A globally significant industrial port that sits in an environmentally sensitive region on the Queensland coast aims to employ site Operators who can multi-task across several roles and perform their jobs safely on a daily basis.
Over the past five years, the port company has included human factors assessments of psychomotor functioning and safety perception as part of their operator selection process. The original aim was to gain a better understanding of a candidates’ spatial awareness and attention, before they are employed on a large scale industrial operational site where safety is a critical factor.
A battery of tests was chosen from the Vienna Test System (VTS). Whilst the company uses other psychometrics and interviews as part of the selection process, the focus of this paper is on the VTS testing process. The VTS test battery assesses situational awareness, two-handed co-ordination, performance under pressure, selective attention, focused attention and concentration; and takes approximately one hour to complete within the assessment centre timetable. This test battery represents the minimum test battery required for safety critical roles in an operational setting.
Successful candidate selection targets applicants who equal or exceed the minimum benchmarks, regarded as the globally recognised minimum standard in safety critical roles, for all subtests in the test battery. Over 10 assessment centres, 160 candidates have completed the test battery. Utilising the results, 35 people have been become full time employees with the company through this process. The results of a validation study to enable a review of the test battery, (being conducted at time of writing) will be discussed in the presentation. This study may also include reviewed job analyses as a result of increasingly computer-based skill requirements of the roles due to improvements in AI and automation.
Individual reports are also provided to the company, to assist trainers and supervisors to understand areas of strength and any areas for consideration for safety for successful candidates.
Employing a collaborative approach with the VTS Australian distributor for the equipment and technical expertise has been central to the ongoing success of the outcomes for the company.
The goals of this presentation are to discuss the use of human factors assessments for safety critical roles; reflect on the process of the ongoing development and provision of this service to an industrial client; and to promote discussion on how to encourage heavy industries to access psychological science.

At the conclusion of this event, attendees will be able to:
1. Gain a broad understanding of the use of human factors in improving safety outcomes.
2. Analyze an example of a case study using Human Factors assessments at an industrial port.
3. Consider opportunities to apply the use of global best practice human factors psychological science processes with industrial business clients.