The Different Types of Human Error and How to Respond Fairly and Effectively

If you want to build a just and fair workplace culture, it’s vital to respond appropriately when staff make errors or things go wrong. Knowing how to respond involves understanding different types of human error and the reasons why they occur.

Errors can be divided firstly into intentional and unintentional actions. This does not mean whether the person intended to make an error (the outcome), that is very rare. Rather, it refers to whether the action was what the person intended. This will become more clearly as we go through the four most common types of errors.

The first type of error is the slip. A slip are unintentional errors in execution of our actions. For example, we might intend to press “A” on our keyboard and our finger slips and we press “S” instead. They can often occur if our attention is taken away from our task, such as not noticing the traffic light has gone green because a passenger points out an interesting feature on a nearby building.

The second type of error is a lapse. A lapse relates to errors of memory. We know that we have to do something and we forget. We might be following a checklist, get interrupted and lose our place in the checklist. When we resume the checklist, we might start from the wrong place and inadvertently miss a step.

Both slips and lapses are unintentional actions and most often arise when trained people are performing regular tasks, such as a licenced driver using a truck to make deliveries. Training is not usually an effective response to these kinds of errors, after all, it’s not as if the person doesn’t know how to drive. The most effective way to respond to these types of errors is to design our systems of work to minimise the potential for them to happen, and to have mitigations in place in case they do. For example, we install guards on machines to prevent a person’s limbs from coming into contact with hazardous parts of the machine while operating it.

The third type of error is a mistake. A mistake is an intention actions, where we do the wrong thing, thinking it is the right thing. A mistake might be rules based, where we believe we are following the rules when we’re not, or knowledge based, where we have the wrong information. For example, we might be working a bakery where we believe the procedure is that the oven must be set to 180 degree. In fact, we are incorrect and the procedure calls for an oven temperature of 200 degrees. We intentionally set the oven at 180 degrees, believing we were following the procedure, when in fact we were not. Alternatively, we make a chocolate cake, believing that is what the customer ordered, but in fact the customer ordered a banana cake, and we have the wrong information.

Mistakes can most often arise when we are dealing with new or unusual circumstances, when we may not be sure what is the correct approach. Mistakes are errors where training is an a more effective way to respond.

The final error type is a work-around. These type of errors of also often called violations, however I try to avoid that term because it has an overly negative connotation which is often unhelpful. A work-around is an intention action where we knowingly deviate from the rules. There can be a variety of reasons why we might do this, and therefore how a business should respond should also vary.

In some cases, the work-around may be malicious, where the person is deliberately trying to cause harm or damage, though this is very rare. In this instance a disciplinary response would clearly be appropriate, although you’d probably want to try to understand the underlying causes of the behaviour, as it may reveal a deeper organisational problem.

Often a work-around happens because exceptional or unusual circumstances makes it impossible or impracticable to do the work according to the rules. Perhaps the rules forbid lifting heavy objects manually, but the lifting equipment that is supposed to be used is broken and hasn’t been fixed. In this sort of situation fixing the equipment is obviously a good response. Even better would be looking at why the equipment wasn’t fixed in the first place, was it not reported, was a report made but no response was actioned, and then fixing those issues to prevent a similar recurrence in the future. You could also investigate whether it would be feasible to have stand-by equipment available in case it’s needed on a particular day.

A work-around can also become routine. Perhaps it has become routine not to follow a particular rule, and management either isn’t aware of it, or doesn’t enforce it. For example, a rule might require a supervisor and the shift manager to sign off before a load of product is despatched from the factory, however it has become routine to just have the supervisor sign. Perhaps the reason for this is that the shift manager is often unavailable and having to wait for them causes delays which the business wouldn’t tolerate. The staff are put in the position of getting criticised by management for delivery delays, or working around the procedure, they cannot do both.

With routine work-arounds, sometimes the procedure needs to be reinforced, because it’s important for safety, quality or other reasons that it is followed. However, we would still want to look at the reasons why the work-around has become routine, are there issues with the procedure that need to be addressed, for example does the timeframe for deliveries need to be increased to accommodate for the delay, or is there a way the shift manager can be more available when deliveries are due to go out?

However, sometime routine work-arounds indicate that a procedure has been poorly designed, or that circumstances have changed since it written, or that the procedure has some unintended consequences. In such cases it may be that it is the procedure that should be changed, not the behaviour of the staff. For example, perhaps the requirement for a second signature isn’t actually important after all and can be dropped.

Generally additional training is not an effective response to work-arounds, people know they aren’t following the rule, and often the reason they are not following it is an attempt to help the business achieve its goals.

In any case involving human error, even work-arounds, instead of issuing punishments, understanding why the error occurred and addressing those underlying causes is generally a much fairer, productive, safer, and ultimately profitable way of responding. Knowing the different types of common errors allows us to tailor our response, whether that be system design, training, or others, in a way that is most effective, productive, and just for our staff.

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DISCLAIMER: This blog provides general information only, and is not intended as advice specific to your circumstances. Please contact us if you have any particular questions.