Survey data from various countries identify the “human factor” as the root cause of more than 60% of accidents. This statistic has led organizations and industries that promote and implement best practices to consider people as the most important component in ensuring safe operations, and they focus their efforts accordingly.
In mechanical integrity management, humans play a dual role: on the one hand, they represent a hazard or threat that can cause failures and, consequently, incidents or accidents; on the other hand, they act as risk managers for those threats, helping to prevent failures in the facilities.
When accidents occur, some of the root causes attributed to the human factor include carelessness, influence of alcohol or drugs, incompetence, overconfidence, lack of experience, etc. Investigation teams that analyze events in depth to effectively identify true root causes often ask themselves whether these factors are truly the root causes of the incidents, or whether there are deeper causes unrelated to the specific location of the failures or incidents. It has been found that real root causes often involve deeper aspects such as strategy, leadership, organizational structure, technical structure, competency development, information management, and more.
This leads to the conclusion that preventing failures in facilities due to the human factor must be a strategic component of a company’s overall plan. Therefore, it should hold a prominent place within the strategy and become a high-level strategic objective, supported by well-established policies and action plans. In this context, the integrity management technical team should hold a leading role in the organization’s strategy.
Another critical aspect is leadership at all levels. Companies must be very careful in forming their structures and selecting their leaders. Anyone responsible for coordinating human resources must be thoroughly prepared for this role. In practice, this is possibly the most difficult issue to address and resolve, but due to its importance, it must be clearly defined and actively managed. This is especially relevant for operational activities and integrity management.
People are also responsible for managing information and applying standards in operational practices. A company’s technical structure should ensure that technical information generated during various activities is correctly coded (with a written methodology for handling technical information), stored in the right place (accessible to all relevant stakeholders), easy to understand, up to date, etc. Only then can the risk of failure due to poor information management be reduced. It is essential to highlight that integrity management relies entirely on the information generated throughout the life cycle of the facilities.
Regarding standards, it’s important to note that they serve as guides for industrial best practices. They are developed by industry experts based on years of experience in specific operational and technical areas. Companies should apply these standards in their daily operations and play an active role through their technical areas in the development and review of operational technical guides and standards.
Another fundamental (and possibly the most critical) issue is ensuring that personnel performing operational and integrity management tasks are competent at the time of performing them. This will greatly help avoid failures and accidents during these activities.
The competency development process for specialists performing operational and integrity tasks must consider four key aspects:
- Aptitude – The natural ability or inherent trait a person has for performing a task.
- Attitude – It is essential to understand that human activities occur within communities, and operational/ integrity management tasks are no exception. Therefore, teams must carry out their duties harmoniously, with a positive attitude toward the tasks and fellow team members.
- Knowledge – Acquired through training, education, guided practice, on-the-job learning, and experience over time in a specific role or career.
- Experience – Gained progressively throughout a professional’s career. It is vital that specialists go through the full development process to build the confidence and self-sufficiency needed to carry out activities effectively.
Only when a person develops all four of these components can they be considered competent to perform a task. Doing so ensures operational and facility integrity, and the individual can be regarded as skilled and reliable.
An equally important aspect is communication, which must be tailored to its target audience. Communication methods and language should vary depending on the group. Integrity management is a preventive activity and must maintain communication with various stakeholders, such as:
- Executive groups, who provide resources and are ultimately responsible for proper integrity management;
- Operational areas, which directly participate, collaborate in managing facility integrity;
- The community and third parties, who must be informed and trained on risks and threats to become allies in integrity management.
Finally, one more aspect directly linked to the human factor is continuous improvement, which is based on learning from one’s own experiences and from those of similar organizations, with the goal of preventing unwanted events from ever occurring—or from recurring. Continuous improvement programs must:
- Focus on learning;
- Be applied at all organizational levels;
- Avoid a punitive nature;
- Be based on a defined methodology or procedure;
- Have the full support of top management, with executives leading by example.
Considering all the aspects mentioned, it is clear that the human factor is the most important component in integrity management, and it must be addressed from various dimensions within industrial operations and integrity systems.
This article was developed by the specialist Fabian Sanchez and published as part of the sixth edition of Inspenet Brief September 2025, dedicated to technical content from the energy and industrial sectors.
