Burnout is especially common in the aviation safety industry. I’ve seen it happen to young and older safety managers. I’ve seen it happen to safety managers who were early and late in their safety careers.
Burnout is not picky about whom it possesses, meaning that burnout's scope of victims naturally exceeds aviation safety professionals.
Unfortunately, safety culture surveys are often not high on the priority list of aviation safety management system (SMS) implementations. And judging by surveys that I have seen, they are often written with the candor and creativity of a Driver’s Education manual.
Which is too bad...
Because fun, creative, regular, and *short* safety surveys can be a truly fantastic addition to a safety manager’s bag of tricks.
Make no mistake, if done well, safety cultures benefit from safety surveys significantly by:
Topics: 4-Safety Promotion
Every continuously-improving safety program will fail when employees are not involved in identifying and reporting safety hazards. Getting workers to participate in their aviation safety management system (SMS) is all about making the SMS personal. People care more about things that directly involve and matter to them.
An aviation safety manager functions as the primary bridge between an SMS implementation and the employees – he/she IS the force of “personal.”
The safety manager is responsible for influencing safety reporting cultures.
Topics: 4-Safety Promotion
Most of us grew up using good old fashioned pen and paper for just about everything. In fact, for most things, I still prefer it over using my phone or computer.
It’s quick, it’s natural, it’s something we can touch and feel.
But frankly, comparing pen and paper methods to software for managing documentation requirements of formal aviation Safety Management Systems (SMS) is the difference between driving a trusted old pickup and a Formula 1 racing car.
Topics: Risk Management Software
Like safety training, safety promotion in aviation safety management systems (SMS) is wrought with rigid material that screams in so many ways, “tune me out!”
Much of the safety promotion information doled out at workplaces looks more like an IKEA how-to manual than serving as a tool to make employees cheer for, and feel as if they are true contributors to their aviation SMS.
Safety promotion is among the most important elements in every aviation SMS implementation.
Topics: 4-Safety Promotion
Being an aviation safety officer is an often unrewarding and challenging job. In many ways, an aviation safety manager is like a professional plate spinner balancing delicate interests and priorities, such as:
Topics: 2-Safety Risk Management
Since November 2006, ICAO has mandated that aviation service providers implement formal aviation safety management systems (SMS). Among multiple operators that we have worked with, there has been confusion about:
Topics: Risk Management Training
Highly functioning aviation safety management systems (SMS) always have effective data acquisition and risk management practices. This is not the case of most nascent SMS implementations.
Monitoring SMS performance and spotting safety trends are not at the forefront of most safety managers' minds as they begin their SMS implementations.
Topics: Aviation SMS Database
Unless you are new to aviation safety management systems (SMS), safety professionals recognize that the objective of aviation SMS is to:
Topics: Quality-Safety Management
A flight risk assessment tool, commonly known as FRAT, is a very important element of your SMS program.
Every flight has risks and hazards.
Using a FRAT tool helps airline SMS programs evaluate review and identify those risks. Based on this FRAT review process, safety programs can develop mitigation strategies.
A FRAT tool contains a list of various questions. Each question has a “risk level” attached to it. Counting up the risk level of each question will provide the total risk assessment score for the flight.
Topics: 2-Safety Risk Management
These two on-demand videos offer:
