SMS Pro Aviation Safety Software Blog 4 Airlines & Airports

Why Social Psychology of Risk Is Important

Social psychology plays a tremendously important role in safe operations. In fact, it may play the most important role in safety outcomes. Safety performance in your aviation safety program will hinge on your ability to create a climate of positive social psychology through:

• Safety Policy;
• Safety Promotion; and
• SMS design (Safety Risk Management).

Steps for How to Manage Hazard Reports

The 4 I’s of Issue Management are a useful, high-level way of looking at the process and steps for managing hazard reports.

In terms of how to manage hazard reports, these 4 basic steps in the process are:

What Are Key Performance Indicators

Key performance indicators in aviation SMS measure the core safety concerns of your organization. They help you evaluate your success at reaching important safety targets.

KPIs are NOT used to evaluate:

Why Fatigue Monitoring Matters

Fatigue is the sixth of the Dirty Dozen Human Factors.

Fatigue has traditionally received a lot of attention from flight crew due to the dramatic effects of the different types of fatigue on pilot and cabin crew performance.

One of the primary challenges associated with fatigue in the workplace is that the symptoms of fatigue are other Human Factors.

Hazard Reporting More Than Just Hazards

“Hazard reporting” is a bit of a misnomer because employees report much more than hazards. Hazards are simply one type of thing that people report. Perhaps a more accurate expression for hazard reporting would be “issue reporting.”

Why Identifying the Difference Between Hazards and Risks Matters

One of the biggest problems in aviation risk management is the misuse or misunderstanding of aviation risk management definitions and concepts. The most common mistakes happen when it comes to the idea of a hazard vs risk.

Often, these two items are either:

• Used interchangeably, as if they were the same thing;
• Misidentified, where a safety manager misidentifies a risk occurrence as a hazard occurrence; or
• The terms are used much too broadly.

What Is a Hazard

Hazards are central to the entire process of developing safe operational environments.

A hazard fulfills the following:

• Is a dangerous condition, such as a situation, behavior, object, etc., that poses an unacceptable level of danger;

Goals for Hazard Reporting

Knowing what issues employees should be reporting in your SMS requires you always keep the primary goals of hazard reporting in mind:

First, you need to gather data. You use data to:

• Understand your SMS performance;
• Monitor effectiveness of risk controls;
• Mitigate safety concerns; and

Human Factors in Aviation SMS: Beyond the “Dirty”

Unfortunately, the concept of Human Factors in aviation safety management systems (SMS) has historically carried an undeniable, negative impression about the role of human in safety issues (as well as other issues).

Just consider the synonymous term associated with Human Factors: "The Dirty Dozen".

Furthermore, the Dirty Dozen focuses exclusively on the negative aspects of human attitudes and behavior in safety incidents. In other words, in practical application, Human Factors are used as a problem to be controlled.

What Does Documenting Aviation SMS Mean

Aviation safety management systems (SMS) documentation is probably the most critical component of aviation SMS design.

Documentation must be clear, accurate, current, and easy to access. Documentation reflects SMS compliance and SMS performance.