Summary

Much of today’s work is conducted in complex and dangerous environments. Inherent in these high risk occupations is high consequence of error to include catastrophic loss of life and property. Improvements in job performance are important in any context, but perhaps even more so in organizations that routinely face the potential of extreme consequences. A number of tools are available and relevant for enhancing the performance of employees in these high risk jobs. However, a systems approach that includes an understanding of human error, the commonalities across high-risk jobs, and the organizations in which these jobs exist, as well as skill in utilizing both traditional and non-traditional I/O tools is most likely to be successful in improving the performance of employees in high risk jobs.

Speaker Bio

Dr. Kelley J. Krokos is a Senior Research Scientist at the American Institutes for Research (AIR) in Washington, DC. Dr. Krokos’ expertise focuses on defining, measuring, and improving individual, team, and organizational performance. To support a special interest in high risk jobs (i.e., jobs for which the consequence of error is extreme), she has worked to build a professional tool kit specifically to address job performance in these jobs. This tool kit includes an understanding of human error, the common challenges across high-risk jobs and how those challenges affect job performance, and the organizations in which these jobs exist. In addition, she worked to gain experience conducting projects for high risk jobs that improve job performance directly such as developing and validating personnel selection and promotion tests and systems as well as projects that improve job performance indirectly by identifying and addressing human error. Her client list includes the NC Department of Correction, NC State Highway Patrol, National Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee, U.S. Navy, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the Federal Aviation Administration. In addition to numerous professional presentations and technical reports, her publications include co-editing a special section in Human Factors on understanding and classifying human error, co-authoring an article in that section, and co-authoring a book chapter on team performance.  She is a member of APA, SIOP, and is the Vice President for the Society for Human Performance in Extreme Environments (HPEE). She received her Ph.D. in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from North Carolina State University.