HFESNZ Newsletter - Autumn 2025

Sent: Mar 26, 2025, 9:02 AM

A word from the editor

Tēnā koutou katoa

Welcome to our late Summer and Autumn Newsletter 2025.

Please send any information or news that you would like included in the next edition to gwandkg@gmail.com, news@hfesnz.org.nz or admin@hfesnz.org.nz

Ngā mihi nui | Karen Goodfellow, HFESNZ Editor

A word from the Chairperson

Kia ora HFESNZ,

I hope you all had a good break over the summer.

Committee met in February to kick off the new year. Planning for a various HFESNZ is currently in motion:

On 29^th May will be the launch of the Human Factors in the Land Transport System short course. This is an in-person event held in Auckland. Please spread the word if you know of anyone who might be interesting in attendings. For more information see below in our Special Interest Group section and contact Hamish Mackie.
On 10^th July at 2 pm we will be holding our AGM online as we look to wrap up the last 12 months of work in the society. We will also be electing new society officers especially HFESNZ Secretary and new Chair. If you are keen to give these positions a go, or want to have an increased role within society, please feel to get in touch. It would be great to have a good membership turn out.
HFESNZ annual conference will take place 1-3 October 2025 in Christchurch. The team are currently reviewing venue options, and an announcement will be released in the coming weeks.
Our Healthcare Special Interest Group is in the early stages of planning for the Healthcare Symposium.

Workforce Development Programme: At the end of 2024, HFESNZ received the last funding from HASANZ for the Workforce Development Programme which was $18,000. Committee held various meetings to prioritize how best to use the funding for HFESNZ. Committee agreed to allocate this funding towards the development of a HFE introductory short course and $3,000 and to support the Human Factors in the Land Transport system short course. The Committee is also looking at other revenue gathering initiatives for the society (e.g. symposiums, conferences, and sponsorships). Please contact us if you want to know more.

Friends of HFESNZ: Prior to Christmas I had an opportunity to speak to Chairs of other organisations with similar interests to HFESNZ. I spoke to Nick Pickering from INCOSE (International Council on Systems Engineering) NZ and Joel Major from the Institute of Organisational Psychology (thanks Dwain for the introductions). Both organisations share very similar successes and challenges to HFESNZ and are keen to support future collaborations together, whether it be co-shared conferences, webinars, or symposiums around Aotearoa. If you are a HFESNZ member and belong to one of these organisations, we would love to hear your experiences.

WorkSafe HFE team: As many of you are aware, the HFE team at WorkSafe were affected by their recent restructures. It has been a difficult few months for our friends. As a proud former member of that team, and on behalf of HFESNZ, I just want to thank Marion, Leanne, and Cory for everything you have done for our discipline, especially at this regulatory level. The volume of quality of work you have produced is nothing short of extraordinary - all while being true servants to HFESNZ. Your work will serve New Zealand workplaces and workers well into the future. We wish the three of you, all the very best for the next chapter in your careers. Feel free to reach out to any of us should you need assistance. Ka pai, malo le onosa’i.

Membership Update

Welcome to our new members:

Jacques Taylor - Oranga Tamariki
Lee Barker - The People's Project

We are still chasing a few outstanding invoices from April 2024, we have emailed your invoice to you. Can you please get in touch regarding payment to: admin@hfesnz.org.nz.

Also, the 2025 Membership Renewal invoices will be emailed out on 31 March 2025. If you have any questions, please get in touch.

Special Interest Group - Transport

“We are super excited to announce the upcoming Human Factors in the Land Transport System one-day short course collaborating with Mackie Research and Auckland Transport. It will be highly practical and interactive, and will show how a human factors approach leads to lower human costs, more user-friendly and efficient projects, and more focused spending. The course is suitable for transport and road safety engineers, transport related health and safety professionals, planners, managers, leaders, emergency services, investigators, and other transport system designers. Go to the HFESNZ website or www.mackieresearch.co.nz for more information”.

Special Interst Group - Healthcare

HFE in Healthcare Symposium

This is planned to be an interactive day showcasing HFE in healthcare and is scheduled for Wednesday 1^st October in Christchurch timed to adjoin the two-day HFESNZ conference – so make sure you add it to your diary!

We would love to hear from anyone interested in joining the organising team, if this is you please email fiona.trevelyan@tewhatuora.govt.nz

Healthcare Special Interest Group meeting

The Healthcare SIG is meeting on Wednesday 2^nd April from 7.30pm – 8.30pm and is planned as an open forum to share about latest HFE initiatives in Health NZ and beyond.

Everyone is welcome and please email admin@hfesnz.org.nz to register your intention to attend.

Introducing the 2025 MHANZ Seminar Day ‘Moving Forward Together’, Auckland

Friday, April 11, 2025 · 8am – 4:30pm NZST
Fisher and Paykel Healthcare Clinical Education Centre
Level 5, Auckland City Hospital Park Road, Grafton Auckland

Join us for a day of professional development. The keynote speaker is the amazing Professor Mike Fray from Loughborough University in the UK. AKA your MHANZ international professional advisor. Mike will be providing a plenary session and workshops at every event. The programme is shaping up to be a fantastic opportunity for you to come and update your knowledge base and skills. Get introduced to the latest developments in solutions focussed technology and equipment. Network with your tribe, our awesome group of like-minded people and be looked after by our fabulous MC, the gorgeous, funny and incredibly astute patron of MHANZ – Michele A’Court.

Tickets:
General Admission NZ$200.00
Admission including annual membership NZ$250.00
MHANZ members FREE
Aged Care Association member $115

More information here: https://mhanz.org.nz/event/auckland-roadshow-2025/

Update from Professional Affairs Board

Website updates

The PAB have been busy behind the scenes finalising the new application process. We have updated the HFESNZ website so if you are keen to apply to become a Professional Member you can now decide which membership type suits you and then download the application forms located within each of the member categories. For more information look at: Memberships » Human Factors and Ergonomics Society of New Zealand

If you are unsure what Professional Member category suits you, or if you have questions about the application process please contact: Leanne Hunter, PAB Convenor at: profmember@hfesnz.org.nz

Updates to CPD requirements – ALL Professional Members

On the 1^st April 2025 we are introducing the new Continuing Professional Development (CPD) requirements.

Key changes:

Annual CPD must be completed by allProfessional Members (Technical, Associate, Certified, Fellow).
Previously only Certified Professionals were required to complete 3-yearly re-certification which has been replaced with the annual new system.
Professional Members will be asked to provide a 12-month record of at least 5 activities totalling at least 30 hours of CPD and a record of 3 activities that you plan on doing for the coming year.
The CPD period will start from 1 April and run to 31 March each year.
You will need to be submit your CPD by 1 May each year. This means that you will not need to submit your CPD for this first year until 1 May 2026.
We are working with Gecco to update our online CPD recording system, but this will take a little while to complete.

We will provide you with more information about the new CPD system shortly, but in the meantime if you want to start thinking about your CPD plan for the coming 12 months it will help you for when the forms are available. If you want a PDF fillable, or Word version in the meantime, please contact: profmember@hfesnz.org.nz

What you can do now:

Write down 3 goals you want to achieve or learn about this year (1 April 2025-31 March 2026).
What competencies do you want to develop (use the competencies checklistto help you see where your strengths are or what areas you might need to develop)
What is the activity type that will help you achieve your goal (e.g. HFE-related training, presenting at a webinar, writing a journal article, mentoring, etc)
Briefly describe the activity and how it will help your professional development.

IMPORTANT DATES

Thursday 1^st May - the PAB will meet to review any new Professional Member applications

Wednesday 9^th April – Please submit your Professional Member application to profmember@hfesnz.org.nz

If you have any questions or want more information about any of the Professional Member categories or requirements please contact Leanne at: profemember@hfesnz.org.nz

Leanne Hunter | PAB Convenor

General News

Dealing with disasters

New human factors research is helping to predict how people will act when the worst happens and supporting rescuers’ life-saving work.

With over 20 HFE stories across wide and varied sector groups, the ‘THINK’ link on the CIEHF site makes for some great reading and a good way to stay in touch with the work being done in Britain and Europe. The annual CIEHF conference agenda is also out and is an amazing effort in the creation of the streaming sessions across multiple sectors and HFE learnings. Their industry colour coding is an achievement in itself! Worth a look.

https://ergonomics.org.uk/learn/think.html