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The Invisible Human Errors That Nobody Notices

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Human error is everywhere and often difficult to avoid without implementing the proper tools. More often than not, human error is the reason number One for the purchase of high-quality tech software solutions, so that a variety of business processes can be automated for best quality. Other entrepreneurs suggest deploying careful recruiting methods to ensure that you get only highly qualified professionals to work with you. However, while it seems that human error is another work for lack of skills and attention, it would be incorrect to assume that there is no other kind of human error. In fact, the workplace is full of invisible mistakes and behaviors that are perpetuated under your very eyes but that you don’t see. They can be damaging to your team, your production and your overall business. It’s time to start the hunt for the invisible human errors that eat away your employees’ health and sanity, day after day.


Do you know what’s going on in your office?

Unhealthy stress management

We get it: Every workplace is a stressful environment, from the impossibly short deadlines to the difficult client. The workload piles up, your staff stays longer hours, and somehow the stressful situation seems to normalize any unhealthy stress management behavior, from heavy drinking to the abuse of hard substances. It may be invisible to the naked eye, but you should pay close attention to people’s habits and natural warmth to detect the early signs of an addictive behavior. More often than not, a drug test can confirm your suspicion. That’s why it’s essential as a manager to monitor workloads and offer stress management classes before it’s too late.

Emotional abuse

Millions of employees of all ages, ethnic and racial backgrounds hate going to work. Why should they like it, when staying at home all day might sound a lot more appealing, you ask. These employees hate the workplace because they’ve fallen victim of emotional bullying, from colleagues, managers or subordinates. The problem with this form of emotional abuse is that it directly attacks a person’s competence, integrity and dignity over an extensive period of time in such a way that it can go unnoticed. The victims live in a state of psychological terror, which can be aggravated by bad-mouthing, isolation, criticism, etc. This destructive attack can lead to depression, anxiety disorder and extended sick leaves. It’s your responsibility to keep your eyes open for any peculiar behavior so that you can offer support to those who need it and help them to stop the abuse.

Air pollution inside the office

So you’ve got a trendy office in town with an air con and a fantastic view of the city? That’s great but how pure and fresh is your air? Fungal spores, chemicals and smoke can be harmful to human health as they create what is called indoor air pollution. If your office has not implemented any air purification solution — from using specialist plants to sophisticated ventilation systems — it’s likely that your team might be suffering from the sick-building syndrome.

In conclusion, it’s vital that companies rethink their health and safety protocols to offer sufficient coverage for several invisible human errors that impact both business growth and personal wellness.

Human Error: The One Thing Holding Your Business Back

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StrategyDriven Human Performance Management Article
Photo courtesy of Pexels

Running a successful and efficient company is all about time management and reducing errors. A business that spends as much of the day being as productive as possible will always be set for success. The same can be said for a company that doesn’t make a lot of errors, therefore doesn’t waste time correcting these errors.

Sadly, there is one thing that can cost your business and hold you back; human error. Yes, while employees are essential for your business, they are guilty of making errors from time to time. One simple mistake could cause disruption in your company that leads to half a day being wasted as you all try and fix it.

As a consequence, it should be a top priority for businesses to reduce human error. Is this even possible? Of course, it is, and here are two easy ideas you can use:

Use Software For Certain Tasks

To completely eradicate the risk of human error in some tasks, you can use software. This is particularly useful regarding various human resources tasks such as paying employees and managing staff absences. These are tasks that often have the most mistakes occurring. As it says on the HRIS Payroll Software website, the right software can free up time and minimize errors. By relying on a computer to do certain tasks, you haven’t got to worry about employees making mistakes.

Software isn’t going to work for every single task in the office, but it will be a great solution to plenty of HR or accountancy tasks. Essentially, anything that can be automated or done by a piece of software doesn’t need to be done by a human.

Hire Better Employees

A simple way to reduce human errors is to ensure you hire the best people for every job. Companies that rush through the hiring process usually end up with employees that make a lot of mistakes. You must ensure you hire the best person and that they prove their worth. Someone with a good track record and lots of experience in the same role is ideal for your business. They know what they’re doing right from the start and will make far fewer mistakes than someone who might be in their first ever job.

The best thing you can do is take your time when hiring someone. Review their resume, check their employment history, talk to their previous employers, bring them in for an interview, etc. I’d even go as far as to say you should give them a trial run before actually hiring them full-time too. This shows if they’re good enough for your business and will highlight their mistake-making ability.

There may only be two ideas here, but they’ll go a long way to helping with any human error problems you have. As it was mentioned at the beginning of the piece, human error causes disruptions and wastes time. By reducing the likelihood of employee errors, you can stop holding your business back and drive forward in the right direction.

3 Reasons to Automate Your Business in 2015

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If you’ve added ‘being more efficient’ to your list of New Year’s resolutions recently, you may be struggling to find ways to generate more productivity with little effort. Chances are, the solution (and the problem) is literally right in front of you. Your mouse and keyboard are major sources of inefficiency. Communicating with colleagues, manipulating spreadsheets, entering customer information into a CRM… these are all examples of time-consuming manual processes that can be done better and faster by someone (or something) other than you.

If your idea of fun is copying and pasting text all day then by all means, continue doing what you’re doing. But we’ve got some thoughts on why you should at least consider ways to automate business processes in your organization and be more efficient in 2015.

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About the Author

Richard MilamRichard Milam, Founder and CEO of EnableSoft Incorporated (www.enablesoft.com). EnableSoft, is engaged in offering game changing software products and services to the business and financial services industry, healthcare and a dozen other markets. EnableSoft serves over 500 corporate clients worldwide. Prior to founding EnableSoft in 1995, Richard was a partner and served as Senior Vice President of FiTech PLUSmark, Inc. Richard designed and implemented a business plan to offer bank merger data conversion services which resulted in the successful merger of over 50 financial institutions.

Human Performance Management – Behavioral Drivers

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StrategyDriven Human Performance Management ArticleOrganizational outcomes evolve from management decisions and employee actions. Understanding what shapes those decisions and actions provides causal insight to why particular outcomes occur and reveals those things that can be changed in order to produce different results.

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Additional Information

On the surface, it would appear that examination of the organization’s direction setting statements; documented processes and standards; and physical workplace environment will reveal the drivers of its members’ decisions and actions. This could not be more untrue.

Organizational documents often reflect what is deemed as ‘proper’ by society instead of being truly reflective of executive and manager intent. Identifying the real drivers of individual and collective behavior requires scrutiny into the unspoken policies – the actions – of the organizations leaders. When leader actions do not align with the written or spoken word, it is the actions that will always drive the behaviors. For additional information, read the following StrategyDriven articles:

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About the Author

Nathan Ives, StrategyDriven Principal is a StrategyDriven Principal and Host of the StrategyDriven Podcast. For over twenty years, he has served as trusted advisor to executives and managers at dozens of Fortune 500 and smaller companies in the areas of management effectiveness, organizational development, and process improvement. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.

StrategyDriven Human Performance Management Forum

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Excellent business strategies fail to deliver superior results when not executed well. Subsequently, consistent, high-quality human performance becomes a critical component to successfully achieving the organization’s goals.

Yet, being human means making errors. Even well-intentioned, hardworking employees will make 3 errors out of every 100 actions taken simply because of the human condition. Thus, the question of achieving excellent human performances is twofold… how can the human error rate be minimized and how can business systems be structured such that human errors don’t result in costly or catastrophic failures?

Focus of the Human Performance Management Forum

Materials within the Human Performance Management Forum focus on those principles and best practices implemented at leading organizations to ensure consistent, high-quality human performance appropriately balanced with the need for cost-conscious efficiency. The following articles, podcasts, documents, and resources cover those topics critical to an exceptional human performance management.

Articles

Best Practices

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