Rail standards and industry guidelines mandate the integration of Human Factors (HF) into the design lifecycle, yet they rarely prescribe when or how this should be achieved in practice during tender design. For HF practitioners working within competitive tender environments, this ambiguity creates a persistent challenge: finding the point at which HF involvement is neither too early to be effective whilst designs are in flux, nor too late to meaningfully influence tender design outcomes. An additional barrier to fitting HF in at the right time is that those procuring HF services often have limited understanding of what they are buying or the value that well-integrated HF delivers.

Facilitated by Stephanie Cynk, a Human Factors consultant with 18 years of experience across rail design and engineering projects, this workshop will explore the gap between client and tender team expectations of HF involvement and what genuine best practice looks like from a practitioner's perspective. Through a mix of presentation, facilitated structured activities, and group discussion, participants will draw on their own experiences across industries and project types to collectively examine this challenge. The workshop aims to build a shared picture of the barriers practitioners commonly face when integrating HF across different stages of tender design, the factors that should inform decisions about when and how HF fits best, and which HF activities and technical contributions are likely to deliver the greatest value at each stage.

Participants will leave with practical insights and a broadened perspective to help them advocate for, plan, and position HF more effectively within future tender environments.