Considering the Challenges to Effective Aviation SMS Reporting

One of the biggest barriers to an effective Safety Management System (SMS) depends on the willingness of the employees to engage with the organisational system and for the managers to support such a program in a positive and tolerant way.

Without the willingness to engage with the Safety Management System (SMS) the level of data capture will lead to the creation of barriers.

Full engagement by the Management Team is an essential first step on the journey and without doubt. If we are going to maintain a healthy safety management systems (SMS) we require an open process of hazard reporting which allows us to understand the exposure and to reduce the operational risk.

How we are impact the various organisational barriers is in turn impacted by cultural and other behaviours which are often routed in mistrust.

Consider an Open Culture – what does this mean?

In an open culture employees feel “comfortable” to take their issues (typically related to any concerns which impact SMS) to management and to discuss with colleagues in a supported and positive way.

One of the major (if not the biggest) challenges related to the establishment of trust, where such discussions and conversations may genuinely take place without any fear of reprisal.

Such an organisational cultural aspiration depends on a real and genuine engagement rather than simply writing “stories” it has to be demonstrated by the senior management “top down” in order to enable the process. (Please note that building trust takes a considerable time – but to lose it may happen very quickly.

So what is a Just Culture and what is the difference between a Just Culture and a “No Blame Culture”?

In a no blame culture almost anything is tolerated without any repercussion, such tacit acceptance of violations is ultimately damaging to the organisation and should not be encouraged. When we consider a Just culture, our employees are treated in a fair and transparent way. With genuine understanding and support from the management particularly following an incident or event.

Genuine errors and omissions should be taken as an opportunity to improve the organisational system, in particular to understand that it is seldom that an employee will make a deliberate mistake. We should also understand that any traps discovered often provide an insight into organisational weakness.

If discipline is deemed to be required it should be considered as a last resort and to be seen by others as a Fair and Just response to the “violation”.

Is a willingness to report a Cultural Experience?

Well yes is the short answer, a lack of data within an SMS is a potential inhibit or barrier to a successful system.

Safety Managers can only deal with a potential exposure when it is known. Hypothetical and hearsay type reporting is weak when compared to an alternative which supports a more detailed understanding and full disclosure.

Employees need to be encouraged on a continuous basis to report into the SMS and for this to be successful they need to understand what is expected of them.

It is not enough to “require” employees to report “hazards” they have to understand the nature of a hazard and if indeed it is relevant and as such a candidate for reporting.

A lack of willingness by employees to report into the SMS may have deeper roots possibly connected even with moral and to also be associated with a “concerning” lack of engagement with the entire process. Without such a willingness to engage the system may even be still born in its effectiveness.

What is a Learning Culture

Again we are talking about a top down process where the organisation clearly demonstrates a willingness to embrace the opportunity to not just learn lessons, but to use them as a change agent and to communicate throughout the organisation in the most effective way.

When we learn our lessons they should translate to modification of our Standard Operating Procedures (SOP’s) and to impact the process of continuous development of associated training syllabus, through the process of Training Needs Analysis (TNA).

Communication is the Key – Working the Internal Market!

How we communicate the desire of the Senior Management to drive a positive cultural experience is an important element of a successful system. Simply creating a perception of obligation is not enough. We have to continually market in a strong and positive way.

We should operate in an environment of openness where the employees can see “status” of any issues they may report. To engage with the employees and to thank them in a genuine way which makes them feel part of the process.

Provide period summaries of ongoing issues and share information in a positive way including where relevant the analytical process which has driven the chosen outcomes.

The Importance of Training

Training our employees in such a way that they fully understand what is expected of them and by what criteria they should report into the SMS system.

Initial SMS training, as well as recurring SMS training should instruct employees of the various opportunities to gather data and to share how such data is analysed within our organisation.

Note that the training process should be formal as it is audit-able and will be used as a measure of the effectiveness of the system.

Sofema Aviation Services www.sassofia.com and SofemaOnline www.sofemaonline.com provide a range of regulatory compliant and vocational training courses for further information please see the websites or email office@sassofia.com or online@sassofia.com