HUMAN PERFORMANCE SERVICES: Reduce Errors, Cultivate Excellence
Your people are your most valuable asset — and your greatest source of operational risk.
Strengthen human performance through systems that prevent errors, build competency, and sustain safety culture.
Human error contributes to 60-80% of incidents in most industries. Training failures create competency gaps. Procedure problems drive workarounds and non-compliance. Poor safety culture permits normalization of deviance.
These aren’t individual failures—they’re system failures that can be addressed through effective human performance programs.
We help Canadian organizations reduce human error, strengthen training effectiveness, improve procedure quality, build competency, and cultivate safety culture.
Why Human Performance Matters
Human performance problems create tangible consequences:
Safety Risk: Human errors in safety-critical work create incidents, injuries, or environmental releases.
Regulatory Consequences: Non-compliance with procedures or competency requirements triggers regulatory findings, corrective actions, or sanctions.
Operational Disruption: Errors create rework, production delays, customer dissatisfaction, or equipment damage.
Knowledge Loss: Staff departures without knowledge transfer create competency gaps and operational vulnerability.
Quality Problems: Training deficiencies, procedure errors, or competency gaps drive product or service quality issues.
Financial Cost: Incidents, rework, regulatory responses, and inefficiency create measurable costs.
Human performance programs address these risks through systematic approaches:
Error Prevention: Design systems that prevent errors or catch them before consequences occur.
Training Effectiveness: Build genuine competency, not just checkbox training completion.
Procedure Quality: Create procedures people can follow successfully under real working conditions.
Competency Management: Verify, maintain, and develop workforce capability.
Safety Culture: Cultivate organizational values, beliefs, and behaviours that prioritize safety.
OUR APPROACH: Plant Systems, not Blame
Traditional approaches to human performance focus on individual accountability—blame the worker, retrain, hope it doesn’t happen again.
Effective human performance programs recognize most errors stem from system weaknesses, not individual carelessness:
Address Root Causes,
Not Symptoms
Individual errors are symptoms. System weaknesses are root causes. Treating symptoms doesn’t prevent recurrence.
What this means:
- Error investigation focuses on “why was error possible?” not “who made the error?”
- Solutions address latent system weaknesses (confusing procedures, inadequate training, time pressure, poor design)
- Accountability for fixing systems, not punishing individuals
- Learning culture rather than blame culture
Design Error-Tolerant Systems
Human error is inevitable. Systems can be designed to prevent errors, detect them early, or mitigate consequences.
What this means:
- Error-likely situations identified and controlled (fatigue, time pressure, complex tasks, look-alike/sound-alike items)
- Human factors engineering applied to work design, procedures, and interfaces
- Verification and double-checks for high-consequence tasks
- Barriers and defenses that catch errors before consequences
Build Competency Through Effective Training
Training checkbox completion doesn’t create competency. Competency requires knowledge, skill, and demonstrated performance.
What this means:
- Competency-based training (focus on what people can do, not what they’ve been told)
- Training evaluation verifies learning, not just attendance
- Qualification programs demonstrate competency before authorizing high-consequence work
- Continuous learning and skill maintenance, not one-time training
Create Usable Procedures
Procedures that don’t match reality drive workarounds, errors, and non-compliance. Usable procedures support performance rather than hinder it.
What this means:
- Procedures written in clear, concise language
- Procedures match how work is actually performed
- Field validation before approval (test procedures with users)
- Regular review and revision based on user feedback
- Remove obstacles and barriers to procedural adherence
Cultivate Safety Culture
Safety culture is the collection of organizational values, beliefs, and behaviours regarding safety. Strong safety culture prevents errors, encourages reporting, supports learning, and sustains performance over time.
What this means:
- Leadership commitment and modeling of safety values
- Open reporting culture (psychological safety to report errors and concerns)
- Learning from events (near misses, precursor events, not just incidents)
- Continuous improvement, not static compliance
- Balance production pressure with safety priority
Typical Human Performance Outcomes
Error Reduction
- 30-60% reduction in human performance events over 2-3 years
- Fewer repeat errors through effective corrective actions
- Earlier error detection through enhanced awareness
Training Effectiveness
- Improved competency demonstration rates
- Better knowledge and skill retention
- Reduced time to competency for new staff
- More confident and capable workforce
Procedural Adherence
- Increased procedure usage and adherence
- Fewer workarounds and informal practices
- Better procedure quality and usability
- Reduced procedure-related errors
Safety Culture Improvement
- Increased event reporting and openness
- Stronger safety leadership and accountability
- Better learning from events
- Improved staff safety attitudes and behaviours
Regulatory Performance
- Fewer human performance-related regulatory findings
- Better demonstration of competency and training effectiveness
- Improved audit and inspection results
- Stronger compliance culture
Organizational Capability
- Reduced dependency on key individuals
- Better knowledge transfer and succession
- Increased organizational resilience
- Continuous performance improvement
OUR SERVICES: Seven Branches of Human Performance
Human Performance Program Development
Develop fruitful interactions.
Establish comprehensive human performance program addressing error prevention, training, competency, procedures, and safety culture.
Timeline: 10-16 weeks depending on scope
Best for: Regulated organizations, high-consequence operations, or organizations establishing formal human performance capability
Components
- Human performance governance and oversight
- Error prevention tools and techniques
- Event investigation and learning system
- Training and qualification program framework
- Competency management system
- Procedure development and management
- Safety culture assessment and improvement
- Human performance metrics and monitoring
Deliverables
- Human performance program framework and policies
- Error prevention toolkit
- Event investigation protocols
- Training program structure
- Competency management process
- Procedure standards and templates
- Safety culture improvement plan
Training Program Development and Evaluation
Sow strong skill seeds.
Design effective training programs that build genuine competency.
Timeline: Varies by training program scope (6-12 weeks typical)
Best for: Organizations establishing training programs, addressing training deficiencies, or improving training effectiveness
Services
- Training needs analysis (what competency is required?)
- Training program design (systematic approach to training)
- Learning objectives and evaluation criteria
- Training materials development
- Instructor training and qualification
- Training effectiveness evaluation
- Continuous improvement of training programs
Approach
- Systematic approach to training (SAT) methodology
- Competency-based training design
- Adult learning principles
- Multiple delivery methods (classroom, hands-on, simulation, e-learning)
- Evaluation at knowledge, skill, and performance levels
Competency and Qualification Program Development
Tend your crop.
Establish systems to verify, maintain, and develop workforce competency.
Timeline: 8-14 weeks depending on number of roles and complexity
Best for: Regulated industries, high-consequence operations, or organizations with competency-related incidents or findings
Components
- Competency framework (what competency is required for each role?)
- Qualification standards and criteria
- Assessment methods (written tests, performance demonstrations, work observations)
- Initial qualification process
- Continuing competency and requalification
- Records management and tracking
- Governance and oversight
Deliverables
- Competency matrix by role
- Qualification standards and evaluation criteria
- Assessment tools and instruments
- Qualification procedures and forms
- Records management approach
Procedure Quality Improvement
Spread knowledge.
Improve procedure quality, usability, and adherence through systematic enhancement.
Timeline: Varies by number of procedures (4-8 weeks for standards and pilot, ongoing for full implementation)
Best for: Organizations with procedural adherence problems, user complaints about procedures, or compliance findings related to procedures
Services
- Procedure quality assessment (readability, accuracy, usability)
- Procedure writing standards and templates
- Procedure writer training
- Procedure validation and field testing
- Procedure adherence analysis
- Continuous improvement process for procedures
Approach
- User-centered procedure design
- Plain language and clear formatting
- Field validation before approval
- Regular review and revision
- Address barriers to procedural adherence
Safety Culture Assessment and Improvement
Weed out
safety risk.
Evaluate and strengthen organizational safety culture.
Timeline: 6-10 weeks for assessment and planning, ongoing for improvement implementation
Best for: Organizations with incident trends, regulatory pressure, leadership transitions, or proactive culture strengthening
Process
- Safety culture assessment (surveys, focus groups, observations, document review)
- Current state analysis (strengths, weaknesses, cultural themes)
- Comparison to good practice and industry benchmarks
- Improvement recommendations
- Implementation planning and support
Deliverables
- Safety culture assessment report
- Strengths and improvement opportunities
- Comparison to benchmarks
- Prioritized improvement plan
- Leadership engagement and communication strategy
Event Investigation and Root Cause Analysis
Expose the roots.
Investigate incidents, near misses, and precursor events to identify root causes and prevent recurrence.
Timeline: Varies (2-day training typical, individual investigations as needed)
Best for: Organizations with recurring incidents, regulatory requirements for investigation, or improving investigation quality
Services
- Investigation training (supervisors, investigators, management)
- Investigation protocols and templates
- Root cause analysis facilitation
- Corrective action development and verification
- Learning and communication from events
- Trending and analysis of event data
Methods
- Five Whys analysis
- Fishbone diagrams (Ishikawa)
- Barrier analysis
- Timeline analysis
- Human performance investigation techniques
- Causal tree analysis
Error Prevention and Human Factors Training
Germinate quality and safety.
Train staff in error prevention tools, human factors awareness, and performance improvement techniques.
Format: Interactive workshops (half-day to 2-day depending on depth) with real organizational examples
Best for: All staff (general awareness) or specialized training for supervisors, procedure writers, investigators, trainers
Topics
- Human error mechanisms (slips, lapses, mistakes, violations)
- Error-likely situations (fatigue, time pressure, complacency, similar items)
- Error prevention tools (self-checking, peer checking, STAR, placekeeping, questioning attitude)
- Human factors basics (design for human capabilities and limitations)
- Event investigation and root cause analysis
- Learning from events and near misses
RELATED SERVICES
Process Optimization: Human performance improvement overlaps with process optimization—reduce errors while improving efficiency.
Explore Process Optimization →
Governance Compliance: Human performance programs support compliance—training records, competency demonstration, procedural adherence.
Explore Governance Compliance →
Documentation Quality: Procedure quality is human performance enabler—clear, usable, accurate procedures support adherence.
Explore Documentation Quality →
Information Management: Competency records, training documentation, and event investigation require effective information management.
Explore Information Management →