Building a Culture of Connection: Managing Human Factors in High-Risk Industries with Susan Sawatzky

In this episode of Safety Spotlight, Susan Sawatsky, a human factors and learning design expert, explores the “people part” of safety that is often overlooked in traditional safety management systems. She explains how true safety comes from understanding people acting in systems, not just managing processes.Susan shares her journey from teaching to managing fatigue risk in Canada’s oil and gas sector, a shift that shaped her focus on human risk factors. She reveals how fatigue impairment can rival alcohol impairment—being awake for 21 hours is equivalent to a 0.08 blood alcohol level.The discussion covers how companies can proactively manage fatigue by optimizing work hours, empowering supervisors to recognize warning signs, and teaching workers to manage their sleep cycles. Susan recounts powerful case studies, including a mining company that reduced incidents through an informal nap policy and a serious incident that became a game-changer for fatigue awareness.She also tackles psychological safety, defining it as the confidence to speak up at work, and explains how respectful workplaces and supervisor training in conflict management directly improve safety outcomes.Looking ahead, Susan unveils a breakthrough AI technology that detects impairment, including fatigue, from a six-second voice recording. This non-intrusive innovation gives workers real-time feedback on their fitness for duty and represents a major leap in human-centered safety.See Susan’s story and many more at https://bissafety.ca/safety-spotlight-podcasts.