We can’t disassociate risk management from the manufacturing industry where incidents don’t just cause a loss of profit but, in the worst case, loss of life. An assessment and prevention system is critical to stop these tragedies from happening. Yet however strong the system is, incidents still occur, and can often be attributed to human error.

The cause of human error

We are the creators of our world. We’ve created systems and conventions to help us navigate our environment. Employees – ideally – know exactly what they’re faced with every day. Nonetheless, they’re only human. Certain actions and behaviors are automatic and intuitive, so when faced with something out of the ordinary, rules become an afterthought.

Our moods and emotions impact our focus. To manage risks is to manage human behavior, and predict how people will react in specific situations. What is our knee-jerk reaction in a specific situation, and how do we make adjustments so that our instinct follows the safety guidelines?

The challenges of changing behavior

We don’t enjoy hearing that we make mistakes, and often have emotional reactions to confrontations, which doesn’t lead to the desired behavioral change: being more careful and precise. What also doesn’t influence our behavior very much is data and rules. Numbers and words are meaningless compared to actual experience.

People are much less likely to change their behavior in a situation where they’ve always felt safe and have never experienced an incident, even if that situation can change in a flash or there are suddenly added risks. One way technology is solving this problem is by using simulators and VR to simulate the actual experience, and raise awareness.

We know we shouldn’t, but we still do

A strong risk management system takes into account the fact that people will consciously take risks if they feel that the benefit outweighs it. For example, if you could skip a few steps in a task to make it go faster, and nine times out of ten, you’re fine, our bias speaks in favor of skipping the steps.

The challenge here is to make sure that the perceived benefit of the safe choice is much bigger than the perceived benefit of the fast choice. This is especially vital to creating a safety culture in which your employees actively participate. The greatest benefit of all is safety.

We don’t see what isn’t there

Risks are generally intangible. They are a consequence of certain actions, but they’re not in your face where you can see them and interact with them. This also causes problems in the analytical phase. People are inherently biased, especially when interpreting data which is all you often have to go on.

This is why it’s important to have several pairs of eyes in a risk management job. People with different backgrounds, experiences, and biases will come to different conclusions, and that will hopefully result in a more complete assessment.

What do you see as a challenge when it comes to risk management? We’d love to hear your thoughts. Use the social media buttons to get in touch, send us an e-mail, and don’t forget to subscribe for more news.

Photo by Lubo Minar on Unsplash