Drive Team Excellence with Human Factors Engineering Corporate Training

Human Factors Engineering (HFE) is a discipline focused on understanding the interactions between people, tasks, tools, and organisational systems to design safer, more reliable, and more efficient workplaces. Drawing on cognitive psychology, ergonomics, and systems thinking, HFE addresses how human performance is shaped by individual capabilities, task demands, environmental conditions, and organisational culture. The training covers human performance models, task and workload analysis, human-system interface design, error taxonomy and prevention strategies, situational awareness, safety-critical systems analysis, incident investigation, and safety culture development.

Edstellar's Human Factors Engineering Instructor-led course offers virtual/onsite training options to meet professionals' diverse needs. This flexibility ensures that teams can engage in learning experiences that best suit their logistical and operational preferences. What sets the Edstellar course apart is its emphasis on practical application, with hands-on workshops, real-world case studies from high-reliability industries, and structured exercises that translate HFE concepts into actionable workplace improvements. Edstellar equips professionals with the skills and confidence to design safer systems and build resilient safety cultures.

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Skills Your Employees Will Gain

These are the core, hands-on capabilities your team builds during the program.

  • Human Performance Analysis
  • Task Analysis and Workload Assessment
  • Human-System Interface Design
  • Error Identification and Prevention
  • Situational Awareness Enhancement
  • Human Factors Investigation and RCA
  • Safety Culture Integration

What Your Team Will Achieve After This Training

  • Master human performance models and cognitive ergonomics principles to analyse how individual, task, and organisational factors drive errors in safety-critical systems.
  • Gain practical expertise in task analysis and workload assessment methods to identify error-prone activities and redesign tasks for safer, more reliable performance.
  • Develop proficiency in human-system interface design, applying HFE standards to improve display usability, alarm management, and operator situational awareness.
  • Learn systematic error identification and prevention techniques using HFACS, HRA, and defence-in-depth approaches to reduce incident likelihood and severity.
  • Build capability in human factors investigation and root cause analysis to uncover systemic contributory factors behind incidents and near misses.
  • Apply HFE principles to strengthen safety culture, embed proactive reporting behaviours, and sustain long-term human performance improvement across the organisation.

Topics & Program Outline

The curriculum is organized into focused modules built by industry experts and delivered virtually or on-premise. Interactive sessions reflect the evolving demands of the workplace, keeping the learning both relevant and practical.

  1. Foundations and Scope of Human Factors Engineering
    • Definition and history of HFE as a discipline
    • Key domains: cognitive, physical, and organisational ergonomics
    • HFE applications in aviation, healthcare, energy, and manufacturing
    • Relationship between HFE and safety management systems
  2. Human Error Concepts and Terminology
    • Distinguishing slips, lapses, mistakes, and violations
    • Active versus latent failures in complex systems
    • The Swiss Cheese Model and its practical implications
    • Normalisation of deviance and high-reliability principles
  3. Systems Thinking and Sociotechnical Systems
    • Sociotechnical systems theory and its relevance to HFE
    • Understanding system boundaries and interdependencies
    • Emergent properties and unforeseen system interactions
    • Work-as-imagined versus work-as-done gaps
  4. Regulatory and Standards Landscape
    • Key HFE standards and guidelines (ISO 9241, IEC 62508)
    • Regulatory expectations for human factors in high-risk industries
    • Integrating HFE requirements into compliance frameworks
    • Case studies of regulatory HFE requirements in practice
  5. The Business Case for Human Factors Engineering
    • Quantifying the cost of human error and preventable incidents
    • Return on investment from HFE interventions
    • Linking HFE performance to organisational safety metrics
    • Building leadership support for HFE programmes
  6. Overview of HFE Methods and Tools
    • Survey of core HFE analytical methods and when to apply them
    • Introduction to task analysis, HRA, and interface evaluation tools
    • Selecting appropriate methods for different operational contexts
    • Integrating HFE tools into safety management workflows
  1. Information Processing Models
    • Stages of human information processing: perception, cognition, response
    • Attention and its limitations in complex operational environments
    • Memory systems: working memory, long-term memory, and prospective memory
    • Processing bottlenecks and their impact on performance under load
  2. Mental Models and Schema Theory
    • How operators form and use mental models of systems
    • Schema activation and errors from model mismatch
    • Strategies to support accurate mental model formation
    • Training implications for mental model alignment
  3. Skill, Rule, and Knowledge-Based Performance (Rasmussen's SRK)
    • Skill-based automaticity and associated slip and lapse errors
    • Rule-based behaviour and misapplication of stored rules
    • Knowledge-based problem solving under novel conditions
    • Designing interventions tailored to each performance level
  4. Cognitive Biases and Decision-Making Heuristics
    • Common cognitive biases affecting operational decisions
    • Confirmation bias, anchoring, and plan continuation errors
    • Recognition-primed decision making in time-critical scenarios
    • Strategies to mitigate bias-induced errors in safety contexts
  5. Stress, Fatigue, and Performance Degradation
    • Physiological and psychological effects of occupational stress on performance
    • Fatigue mechanisms and cumulative performance degradation
    • Shift work, circadian rhythms, and operational risk implications
    • Organisational controls to manage fatigue and stress risk
  6. Applying Performance Models to Workplace Design
    • Translating cognitive ergonomics insights into operational design recommendations
    • Matching task demands to human cognitive capabilities and limits
    • Using performance models to guide training and procedure development
    • Case studies linking cognitive ergonomics analysis to incident prevention
  1. Hierarchical Task Analysis (HTA)
    • HTA methodology: goals, sub-goals, operations, and plans
    • Conducting HTA interviews and observations in operational settings
    • Representing and documenting HTA outputs effectively
    • Using HTA to identify critical task steps and decision points
  2. Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA) Methods
    • Critical decision method (CDM) and think-aloud protocols
    • Applied cognitive task analysis (ACTA) framework
    • Capturing tacit knowledge from experienced operators
    • Translating CTA findings into training and procedure improvements
  3. Workload Measurement Techniques
    • NASA-TLX subjective workload assessment tool and administration
    • Bedford Scale and SWAT for operational workload rating
    • Physiological and performance-based workload indicators
    • Interpreting workload data to inform task redesign decisions
  4. Identifying Error-Prone Task Steps
    • Systematic human error reduction and prediction approach (SHERPA)
    • Predictive human error analysis from HTA outputs
    • Classifying error types at each task step using taxonomies
    • Prioritising high-risk steps for procedural or design intervention
  5. Task Allocation Between Humans and Automation
    • Principles of function allocation and human-automation teaming
    • Fitts' List and contemporary allocation frameworks
    • Identifying over-automation risks and skill degradation effects
    • Designing adaptive automation to maintain operator engagement
  6. Procedure Design and Validation
    • Principles of effective written procedure design for high-risk tasks
    • Common procedure deficiencies that contribute to human error
    • Procedure verification and validation methods including walkthrough
    • Continuous procedure review cycles tied to incident learning
  1. HFE Principles for Interface Design
    • Compatibility, consistency, and feedback principles in display design
    • Population stereotypes and expectancy in control and display layout
    • Applying ISO 9241 usability standards to operational interfaces
    • Differentiating between good and poor interface design examples
  2. Control Room and Workstation Ergonomics
    • Physical layout and anthropometric design of control rooms
    • Optimising reach zones and sight lines for operator efficiency
    • Lighting, noise, and environmental factor control for cognitive performance
    • Multi-screen display arrangement and information hierarchy principles
  3. Alarm Management
    • Alarm philosophy development aligned with EEMUA 191 and ISA 18.2
    • Alarm rationalisation to eliminate nuisance and chattering alarms
    • Prioritisation schemes and operator response time requirements
    • Managing alarm floods during abnormal and emergency situations
  4. Information Visualisation and Data Display
    • Principles of effective graphical data representation for operators
    • Using trend displays, overviews, and detail views effectively
    • Colour coding, symbology, and standardisation for quick recognition
    • Avoiding information overload and display clutter in dense systems
  5. Digital and Touchscreen Interface Considerations
    • HFE challenges specific to touchscreen and tablet-based interfaces
    • Gesture design, latency tolerance, and glove-compatible control
    • Voice and multimodal interface design for safety-critical applications
    • Evaluating digital interface prototypes using HFE review methods
  6. Interface Evaluation Methods
    • Heuristic evaluation using Nielsen's usability heuristics in safety contexts
    • Walkthrough and talk-through evaluation of control room interfaces
    • Usability testing with representative operators in simulated environments
    • Documenting and prioritising interface deficiencies for remediation
  1. Human Error Taxonomies
    • Reason's Generic Error Modelling System (GEMS) and error types
    • HFACS framework: organisational influences, supervision, preconditions, acts
    • TRACEr taxonomy for transport and safety-critical domain analysis
    • Selecting and applying the appropriate taxonomy for context
  2. Human Reliability Analysis (HRA) Methods
    • Technique for Human Error Rate Prediction (THERP) methodology
    • Human Error Assessment and Reduction Technique (HEART)
    • ATHEANA and CREAM for complex system reliability assessment
    • Quantifying human error probability for risk analysis integration
  3. Performance Shaping Factors (PSFs)
    • Identifying PSFs that increase or decrease human error likelihood
    • Time pressure, workload, procedure quality, and team communication as PSFs
    • Environmental and equipment-related PSFs in operational contexts
    • Applying PSF analysis to prioritise error reduction interventions
  4. Error Prevention Strategies
    • Defence-in-depth approach to layering error barriers and recovery mechanisms
    • Designing error-tolerant systems and forcing functions
    • Procedure and checklist optimisation to reduce execution errors
    • Positive reinforcement and just culture principles for error reporting
  5. Near-Miss and Incident Reporting Systems
    • Designing psychologically safe near-miss reporting environments
    • Classifying and coding near-miss events for trend analysis
    • Extracting learning signals from near-miss data at scale
    • Communicating near-miss insights to frontline and leadership audiences
  6. Error Proofing and Poka-Yoke in Safety Contexts
    • Applying error-proofing principles adapted from manufacturing to safety-critical tasks
    • Designing physical and digital constraints to prevent incorrect actions
    • Warning systems, interlocks, and forcing functions as error barriers
    • Evaluating error-proofing effectiveness through validation and testing
  1. Endsley's Model of Situational Awareness
    • Three levels of SA: perception, comprehension, and projection
    • Factors that degrade SA in complex and dynamic environments
    • SA requirements analysis for roles in safety-critical operations
    • Designing systems and interfaces to support higher-level SA
  2. Team Situational Awareness
    • Shared mental models and distributed cognition in operational teams
    • Communication breakdowns that lead to SA loss in team settings
    • Crew Resource Management (CRM) techniques for SA maintenance
    • Cross-checking and closed-loop communication as SA safeguards
  3. Naturalistic Decision Making (NDM)
    • Recognition-primed decision (RPD) model for expert operators
    • How experienced practitioners make decisions under time pressure
    • Sources of decision error in naturalistic operational contexts
    • Training strategies to accelerate expert pattern recognition
  4. Complacency and Automation Bias
    • Mechanisms of complacency in highly automated work environments
    • Automation bias and over-reliance on automated system outputs
    • Out-of-the-loop performance degradation and skill fade risks
    • Countermeasures to maintain active monitoring and operator readiness
  5. Stress and Decision Performance
    • Effects of acute and chronic stress on decision-making quality
    • Perceptual narrowing, tunnel vision, and anchoring under stress
    • Decision-making frameworks for emergency and abnormal situations
    • Resilience training approaches to improve performance under pressure
  6. SA Measurement and Training Methods
    • SAGAT and SART tools for measuring situational awareness in context
    • Simulation-based SA training and scenario design principles
    • Debriefing techniques to reinforce SA lessons from training exercises
    • Embedding SA assessments into operational competency frameworks
  1. HFE in Aviation and Air Traffic Management
    • Human factors contributions to aviation accidents and near misses
    • Cockpit design and flight deck human factors standards
    • CRM evolution and its cross-industry application
    • Air traffic control human factors challenges and mitigations
  2. HFE in Healthcare and Patient Safety
    • Human factors in medication errors and clinical adverse events
    • Operating theatre and ICU human factors challenges
    • Healthcare system design using HFE principles (SEIPS model)
    • Handover protocols and communication failure in clinical settings
  3. HFE in Oil, Gas, and Energy
    • Lessons from major process industry accidents (Deepwater Horizon, Texas City)
    • Operator tasks in abnormal situation management for process plants
    • HFE requirements in HAZOP, LOPA, and safety case development
    • Human factors in permit-to-work and maintenance task management
  4. HFE in Rail and Transportation
    • Human factors in rail signal passing at danger (SPAD) incidents
    • Driver vigilance, attention management, and fatigue in rail operations
    • Cab ergonomics and interface design in transportation systems
    • Applying HFE to road vehicle driver-assistance system design
  5. HFE in Nuclear and High-Reliability Organisations
    • Human factors in nuclear safety and defence-in-depth philosophy
    • Control room human factors in nuclear power plant operations
    • High-reliability organisation (HRO) principles and their HFE basis
    • Human performance improvement (HPI) programmes in nuclear utilities
  6. Cross-Industry HFE Lessons and Transfer
    • Common human factors themes across safety-critical industries
    • Transferring HFE lessons and best practices between sectors
    • Adapting HFE methods developed in one industry for another context
    • Building an industry-relevant HFE case study library for organisational learning
  1. Organisational Influences on Human Performance
    • How organisational structure, goals, and pressures shape frontline behaviour
    • Production-safety trade-off dynamics and their incident contribution
    • Leadership behaviour as a driver of safety climate and performance
    • Resource allocation decisions and their downstream human factors impact
  2. Safety Culture Models and Frameworks
    • Reason's safety culture model: informed, reporting, just, flexible, and learning
    • INSAG safety culture definition and its application to assessments
    • Hearts and Minds safety culture framework and maturity ladder
    • Differentiating safety culture from safety climate in practice
  3. Assessing Safety Culture Maturity
    • Validated safety culture survey tools and their administration
    • Qualitative methods: observations, focus groups, and document analysis
    • Interpreting assessment findings and identifying priority culture gaps
    • Benchmarking safety culture scores against industry norms
  4. Just Culture and Psychological Safety
    • Just culture principles: accountability without blame for systemic errors
    • Designing just culture decision frameworks for incident classification
    • Psychological safety as a foundation for near-miss reporting effectiveness
    • Leadership behaviours that reinforce or undermine just culture norms
  5. Team Factors: Communication and Coordination
    • Team communication failure patterns in safety-critical operations
    • Briefing and debriefing practices for hazardous task management
    • Handover and shift turnover as high-risk communication events
    • Assertiveness training and speaking-up culture in hierarchical teams
  6. Developing Safety Culture Interventions
    • Designing targeted interventions based on safety culture assessment gaps
    • Leadership development programmes to shift safety culture norms
    • Frontline engagement strategies for sustainable behavioural change
    • Measuring safety culture improvement over time using lagging and leading indicators
  1. Principles of Human Factors Incident Investigation
    • Shifting from blame to system-oriented investigation thinking
    • Investigator biases and hindsight bias in post-incident analysis
    • Preserving and collecting human factors evidence at incident scenes
    • Interviewing witnesses and operators using cognitive interview techniques
  2. Applying HFACS to Incident Investigation
    • Using HFACS taxonomy to code causal and contributory factors
    • Mapping investigation findings to HFACS layers systematically
    • Identifying organisational and supervisory factors behind unsafe acts
    • Communicating HFACS-based findings to technical and non-technical audiences
  3. Root Cause Analysis (RCA) Methods for Human Factors
    • 5 Whys analysis with human factors lens for causal chain development
    • Fishbone (Ishikawa) diagram applied to human and organisational factors
    • Barrier analysis and change analysis in human factors investigations
    • TapRoot and MORT methods for systematic root cause identification
  4. Common Cause Analysis and Trend Identification
    • Aggregating individual incident findings to identify systemic patterns
    • Using HFACS and near-miss data for common cause analysis
    • Statistical approaches to incident trend detection and prioritisation
    • Presenting systemic trend findings to drive strategic safety investment
  5. Corrective Action Development and Tracking
    • Developing targeted corrective actions mapped to root causes
    • Hierarchy of controls applied to human factors corrective actions
    • Verifying corrective action effectiveness through follow-up evaluation
    • Managing and tracking open corrective actions to closure
  6. Lessons Learned Communication and Organisational Learning
    • Designing effective lessons learned communication for operational teams
    • Avoiding alert fatigue when disseminating incident learning
    • Embedding incident lessons into training and procedure updates
    • Building a learning organisation culture through continuous incident review
  1. Integrating HFE into Safety Management Systems
    • Mapping HFE activities to SMS elements and bow-tie risk models
    • Embedding HFE requirements into management of change processes
    • HFE input into HAZOP, HAZID, and risk assessment workshops
    • Aligning HFE programmes with ISO 45001 and industry safety standards
  2. HFE in Design and Engineering Projects
    • Incorporating HFE into early design stages to reduce costly late changes
    • Task-based design review and human factors design verification
    • Conducting desktop and simulation-based human factors assessments
    • HFE deliverables in capital project gating and safety case development
  3. Training Design Using HFE Principles
    • Applying cognitive load theory to training content and delivery design
    • Simulation fidelity requirements for safety-critical skills training
    • Scenario-based training for error recognition and recovery skills
    • Competency validation approaches aligned with HFE task requirements
  4. Human Performance Improvement (HPI) Programmes
    • HPI framework elements: tools, observations, and corrective actions
    • Pre-job briefings, self-checking (STAR), and peer-checking techniques
    • Stop-work authority and questioning attitude as HPI culture enablers
    • Measuring HPI programme effectiveness using leading indicators
  5. Measuring and Reporting Human Factors Performance
    • Developing an HFE KPI dashboard using leading and lagging indicators
    • Near-miss rate, human error frequency, and barrier effectiveness metrics
    • Reporting HFE performance to senior leadership and safety committees
    • Using HFE data to drive continuous improvement in safety strategy
  6. Building an Organisational HFE Capability
    • Defining HFE roles, responsibilities, and competency requirements
    • Developing an internal HFE centre of excellence and community of practice
    • Engaging external HFE expertise and academic partnerships strategically
    • Creating a multi-year HFE roadmap linked to organisational safety goals

Who Should Attend?

This program suits professionals at many levels across the organization, including:

  • Safety Engineers
  • Operations Managers
  • Process Engineers
  • Human Factors Specialists
  • Risk and Compliance Officers
  • Industrial Designers

What are the Prerequisites?

Professionals should have a basic understanding of workplace safety principles and operational processes, along with familiarity with risk management concepts and safety management systems, to take the Human Factors Engineering training course.

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Delivering Training for Organizations across 100 Countries and 10+ Languages

Choose the Format That Fits Your Team

We design training your teams actually engage with, and deliver it the way that suits you best. Through a vetted global trainer network, Edstellar runs sessions in 10+ languages with consistent quality anywhere.

Virtual Human Factors Engineering Training

Virtual / online: expert-led live sessions delivered anywhere, with consistency and easy scheduling.

We deliver anywhere worldwide
Standardized content for consistent outcomes
Join from own workspace, no travel
We scale to large groups across sites
Interactive tools keep remote learners engaged
On-site Human Factors Engineering Training

On-site (in-house): immersive, instructor-led learning at your office.

Our trainers run face-to-face at your office
We tailor setup/content to your workplace and tools
Group exercises drive collaboration
Live demos +  hands-on practice
Direct trainer access to clarify doubts
Off-site Human Factors Engineering Training

Off-site: focused, instructor-led group learning away from everyday workplace distractions.

We host your teams at a venue of your preferred choice
Built-in group activities for bonding
Full uninterrupted schedule for focus/retention
Boosts morale and signals commitment

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Need pricing for onsite, offsite, or virtual delivery? Get a proposal tailored to your team's needs.

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        What Sets Edstellar Apart

        Experienced Trainers

        Our trainers are drawn from a vetted global network and bring years of industry expertise, keeping every session practical and impactful.

        Proven Quality

        With a strong global track record, Edstellar is known for quality and engaging delivery.

        Industry-Relevant Curriculum

        Our programs are built by experts to match the demands of today's industry.

        Fully Customizable

        Every program can be tailored to your organization's goals.

        Comprehensive Support

        We provide pre- and post-session support for a complete learning experience.

        Global Multi-Location & Multilingual Training Delivery

        We deliver in multiple languages to support diverse global teams.

        Hear from Organizations We've Trained

        "Edstellar's virtual Human Factors Engineering training transformed the way our safety engineers and operations teams think about error prevention. Within six months of completing the programme, we recorded a 34% reduction in human error-related incidents and a 52% improvement in near-miss reporting rates across our facilities. The structured modules on cognitive ergonomics and HRA gave our team practical tools they could apply immediately."

        Dr. Sarah Mitchell

        Head of Safety Engineering,

        A Global Energy and Resources Company

        "The onsite Human Factors Engineering training delivered by Edstellar had a measurable impact across our operations. Our safety culture scores improved by 28 percentage points in our post-training pulse survey, and we achieved a 41% reduction in ergonomic-related injuries over the following two quarters. The facilitators brought deep industry knowledge and the workshop exercises were directly applicable to our plant environment."

        James Okafor

        Plant Operations Director,

        A Large-Scale Process Manufacturing Group

        "Edstellar's intensive off-site Human Factors Engineering programme enabled us to deploy a comprehensive HFE framework across our organisation within four months. We reduced average incident investigation time by 38% through the adoption of HFACS-based RCA methods, and our near-miss capture rate increased by 60% following the just culture and reporting system overhaul. An outstanding investment in our long-term safety performance."

        Caroline Firth

        Chief Safety Officer,

        A Critical Infrastructure and Utilities Enterprise

        "Edstellar's Compliance training programs have greatly strengthened our organization's ability to manage regulatory risks with confidence and consistency. The sessions combine practical compliance frameworks, real-case scenarios, and expert insights, enabling our teams to interpret regulations accurately, strengthen governance practices, enhance data protection measures, and maintain compliance across evolving regulatory landscapes."

        Sonia D'Souza

        Head of Compliance,

        A Global Financial Services Company

        Recognition That Motivates Your Team

        Upon successful completion of the training course offered by Edstellar, employees receive a course completion certificate, symbolizing their dedication to ongoing learning and professional development.

        This certificate validates the employee's acquired skills and is a powerful motivator, inspiring them to enhance their expertise further and contribute effectively to organizational success.

        Recognition That Motivates Your Team