Tips and Techniques for Creating Safe, Human-Factored Procedures

By Chris Pfaff and Kylie Frandsen

One of the most important parts of procedure development is ensuring the safety of your team and processes. Of course, that doesn’t look the same every single time—in fact, knowing the audience you’re writing a procedure for is one of the best ways to help ensure safety. Knowing what they care about, what will draw their attention, what will confuse them or make them drown out: all of these are vital in creating what the Procedure Professionals Association (PPA) refers to as “human-factored” procedures.

What exactly does it mean for a procedure to be human-factored? Well, it means that procedures must be written with the intended user in mind and an understanding of the planned users’ skill sets and responsibilities. This allows procedures to be written in a format that minimizes the potential for confusion or misunderstandings for the actual users.

So, what can we do to make sure our procedures are written in a way that’s most helpful to the intended users in order to ensure the safety of our team and processes? Our advice? Follow these best practices from our team of experts:

• Flagging/Operational Barrier

Distinctively mark correct components to help performers visually return to the correct component, whether that visual return happens as a part of the activity or after a distraction or interruption.

• Peer Checking

Have two individuals (performer and checker) work together to agree that an action is the correct action to be performed. This helps prevent an error by the performer.

• Place Keeping

Physically mark a procedure to prevent the omission or duplication of steps. This users account for their steps that are in progress, steps that are completed, steps that are not applicable, and steps that have not yet been performed.

• Procedural Use & Adherence

Understand the procedure’s overall purpose and intent and follow its direction. Perform all actions as specified by the document. If it cannot be used as written, stop and correct before continuing.

• Self-Checking (STAR)

STAR stands for Stop, Think, Act, and Review. Pause to reflect on the intended action; think about whether the proposed action is the right action for the situation; take the action; and review the results of the action to determine of the right results were obtained.

• Stop When Unsure

When confronted with confusion or uncertainty, stop and ask for help from others.

• Two Minute Rule

Take two minutes before beginning work to perform a situational assessment and review of the planned work.

• Three-Way Communication

Have the message originator or sender verify that the receiver understands the message as intended, and have the receiver ensure they understand what the sender is saying.

While we can’t guarantee a perfect formula for developing safe and human-factored procedures, these tips should lead you to an excellent starting point.

If you’re feeling a little overwhelmed by developing a procedure or whole programs of procedures, that’s okay! Our team of experts has decades of experience and is here to help. Reach out at DuraBante.com/Contact to see if we could be a great match for a future partnership.