Human Factors in Safety: Building Stronger Connections with Susan Sawatzky
In this episode of The Safety Spotlight podcast, we sit down with Susan Swatsky, a human factors and learning design expert, to explore the often-overlooked “people part” of safety. Susan explains how traditional safety management systems can miss the human element, emphasizing that true safety requires understanding how people operate within complex systems.
Susan shares her career journey, from teaching to managing fatigue risks in Canada’s oil and gas sector—a turning point that focused her work on human risk factors. She offers deep insight into fatigue, noting its impairment effects are equivalent to alcohol intoxication: being awake for 21 hours can mirror a blood alcohol level of 0.08. She highlights proactive strategies companies can adopt, from optimizing shift schedules and equipping supervisors to recognize fatigue, to empowering workers to manage sleep cycles and circadian rhythms. Susan illustrates this with a mining company’s informal “nap” policy that cut down incidents, contrasted with a serious fatigue-related accident at another site that spurred organizational change.
The conversation also touches on psychological safety—creating workplaces where people feel safe to speak up. Susan stresses that fostering respect and equipping supervisors with conflict management skills are key to building this culture.
Looking ahead, Susan introduces cutting-edge technology she is piloting: an AI tool capable of detecting impairment, including fatigue, from a six-second voice recording. This innovation offers a discreet, real-time way to measure worker fitness for duty and manage risk. Ultimately, Susan underscores that supporting the mental fitness and well-being of workers is just as critical as maintaining equipment—both are essential to achieving true safety success.
