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Staffing and Workload
Companies require a workforce capable of undertaking technical operations, supplemented by other disciplines such as welfare and catering - all necessary to support safe operations and emergency response arrangements.
Effective staffing is all about having the right number of people, with the right skills, knowledge and experience, in the right place at the right time.
Requirements for staffing levels are primarily focused at ensuring there are sufficient numbers of trained personnel to deal with emergency situations. However, it is also vital to ensure there are enough personnel to safely operate, maintain and support safe operations.
To comply with regulatory requirements, manning levels at major hazard sites should be determined at design phase and relate to the nature of operations and type of process equipment in use.
A manning assessment may help to identify the personnel requirements for emergencies and safety-critical work scopes to ensure sufficient numbers of personnel are available to allow continued safe operation of the asset. Manning assessments should also consider different operational modes, i.e. shutdown, as well as welfare requirements.
As an example, manning levels for an offshore installation should include (but are not limited to):
Any changes to the staffing levels should be risk assessed and provide clear mitigations for any reduction. Variations can arise from changes to work activity, down manning, holidays, sickness, attending training courses, people leaving and new people who may not have attained the requisite competence levels to fulfil their role.
Some indicators that staffing levels may be impacted are work overload (i.e. increased error rates), high levels of fatigue (swing shifts and additional hours logged) and employees being required to cover other positions.
"There is often an assumption that staffing levels have been assessed and are documented somewhere but the basis of these numbers may be unclear or lack detail. For example, Station Bills should specify the emergency response roles and the number of each role required. In some cases, the roles are specified but the number required may be unclear or missing. In other cases, there may be multiple tools or documents that capture staffing levels but there is no clear picture. This makes it difficult to identify a drop in numbers and risk assess to provide mitigations.
"Once a baseline number is set then mitigations can be put in place to support offshore management when assessing any variations. Using a matrix and identifying criteria for mitigations (similar to how fire pumps are managed, for an example) is one mechanism to provide that support."
Read our new Human Factors - Safety Moment Pack
Download our Human Factors First Steps
Download external resource - Human factors briefing note no. 23 – Workload and staffing levels - EI
Download external resource - Assessing the safety of staffing arrangements for process operations in the chemical and allied industries - HSE
Download external resource - Safe staffing arrangements - user guide - EI
Regulator Guide - Offshore
Onshore COMAH