Capability Statement | Optimised Human Performance

At a glance

Optimised Human Performance.

Optimised Human Performance (OHP) is an Australian human systems integration (HSI) and work system design consultancy. We design the human element of capability, meaning crewing, workload, fatigue, interfaces and standards, to the same engineering standard as every other system in the build, from acquisition through sustainment.

01The human-element risk 02Services 03How we work 04Evidence 05Why OHP 06Procurement 07How to engage

Entity: Optimised Human Performance Pty Ltd. Australian owned and operated. ABN available on request.
Headquarters: Canberra, ACT. Delivers nationally and internationally.
Principal: Dr Anthony Walker, Founder and Managing Director. PhD in thermal and occupational physiology. Nearly 600 citations, h-index 12, 37 research outputs.
Security: Security cleared personnel.
Services: Human systems integration, crewing and workload analysis, fatigue risk management and roster design, psychosocial risk and WHS assurance, physical employment standards, ergonomics and process redesign, heat and environmental physiology.
Method: The Crucible Method. Scan diagnoses, Sprint redesigns, Build embeds.
Sectors: Defence · National security and federal agencies · Emergency services · Aviation · Resources · Healthcare
Procurement: Direct, or through a partner-of-record arrangement with SERVEGATE. Eight government panels, listed in Section 06.
Contact: contact@ohperformance.com.au · +61 412 313 870 · ohperformance.com.au

"We treat safety and fatigue as performance constraints to be designed for, not compliance boxes to be ticked."

How the practice works

Section 01

The human-element risk.

Every capability program funds the platform in detail and assumes the human. Crewing is asserted rather than designed. Workload is modelled on a good day. The gap surfaces at operational test, at introduction into service, and in the sustainment workforce five years on.

Human systems integration is the easiest scope to defer and the most expensive to retrofit. Compressed acquisition schedules push it off the critical path. Recruitment and retention turn crewing assumptions into strategic risk. Gate and design reviews ask harder questions about the human element than programs are resourced to answer. These are design decisions, made early and often by omission.

OHP exists to make those decisions deliberately. We specify, evaluate and assure the human element at each phase of the capability lifecycle, so the requirement is written before it becomes a finding.

Phase 01

Acquisition and design

Human element specified alongside the platform. Crewing, workload, human-machine interfaces and decision rights written into the requirement, not assumed.

Phase 02

Gate reviews

HSI evidence and documentation that answers the human-element questions at gate and design review, with the analysis behind it.

Phase 03

Test and evaluation

Workload, usability and integration issues surfaced and closed at operational test before they become findings against the program.

Phase 04

Introduction into service

Procedures, rosters and role design that let the platform reach full rate of effort at the line on introduction into service.

Phase 05

Sustainment

Sustainment workforce design that holds over the life of type, with operator knowledge captured as specification.

Unmanaged in most programs

01Crewing and workload assumptions that do not survive the rate of effort
02Integration problems found at operational test that were designable at second pass
03Tooling and interfaces that add cognitive load instead of removing it
04Sustainment workforces inheriting a system nobody designed them into
05Psychosocial duties that now attach to how the work is designed, not just managed

Section 02

Services.

Seven human-element services. Each one a scoped, deliverable package, engaged as a specialist HSI subcontractor to primes and integrators, or directly by Commonwealth program offices, agencies and operators.

Human systems integration (HSI)

HSI strategies, plans, domain analyses, operator requirements and evidence packs across the capability lifecycle, aligned to your gate and design review schedule.

Program office · Prime

Crewing and workload analysis

Establishment, manning and task-load analysis that tests crewing numbers against the rate of effort the capability will actually be held to.

Program office · Prime

Fatigue risk management and roster design

Rostering, shift, tempo and recovery design built on sleep, circadian and physiological science, sized to sustain reliability over a full tour rather than a good week.

Program office · Operator

Psychosocial risk and WHS assurance

Workload, role clarity and decision-rights design with the documentation trail to demonstrate duty of care against WHS psychosocial obligations, starting in acquisition.

Program office · Employer

Physical employment standards (PES)

Defensible, task-derived physical employment standards and pre-employment aptitude testing, validated against the physiological demands of the role.

Workforce · Recruiting

Ergonomics and process redesign

Tooling, workstation, environment, procedure and workflow redesign that takes load off the operator and rework out of the system.

Sustainment · Operator

Heat and environmental physiology

Operational heat management for people, protective equipment and platforms, grounded in the principal's peer-reviewed research and ISO 7933 heat-strain modelling.

Operator · Platform

Above the line

We support Commonwealth program offices and capability managers to specify, evaluate and assure the human element through gate reviews, so the requirement is written before it becomes a finding.

Below the line

We support primes, integrators and systems engineering teams to design the human element into the build rather than discover it at operational test, as a specialist subcontractor inside your engineering effort.

Standing leadership and speaking

Fractional Human Performance Director

Senior performance leadership without the full-time hire. Dr Anthony Walker takes a defined fraction of an executive seat, accountable for how mission-critical work is designed: fatigue, rostering, workload and capability risk, with direction over internal teams and external providers. Redesign work identified by the seat is scoped and priced as fixed engagements, with capability transfer built in and a planned exit.

Keynote: Past the Envelope

The international keynote on command at the edge of physiological tolerance, and what leaders owe people operating past their limit, argued from the principal's own peer-reviewed research on firefighters working at the edge of collapse. Speaker one-sheet available on request.

Section 03

How we work.

Every engagement is grounded in observed work, not survey perception, tabletop assumption or imported overseas frameworks. The work runs on The Crucible Method.

Scan · diagnoses

A structured diagnostic of how the work is actually designed and performed, surfacing the constraints that drive fatigue, error, rework and attrition. Four to six weeks. Deliverable: diagnostic report and a redesign brief leadership can fund.

Sprint · redesigns

A focused redesign of a defined role, team, roster or workflow. Operator-built, evidence-grounded, scoped to deliver in weeks rather than quarters. Deliverable: redesigned work specification with implementation and measurement plan.

Build · embeds

Transfers the redesign to the frontline leaders who hold it, so the system holds when we leave the room. Twelve to fourteen weeks per supervisor cohort. Deliverable: redesigned work system in operation, capability transferred to internal leaders.

Methodological foundations

Human factors and ergonomics, applied to physical, cognitive and procedural design.
Fatigue science and biomathematical modelling, for roster, workload and recovery design.
Occupational and thermal physiology, for heat, load and recovery limits set on measured strain.
Organisational design and decision-rights theory, for distributed accountability under pressure.
Psychosocial hazard frameworks, aligned with Australian WHS regulation and ISO 45003.

What we will not do

Generic culture surveys, engagement scores or ranking dashboards.
Wellness programs, EAPs or resilience training as a substitute for system redesign.
Long, decorative reports. Outputs are designed for funding decisions and operator implementation.
Commitments we cannot evidence under operational conditions.

Section 04

Evidence.

Eighteen engagements and studies sit behind the practice. The representative set below is grouped by the kind of problem it solves. Client and program detail is de-identified throughout, consistent with confidentiality obligations on engagements of this kind. Every result shown is drawn from delivered work.

Defence and national capability programs

Capability acquisition and major asset design · portfolio-level program

Designing human performance into capability from day one

TaskingA capability organisation was losing people to preventable physical and mental injury, and needed human factors designed into new systems before they reached service, when it is cheapest and easiest to fix.

ActionWe piloted a human-centred design program early in the capability lifecycle, then scaled it as lead provider across ten concurrent projects spanning crewed and autonomous systems and control room environments, addressing ergonomics, fatigue, cognitive load and psychosocial hazard.

ResultA single pilot became a standing, organisation-wide program. Design decisions are now consistently informed by real-world usability and safety, targeting the preventable injuries that had been forcing personnel out of service before their time.

Deployable capability · remote and isolated operations

Embedding human factors into a major deployable systems program

TaskingA major capability program needed human factors addressed early, before deployable systems entered service, with physical, cognitive and psychosocial risk treated as one picture rather than separate problems.

ActionWe assessed the hazards specific to deployable, high cognitive load work in extreme environments, remote and isolated team structures, fatigue and exposure to traumatic events, then ensured these carried proper weight in test and evaluation, standards and contract management.

ResultHazards were identified and designed against before the system reached service, and agreed controls were verified rather than assumed.

Crewed aircraft · in-service upgrade

Resolving an ergonomics issue on a major airborne platform

TaskingInjury data on a major airborne platform pointed to poor ergonomics in the aircraft, and the program needed the issue understood and designed out through an in-service upgrade.

ActionWe worked with the platform's project team and allied partner air forces to drive ergonomic risk out of the updated design, then carried the resulting human-machine interface lessons across into a related capability program's own interface uplift.

ResultErgonomic risk was reduced in the updated platform, and the lessons transferred to another program rather than staying trapped in one project.

Uncrewed and autonomous systems · high-tempo command environments

Managing cognitive load in next-generation autonomous systems

TaskingA next-generation uncrewed systems program needed to understand the hazards created by the scale of cognitive load its operators would carry, before those hazards surfaced as lost situational awareness or fatigue in service.

ActionWe ran task analysis built on structured operator consultation to identify where cognitive load created risk, then used those insights to shape human-machine interface design and inform training and workforce management decisions.

ResultThe right information now reaches the operator at the right time by design, and training and workforce settings are informed by evidence of where cognitive load actually bites, rather than assumption.

Whole-of-organisation programs

Large multi-site frontline workforce · whole-of-organisation program

Building a human performance program across an entire organisation

TaskingA large operational organisation needed one human performance program that worked across every role, covering career personnel, volunteers and non-operational teams, while lifting safety, diversity and career longevity.

ActionWe built the program on evidence gathered from allied high-reliability organisations internationally, rebuilt fitness facilities at every site to a common standard, established an accredited internal peer-led coaching workforce, and redesigned entry pathways to prepare candidates for the job rather than simply filter them out.

ResultEvery site now operates to the same standard, delivery is owned internally rather than outsourced, and pre-recruitment support lifted success rates among under-represented candidates, increasing female participation in recruitment.

Industry bodies · multi-organisation standard setting

Turning one organisation's evidence into sector-wide doctrine

TaskingThe organisation held evidence and experience on fitness for duty and safe work in extreme environments that had value beyond its own walls, but no path existed to share it at industry level.

ActionWe presented at sector conferences and contributed the organisation's evidence and experience to national doctrine development on fitness for duty and safe work in extreme environments.

ResultThat experience is now embedded in national doctrine, extending its impact from one workforce to the standards an entire sector works to.

Applied field research in extreme environments

Operations conducted in extreme heat

Finding the hidden risks in extreme work

TaskingA frontline operational organisation knew its people worked in extreme heat but had no objective evidence of the physiological strain involved, and could not set defensible safe-working limits without it.

ActionWe reproduced a realistic operational task in a heat chamber at 105 degrees Celsius, in smoke and darkness, and measured core temperature, heart rate, grip strength and perceived effort against the recognised 38.5 degree safe-working limit.

ResultPersonnel exceeded the safe limit during routine tasks, with a group average of 38.9 degrees and grip strength down close to 13 per cent. The evidence gave leaders a defensible basis to reset safe-working limits and target resources where they mattered most.

Field recovery and post-exertion protocols

Proving a recovery protocol and writing it into standard procedure

TaskingAn operational organisation relied on personnel resting in the shade after demanding work in the heat, and needed to know whether a better option existed and would hold up in the field.

ActionWe tested two simple alternatives, brief cold-water immersion and an iced-slush drink, against passive rest for effectiveness and field practicality.

ResultBoth returned personnel to a safe core temperature within 15 minutes, cooling roughly 60 per cent faster than passive rest. The organisation embedded a proven, ranked set of recovery options into standard procedure.

Multi-day, high-tempo or rotating operations

Understanding strain that does not clear with rest

TaskingAn operational organisation assumed a short rest returned personnel to a safe baseline before redeployment, a working assumption that had never been tested.

ActionWe monitored 42 personnel for 24 hours after demanding work in the heat, tracking physiological recovery from immediately after work through to a day later.

ResultMeasurable effects were still present a full day later, well past the point crews would ordinarily be redeployed. The evidence gave leaders a defensible basis to rethink how soon personnel return to duty and how extended operations are scheduled.

Published research

Diversity and inclusion in physically demanding roles · peer-reviewed

Worker consultation at scale: surveying women in frontline roles

TaskingWomen are a growing share of frontline operational workforces, yet no international evidence captured their own account of the hazards they face, particularly around heat exposure and career longevity.

ActionDr Walker co-designed the survey instrument and led the regional arm of an international research team. Over four months, 840 operationally active women from 14 countries completed it, covering heat illness, injury, mental health and equipment fit.

ResultThe survey produced one of the first international evidence bases of its kind. 36 per cent had suffered a heat-related illness at work, and only 30 per cent had ever received structured strength and conditioning support. The findings now inform equipment design and support programs internationally.

Mental health and psychosocial risk · peer-reviewed

Identifying the physiological drivers of PTSD and depression in high-risk roles

TaskingFirst responders and military personnel develop PTSD and depression at far higher rates than the general population, and prevention efforts had focused almost entirely on psychological resilience rather than the physical working environment.

ActionDr Walker led a review synthesising evidence across immunology, endocrinology and occupational physiology, tracing how routine occupational exposures, including heat, sleep restriction and physical exhaustion, drive chronic inflammation that primes the body for poorer mental health outcomes.

ResultThe published model reframed mental ill-health in these roles as partly physiological rather than purely psychological, and named the measurable markers, including inflammation, HPA function and fitness, that a monitoring program can track. It has been widely cited and now informs how high-risk organisations approach screening and prevention.

Further case studies at ohperformance.com.au/case-studies. Detailed engagement records available on request, subject to client confidentiality.

Section 05

Why OHP.

A specialist practice, not a generalist bench. Four things distinguish OHP from the safety, training and HR consultancies operating in the same buyer space.

Evidence standard

Peer-reviewed, not perception

Our analysis rests on published research in occupational physiology, human factors, fatigue and heat stress, and on work as observed rather than work as reported in a survey.

Operator-built

Developed in frontline environments

Every method we apply was built and tested where the cost of failure is counted in people. None of it is derived from a desk.

Delivery model

Above and below the line

Engaged directly by Commonwealth program offices and federal agencies, and as a specialist subcontractor inside the engineering effort of Defence primes and integrators.

Repeatable practice

One architecture, every engagement

The same diagnostic and redesign architecture is applied on every job, so findings are comparable across programs and outputs are not consultant-dependent.

Track record

Human systems integration on major Australian Defence capability programs, including three years embedded with Air Force Headquarters (2023 to 2026)
Whole-of-agency work system redesign for an Australian emergency services agency
Physical employment standards and pre-employment aptitude test scoping for aviation firefighting
Published peer-reviewed research on heat stress, fatigue, recovery and firefighter performance

Dr Anthony Walker

Founder and Managing Director

PhDHuman factorsFatigue scienceDefence HSIEmergency servicesSecurity cleared

PhD-qualified specialist in thermal and occupational physiology, human performance and human factors. Fifteen years of operational firefighting with ACT Fire and Rescue, including station officer command. Directorate-level responsibility for the health and fitness of an emergency services agency, program risk management across an approximately $80 billion Defence integrated air and missile defence portfolio (AIR6500, JORN and E-7), and three years as human performance lead for Air Force Headquarters. First-author research program carrying nearly 600 citations, an h-index of 12 and 37 research outputs. Churchill Fellow. Member of the national advisory board of Tactical and Occupational Performance Australia.

The practice draws on a network of human factors engineers, occupational psychologists and systems engineers for engagement-specific staffing, under OHP's method and quality control.

Section 06

Procurement.

Already on panel. Eight ways to contract OHP. Buyers operating under panel-only procurement rules can engage OHP without a separate competitive process.

Panel or arrangement	Reference	Notes
Defence Support Services Panel	SON3485107	Defence-specific support services panel.
Defence Innovation Science and Technology Panel	SON3945513	Defence innovation, science and technology consultancy.
Defence ICT Provider Arrangement	SON3520191	Defence ICT provision and supporting consultancy.
AFP Capability Support Services Panel	SON3538332	Australian Federal Police capability support.
Digital Marketplace Panel	SON3413842	Whole-of-government digital and consulting services.
NSW Performance and Management Services Scheme	SCM0005	NSW Government management consulting scheme.
ACT Government Panel	Held	ACT Government professional services panel.
Indigenous Procurement Policy (IPP)	via SERVEGATE	Accessed through the SERVEGATE partner-of-record arrangement.

Partner-of-record arrangements

OHP is procurable directly and through deeds of standing offer held by SERVEGATE, covering whole-of-government, Defence-aligned and Indigenous Procurement Policy engagements. These arrangements simplify engagement under panel-only procurement and shorten scope-to-contract timelines.

Corporate particulars

ABN and ACN: Available on request.
Insurances: Professional indemnity and public liability held. Certificates of currency available on request.
Business status: Australian owned and operated small business. Canberra-based.
Security: Security cleared personnel. Information supplied under government contracts is handled to the security requirements of the contract.

Section 07

How to engage.

Four steps, no long sales cycle. Most engagements move from first conversation to scoped proposal in under three weeks. We work to your procurement clock, not ours.

01 · Surface

Identify what is not working

A signal that workload, fatigue, attrition or rework has crossed a threshold, or a human-element gate review you are not resourced to answer.

02 · Strategy call

A 45-minute conversation

Context, constraints and goals. You leave with a clear view of where work design is helping or hurting, and what an engagement would address.

03 · Scoped proposal

A practical plan

Options, scope, timing and price, sized to the constraint rather than padded for revenue. Procurable directly or through panel.

04 · Delivery

Diagnose, redesign, embed

We work alongside your engineers, leaders and operators, and build the internal capability that holds the change after we leave.