Virgin Trains: Introducing Non-Technical Skills into the investigation process
NTS have a key role to play in train driver incidents
‘Why did my driver lose focus?’
‘What caused this driver to become distracted?’
‘How can I help my driver to avoid having another SPaD?’
These are questions OPC psychologists commonly hear from Driver Managers and Operations Managers within the rail industry. Our 20 years of rail experience has shown us that train driver incidents are often caused by a lack of key Non-Technical Skills (NTS). If we can identify and understand the NTS that are lacking through the investigation process, then we can help the train driver to address those NTS, and most importantly of all, help keep him/her safe in the future. However, the investigators need to have the necessary skills and confidence to be able to uncover the relevant NTS as part of their investigation.
The Head, and Assistant Head, of Drivers at Virgin Trains were keen to enhance their Driver Team Managers and Driver Depot Managers’ investigatory skills. The aim was for their managers to be able to use an advanced tool kit during the investigation process that would help them uncover evidence of any NTS that were lacking.
The OPC psychologists get to work on designing an innovative NTS investigation workshop
Virgin Trains commissioned the OPC to design and deliver an innovative NTS investigation workshop for its managers. The workshop had to be highly practical so that managers could easily apply the learning back at work. In typical Virgin style the training had to be fun too. The OPC psychologists worked through the following key steps:
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Setting up an expert panel
An expert panel was set up of key Virgin Trains managers to help the OPC psychologists design the workshop. -
Lights, camera, action!
A select group of managers who had driving experience were trained to act as train drivers with specific incidents. Each of these ‘actor drivers’ were then videoed by the OPC psychologists as part of an investigation interview. -
Distance learning material
Each manager completed bespoke distance learning materials to consolidate their learning prior to attending the workshop. -
Running the three day workshop
Each workshop ran for three days with a small group of managers. The managers learnt new questioning skills, how to undertake a cognitive walk-through of the driver’s incident and how to elicit the key NTS from the incident. Managers also learnt how to help the driver to work on key NTS back at work. The managers tried out their new skills with the ‘actor drivers’. They then watched a video to see how the OPC psychologist had done it. -
NTS development sheets
Managers took away from the workshop a comprehensive set of bespoke NTS development sheets. So for example, if a driver needed to work on the NTS of concentration, the development sheet would give them human factor advice on how they could do that.
Top ratings from the managers
The managers who attended the workshop gave their top approval. Overall, 11% rated it as ‘very good’ and 89% rated it as ‘excellent’.
“Will be of great benefit when investigating”
“One of the most effective to me personally”’
“Excellent skills learnt”
“Extremely productive – the future”
'The Virgin driver management team recognised a need to embrace non-technical skills. We needed to make sure this was the right thing to do when considering our operation and evaluate what was out there in the industry. We were conscious of what the OPC had to offer, so established a relationship to fulfil our needs. We jointly created a bespoke course to skill the driver management team in non-technical skills. The second part of the process was to incorporate non-technical skills in to incident investigation. This course has been hugely successful and the driver management team have given positive feedback in all aspects’
Head of Drivers at Virgin Trains