with, physical human factors appertain the physical capabilities of an individual which may impact his discharge of duties in the workplace (Reason, 2010). For example, physical disability such as blindness, deafness, etc. among employees contributes to serious human-errors. Cognitive human factors allude to skills and knowledge in the work area. The aviation industry owing to its complexity employs specialty and expertise in areas of piloting and engineers. Personnel handling specialized duties should be subject to continuous learning and improvement to adapt to the changing technology hence evading possible risks. Emotional characteristics of human factors allude to the attitude, behavior, and moods of a worker. Communication is one behavior that is encouraged in the workplace to enhance coordination and teamwork. Emotional instability such as bad moods anger, stress due to external factors are a serious cause of accidents in the aviation industry. Lastly, the organizational culture defines human factors. For example, an organization that delegates work according to worker skills and capabilities limits human errors. Modern organizations also strive to promote keenness, punctuality, and focus among employees (Reason, 2010). Its therefore undeniable that effectively addressing human factors enhance the success of any sector.
Why are human factors important in aviation?
Human factors in aviation seek to interpret how people may be integrated with technologies in the safest and efficient way possible (Wiener and Nagel, 2018). This knowledge is then used to improve human performance through design, education, policies, and procedures. Human factors entail gathering data on human capabilities, skills, experience, and limitations then applying them to machines, tools, jobs system tasks, and the aviation setting to enhance the safety, comfort, and efficiency of the aviation industry. It is undeniable that human factors are a critical consideration in the aviation industry with narrow interpretation considering human factors as equivalent to Maintenance Resource Management (MRM) or Crew Resource Management (CRM) (Latorella and Prabhu, 2010).
It has come to the realization of the aviation sector that human factors and not mechanical failure are the main cause of aviation incidents and accidents. Despite fast technological advancements, humans are ultimately accountable for the aviation industry’s profitability and safety (Dumitru and Boşcoianu, 2015). They must maintain their expertise, flexibility, dedication, and efficiency while exercising sound judgment. Meanwhile, the sector keeps making significant long-term expenditures in training, infrastructure, and systems. Accidents in the aviation industry are mainly caused by human errors of unintended mistakes, poor judgment or poor decision making, and disregard for operational procedures. Understanding human factors are the primary step of ensuring aviation safety through enhancing such measures as safety training during hiring employees.
The aviation sector is considering the improvement of human factors in order to control accidents in the sector. Skill development and nurturing as well as sourcing expertise in key technical areas is primary in alleviating accidents (Salas et al., 2010). An appropriate Maintenance Resource Management ensures adequate maintenance of airplanes discovering faults in the operational system which prevents system failure while the airplane is in the air. Human factors have been identified as a major cause of more than 70% of commercial aviation hull-loss incidents. Human error has lately become a major problem in maintenance procedures and air traffic management, notwithstanding its association with flight operations.
Skills and expertise in an area of professionalism reduce human error and promote effectiveness and accuracy. In this light, the aviation industry is currently maximizing skill and knowledge development within the staff through continuous learning programs. A rigorous hiring process also meets one when applying for a position in an aviation firm in a bid to ensure the right strain of human factors in the operational team. Skill and expertise, enhance technological development and innovation in the aviation sector. The aviation industry is a high consumer of technology from infrastructure development, operation of machinery to maintenance. The future of the industry is therefore with the experts who are constantly looking for better means to upgrade the current technological infrastructure.
Human factors affect operational efficiency and effectiveness in the aviation sector contributing greatly to the performance of the sector (Rashid, 2010). The type of employees in a firm has a direct impact on the profitability of the firm. Appropriate implementation of human factors such as communication creates teamwork among employees which is vital for enhancing coordination and cooperation resulting in increased performance. Aviation firms must keenly recruit experienced professionals who are capable of converting the organization’s goals and objectives reality through adequate decision-making (Aurino, 2010). On the other hand, inappropriate human factors within a team will reduce the company’s competitiveness. For instance, an aviation firm that employs a rude, emotional, and stern customer care representative will eventually drive away all potential customers for the company. In the current competitive aviation industry, human factors are considered vital for any firm to maintain its image and reputation. The most effective way of developing a company is through shaping the human factors within the workforce since they are the ones at the forefront of the firm and representing the company at both the customer level and suppliers’ level.
Human Factors that increased the risk of VH-ZCR accident
VH-ZCR, a private aircraft that was involved in an accident during take-off from Essendon airport with five people on board (Harro Ranter, 2018). A report from the Australian Transport Safety Board revealed several factors that led to the accident. Human factors are identified as the primary cause of the accident as described below:
Loss of situational awareness
According to ATSB, the pilot did not detect the full nose-left rudder trim setting during take-off. It was assessed that the rudder trim setting was in the full-nose left position when the aircraft took-off (Harro Ranter, 2018). The aircraft had experienced a longer than expected ground roll which made the pilot impatient and by the time the airplane was cleared for departure, the pilot forgot to check the nose rudder trim position. This resulted in the airplane taking a full nose left position prohibiting control and ascension and eventually colliding with the landscape. This shows that the human factors were in play: firstly, the long waiting roll made the pilot impatient and reduced his focus on key operational procedures before taking off. Impatience and loss of focus lead to loss of situational awareness which is all human factors that caused the aircraft accident that occurred in 2017. The loss of situational awareness may be due to human factors such as lack of competency and skills, unstable state of the mind, etc.
Omission of basic routine procedure
ATSB reported that on the morning of February 2017, there was a lot of congestion in the Essendon Airport which lead to flight VH-ZCR waiting for a long roll before clearance (Harro Ranter, 2018). In this light, the operator forgot to have the appropriate flight checks systems in place before the take-off which resulted in the accident. This could have resulted in workloads that affects the operator’s capacity to hold to basic routine practice. Other human factors that may contribute to this omission includes fatigue, forgetfulness, the poor state of mind, or lack of appropriate skills and experience.
Recommendation to address the identified human factors
It recommended that extensive and in-depth internal learning is conducted among the staff of the company. This includes providing further training for employees and evaluating their performance. This exercise allows employees to learn how to react in a variety of difficult circumstances that may arise in the airport, avoiding problems and critical blunders that might jeopardize the security of those who may be there (Dahlstrom, 2012). Response time, capacity to work under pressure, fluctuations in attention level, observance to rules, established legislation, and other elements should be researched since they may influence the appearance of a mistake that poses a substantial security danger. Qualified personnel should be able to work under pressure and observe keenness to details as well as obeying routine procedures. The accident occurred because of pressure in the workplace which resulted to loss of keenness and lack of compliance with basic routine procedures. Pressure is something unavoidable in the current world, especially in the aviation industry hence the best way is to equip the staff with the capacity to function well under pressure. This process will eliminate individuals who seem slow to work under pressure and accommodate quick thinkers and solution seekers who can eliminate accidents risks while improving the company’s profitability. As a result, effective human resource management and a focus on the construction of a good atmosphere may be required to resolve these issues.
Furthermore, the company should evaluate salaries, wages and remunerations it offers to its employees. Wage might be regarded one of the elements that influences human factors and can lead to improved or decreased performance (Wiley, 2017). Low salaries are frequently cited as one of the primary causes of poor performance, whereas higher earnings may attract more experienced individuals and provide extra motivation for all people working in this industry. Wage fluctuations have a direct relationship with employee happiness and productivity. It may also give people greater social chances and activities to help them advance their professions. Through appropriate renumeration schedules, the firm will employ an experienced labour force who are able to solve the everyday problem as well as maintaining keenness on operational efficiency.
The organizations have a role to play in ensuring that works are distributed property according to individual’s capacity. It may be found that a pilot losses situational awareness due to stress as a result of multiple trips without rests. As companies rush to get profit, they tend to concentrate on operations rather than the operator resulting in huge workloads and consequently human error and accidents (Kelly and Efthymiou, 2019). Its therefore recommendable that a clear work structure must be maintained to guide how the workers coordinate duties and schedules. Ensuring that an employee is in the right state of mind and health is vital for safety management of the firm. This also involves aviation firms setting a threshold of the number of employees needed to perform a task some companies tend to hire a limited number of workers then provides work overloads.
References
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Dahlstrom, N. (2012, September). Current aspects on aviation training and its relevance for safety. In Human Factors and Safety in Aviation: Proceedings from a conference, September 29-27, 2002, Lund, Sweden.
Dumitru, I. M., & Boşcoianu, M. (2015). Human factors contribute to aviation safety. International Scientific Committee, 49.
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