Safety Management: Make It Simple and Easy to Speak Up

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Safety Management: Make It Simple and Easy to Speak Up

In aviation, SMS is a requirement to be reckoned with. But its success is contingent upon employee inputs, valuable feedback, and the safety culture. The question is how your organisation can encourage employees to speak up about safety?

Safety is already in the DNA of the aviation industry. We strive to be compliant in everything we do. We want our performance to be safe and efficient. And we use continuous improvement to ensure and maintain safety.

That is the ideal. That is the level of safety we strive for.

Safety Management Systems are no different. The SMS focus is all about creating a strong safety and reporting culture in which people are not afraid to speak up.

This article highlights how the implementation of SMS becomes much easier and simpler if you encourage and allow your employees to speak up. Without fear of reprimand. Without fear of consequences.

Speaking Up: Easy, Simple, and Attractive

Imagine the following scenario: You are working on a beautiful bird in the maintenance workshop, when you notice a cable hanging 30 centimetres below the ceiling. The cable constitutes a potential safety hazard. A hazard which could potentially compromise the safety and health of your team.

What do you do?

In the ideal scenario, you would log onto your reporting system and describe the hazard. You would also notify your manager about the cable in order to initiate the repair. In other words, speaking up about safety concerns should be as easy as changing a bolt. Blindfolded. With your hands tied on the back.

As an organisation that must comply with SMS, it is crucial that speaking up becomes simple, instinctive, and attractive for the employees. They should not hesitate when encountering safety-related issues. They should know exactly what to do, and why they should do it.

Working on airplanes generates a lot of potential safety-related issues
such as Foreign Object Damage, bodily harm, and disregarding procedures.

However, reality often does not exceed expectations.

Fear of reprimands and repercussions, perceived complexity in reporting procedures, and unclear roles and responsibilities all act as barriers to an open and safe reporting culture.

So, how can your organisation make it simple and easy for your employees to speak up about safety?

Five Speak Up Strategies

SMS relies on a just safety culture where employees feel safe enough to speak up. Here, we present to you five strategies which facilitate speaking up:

Clear communication channels: You must make sure that your employees know the why, how, what, where, and when of SMS. Clear communication is key to ensuring that employees feel comfortable speaking up and feel encouraged to act as ambassadors of safety.
Simplified reporting system: Easy access and a simple system are keywords when it comes to speaking up. A complex system followed by complex procedures can be a major obstacle to speaking up about safety. The ultimate goal is to make it as easy as possible for employees to voice their concerns and report safety hazards without unnecessary barriers.
Access to anonymity: Even though you may think that you have a fair and open reporting culture, some employees will feel discouraged from sharing safety-related concerns if their name is tagged to the report. Fear of reprimands are one significant barrier to speaking up about safety. But fear of insignificance is another. Therefore, you should provide the option to report anonymously as it can help alleviate fear and encourage more honest feedback. It may sound counterintuitive, but anonymity empowers employees to speak up more freely, and it reflects transparency and sincerity on the organisation’s part.
Just safety culture: A positive, open, and just safety culture is crucial to effective safety management. Your organisation can work towards this by encouraging an open dialogue about safety and compliance on all levels of the organisation. From management to the aircraft engineers in the hangar, and the administrative personnel in the office spaces. In other words; Let your staff know that their inputs matter, are being actively used, and provide them with valid feedback. You can also facilitate a just culture by recognising and celebrating instances where employees have helped resolve a safety issue or change a procedure by speaking up. This emphasises the importance of their safety contributions.
A little injection of fun: Inspire your employees to speak up by adding an element of excitement. This little initiative can turn the speaking up process into a more engaging one. Consider monthly, quarterly, or biannual rewards where you draw lots from the pile of safety reports. Adding a little sprinkle of fun can break down the barriers that prevent speaking up and in turn encourage more active participation.

SMS: A Joint Responsibility

Essentially, SMS equals simplicity. Make it simple and easy for your employees to speak up about safety. Help foster a culture where safety is a joint responsibility. Ensure open channels of communication and reporting.

Then you have paved the way for a successful Safety Management System.

Does your SMS reflect an open reporting culture?