SMS Pro Aviation Safety Software Blog 4 Airlines & Airports

How Risk Management Depends on Managers and Employees

As the former Commander of the International Space Station, it is not surprising that in interviews, Chris Hadfield often stresses the importance of effective risk management.  Whether for career or pleasure, every aviator experiences a considerable level of risk in their operational environment. 

3 Ways to Encourage Participation in Your Aviation Safety Program

Many service providers struggle with overcoming the difficulty of generating participation and buy-in for their safety management program. However, it doesn’t have to be difficult. Employees in your organization will be much more likely to participate if you design your SMS to be:

What is a Dying Aviation Risk Management Program

Aviation safety risk management programs are on a spectrum of regression, stagnation, or improvement. What condition is your SMS?

Is your aviation risk management program dying? The truth is that it can be hard to know the current status of your SMS.

Why Managers Struggle with Safety Promotion

Safety Promotion is definitely the least appreciated of the 4 Pillars of SMS.

Almost without fail, promoting safety takes the “back seat” in most aviation safety programs because civil aviation authorities and auditors are significantly more interested in seeing that you comply with:

• Safety Policy,
• Safety Risk Management, and
• Safety Assurance.

Building Hazard Reporting Culture Through Convenience

If you want to improve your aviation SMS program’s hazard reporting culture, the first thing you should do is see if you can make hazard reporting easier.

“Easier” is a tricky word.

Are manual hazard reporting forms easy? The long answer begins with: it depends on the situation. The short answer is: sometimes yes, sometimes no.

How to Improve Safety Culture in Front Line Employees 

As a current aviation maintenance technology student and worker in the aviation maintenance field, I get to experience both the school and the workplace safety cultures. As mentioned in a previous post, the meaning of aviation safety culture is:

When We Say Promote Safety, What are We Actually Promoting

Safety promotion plays a crucial role in your aviation safety culture. So when we talk about promoting your SMS, we are really talking about how to build safety culture in your organization.

By far, safety promotion is often the most neglected portion of SMS. One, promoting the safety program is difficult, and two, it is vastly underrepresented in most aviation compliance authorities’ requirements.

What are the Economics of SMS

Despite the having the word “economic,” the economics of SMS are not concerned with money.

Rather, the economics of SMS look at continuous improvement from the standpoint of incentives.

What is Just Culture in Aviation SMS Programs

In layman terms, Just Culture in aviation SMS programs is an organization’s commitment to focusing on learning and improving in the light of unsafe acts, as opposed to blaming and punishing.

What is Safety Promotion Component of 4 Pillars?

The Safety Risk Management and Safety Assurance pillars of SMS receive by far the most attention.

Lagging behind them is Safety Policy.

Then, way in the back, sometimes barely noticeable, is Safety Promotion. To put it in perspective, in the FAA’s Advisory Circular: