A simple and practical definition published by UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) states:
“Human Factors refer to environmental, organisational and job factors, and human and individual characteristics which influence behaviour at work in a way which can affect health and safety.”
The overall term Human Factors is now widely used. In different industries around the world, various terms for human factors are used such as (Air) Crew / Rail / Team Resource Management. Team refers to medical teams as well as air traffic controllers. Presently there exist other titles which include Resource Management, in various other occupations.
Human factors subjects include:
Human performance & limitations
Human error and reliability, error prevention and detection
Safety culture, standard operating procedures and organisational factors
Stress, stress management, fatigue and vigilance
Information acquisition and processing, situation awareness workload management
Decision making
Communications
Leadership and team behaviours
Human technology interactions