Meet the team - specialising in Human Factors
Accident Investigations need input from a wide variety of specialist fields. Human Factors is one of these areas
Tabitha Steel
I began working at the RAIB in 2012 as an administrative officer. Initially, my role was to provide support to a team of inspectors, including making travel arrangements, preparation of summaries of witness interviews and supporting inspectors on meetings with people who had been involved in, or affected by, rail accidents. Previously, I had been at home looking after my children and studying part time for a human factors qualification and the thought of coming back to work full time was quite daunting! I have found the RAIB such a great place to work in terms of work/life balance – it allowed me the flexibility to be at home when I needed to but also to develop my career and fulfil my own professional goals.
Over the years I have been given many opportunities to learn new things and it is very satisfying to work in such a supportive environment in terms of developing my skills and experience. I have attended courses on many different aspects of the railway and have also attended external training on areas as diverse as trauma risk management and interviewing vulnerable witnesses. The RAIB recognised the value of my qualification in human factors at an early stage and I was encouraged to provide human factors input to investigations alongside my other role as an administrative officer. In 2018, I was appointed to my current role as a human factors specialist.
The RAIB is a small, friendly organisation made up of number of specialists and support throughout the branch is always available. It is an environment where it is possible learn from the best! I have been encouraged and supported in my career advancement and I have had the opportunity to learn from others with human factors experience internally and through contact with external human factors specialists in other safety critical industries and attendance at conferences and courses. The work is interesting and challenging and overall it is incredibly rewarding to know that your work contributes to improving the safety of railways in the UK.