Exploring the Perfect Fit: Human Factors Tools in High-Risk Regulation
Tracks
Room 2
| Wednesday, December 2, 2026 |
| 11:10 AM - 11:30 AM |
| Concurrent Room 1 |
Overview
Simron Baruah and Justine McGillivray
Speaker
Ms Simron Baruah
Inspector-Human Factors - WorkSafe Petroleum Safety and Dangerous Goods Directorate
Department of Local Government, Industry Regulation and Safety
Exploring the Perfect Fit: Human Factors Tools in High-Risk Regulation
Biography
Simron is an Organisational Psychology Registrar with experience in human factors and safety within risk-risk industries. She completed a Master of Industrial and Organisational Psychology at the University of Western Australia, where her research focused on adaptable automation transparency.
She currently works as an Inspector of Human Factors within the WorkSafe WA Petroleum Safety team, supporting regulatory oversight across the oil and gas, and major hazard facilities. Her work focuses on applying Human Factors principles and methods to better understand human and organisational risks, safety-critical work, and the effectiveness of controls in complex operational environments, including control rooms and other similar settings.
Ms Justine McGillivray
Department of Local Government Industry Regulation and Safety
Exploring the Perfect Fit: Human Factors Tools in High-Risk Regulation
Abstract
Regulators with oversight of oil, gas, and energy sectors play a critical role in reducing the risk of major accident events (MAEs) across high-risk industries where failure can have severe consequences. These environments involve complex systems, safety-critical tasks, and reliance on human performance under varying conditions. Increasing recognition that safety outcomes are shaped by interactions between people, systems, and operational demands has highlighted limitations in traditional compliance-focused approaches and the need for improved regulatory methods. This presentation explores how human factors became a “perfect fit” for strengthening regulatory approaches and industry capability in managing human and organisational contributors to MAEs.
The Western Australia regulator initiated a Human Factors (HF) Capability Strategy in 2021 to strengthens regulatory capability and industry understanding of HF principles and methods. Initial activities focused on establishing a baseline understanding of HF maturity across PCBUs while also providing education, engagement and practical guidance to support industry capability uplift. As capability increased, the regulatory focus expanded to assurance activities, including inspections and investigations, with HF tools embedded to support more consistent and system-based evaluation of risks and controls.
A range of HF methods were applied both proactively and reactively. Proactively, safety-critical task analysis (SCTA) and modified SHERPA were trialled collaboratively with industry to identify performance shaping factors, risks, and control gaps associated with safety-critical work. These activities identified misfit between procedures and operational practice, over-reliance on administrative controls, and controls that degraded under operational variability. Reactively, methods such as AcciMap and the Cognitive Reliability and Error Analysis Method were applied during investigations to examine how organisational and operational conditions influenced human performance and control effectiveness.
The initiative demonstrated how embedding the right fit of HF methods within regulatory activities can strengthen risk identification, evaluation of controls, and support more practical and resilient approaches to managing MAE risks
The Western Australia regulator initiated a Human Factors (HF) Capability Strategy in 2021 to strengthens regulatory capability and industry understanding of HF principles and methods. Initial activities focused on establishing a baseline understanding of HF maturity across PCBUs while also providing education, engagement and practical guidance to support industry capability uplift. As capability increased, the regulatory focus expanded to assurance activities, including inspections and investigations, with HF tools embedded to support more consistent and system-based evaluation of risks and controls.
A range of HF methods were applied both proactively and reactively. Proactively, safety-critical task analysis (SCTA) and modified SHERPA were trialled collaboratively with industry to identify performance shaping factors, risks, and control gaps associated with safety-critical work. These activities identified misfit between procedures and operational practice, over-reliance on administrative controls, and controls that degraded under operational variability. Reactively, methods such as AcciMap and the Cognitive Reliability and Error Analysis Method were applied during investigations to examine how organisational and operational conditions influenced human performance and control effectiveness.
The initiative demonstrated how embedding the right fit of HF methods within regulatory activities can strengthen risk identification, evaluation of controls, and support more practical and resilient approaches to managing MAE risks
Biography
Justine is an Organisational Psychologist and human factors specialist with extensive experience in workplace health and safety and regulation. She is currently the Principal Inspector – Human Factors at WorkSafe Western Australia, where she leads the Human Factors Capability Strategy, strengthening regulatory practice through evidence-based approaches to the risk management of major accident events.
Justine is a co-founder and former National President of the Society for Industrial and Organisational Psychology Australia (SIOPA), where she played a key role in advancing the profession nationally and fostering strong links between research, practice, and policy. She brings deep expertise in psychosocial risk, organisational systems, decision-making, and incident analysis, with a strong focus on improving outcomes for workers and organisations.
Across her career, Justine has worked at the intersection of psychology, regulation, and leadership, contributing to the development of practical, systems-focused approaches to safety and performance. She is widely recognised for her strategic leadership, technical credibility, and commitment to building capability in human factors and organisational psychology.
