Goals of Workload Assessment
The end goals of the workload assessment should be agreed with the person requesting
the assessment. If this is not the local management team they MUST be contacted
and involved in the assessment. The end goals may include:
- To establish whether the workload is at a level considered to be acceptable and
not to have a detrimental effect on employee’s health or their safe performance
- To determine whether workload may have been a contributory factor in an incident
- To determine whether workload is such that there are insufficient opportunities
for signallers to take adequate breaks
- To determine where to set the boundaries for an area of control
- To determine whether additional infrastructure can be added to and existing area
of control without having a detrimental impact on the signaller’s health and well-being
as well as their safe performance
- To determining whether changes in the train service are such that it is still manageable
with the current staffing levels
It is important to be as clear as possible from the beginning what answers the workload
assessment will and will not provide.