Project study to “Prepare railway staff for cultural changes linked to digital and technical innovation”
This new high-level project has been initiated by the UIC safety unit. Thanks to the commitment of several UIC members, this study will start in early 2023, as part of the UIC Work Programme on Operations.
This project, nicknamed “MIND4CHANGE”, has three main objectives:
- Anticipate the future of “safety”, because digital and technical innovations will sooner or later be part of the railway landscape.
- Rethink operations and management methods.
- Prepare staff, managers, leaders and decision-makers for digital innovations through cultural change by putting humans at the centre of the system as they play a key role in this change process.
Through this project, work will focus on various ways to accompany digital and technical innovations with real cultural change. In parallel, new ideas will be found on how to inspire a change of mentality and cultural practices in the way staff are trained and how they learn. We will then try to envisage the design of a workplace as the place for learning par excellence.
More specifically, the deliverables are to propose methods and means to:
- Accompany railway governance on the importance of focusing on engaging more creative, efficient and motivated employees;
- Inspire motivation through a change of mindset and cultural practices in the way employees learn and are trained and managed;
- Design methods for making workplaces of “learning par excellence”.
The anticipated benefits of the project for the railway system at international level are to enhance safety performance by better considering digital and technical innovations, and to improve operational excellence for tomorrow’s world.
The RAIL HOF (Human and Organisational Factors) Digital Platform was launched by UIC and ERA (European Agency for Railways) on 18 October at the International Railway Safety Council - IRSC 2022 in Seville.
This new platform consists of three components:
- a LinkedIn page, to develop the HOF expert community and increase visibility (https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/rail-hof/);
- a website that serves as an entry point to access relevant information according to the needs and level of HOF expertise and experience (https://railhof.org/); and,
- a secure space to manage events and create a forum to share working documents.
The website is organised around a homepage that includes:
- a “Welcome” page;
- a “Join us” section where you can join the LinkedIn page and secure area;
- a “What is HOF?” section with HOF definitions and FAQs; and finally,
- a “Resources” page which offers around 30 HOF topics classified into four sections: enhancing safety management; HOF regulations, standards and tools; human performance; and HOFs in practice.
Each HOF topic includes a railway-specific explanation and links to relevant HOF approaches or models. Links, scientific articles and operational experiences are also provided. These experiences are produced by members in order to share good practice, problems, typical incidents, training courses and tools developed in HOF within their company.
RAIL HOF is THE new place for the European and international railway community to share, discuss and advise on HOF knowledge, with the aim of helping every organisation to increase safety and performance, through applying HOF good and best practices, including the “driving change” and “learning” methods.
We welcome you on this new platform and invite you to share your experience and suggest references. This platform is yours!
