Hazard identification in aviation SMS is the baseline performance needed for a successful safety program. It is the first element of the Safety Risk Management component of the 4 Pillars of aviation safety.
At face value, hazard identification is fairly simple: awareness and recognition of potential danger in the operational environment. In aviation safety management systems (SMS), hazard identification is complicated by the fact that:
Formal process means that hazard identification processes can be:
Hazard identification processes should be based on a combination of reactive, proactive, and predictive methods of safety data collection. The reason it’s important to understand hazard identification as a process is because identifying hazards happens as a result of several actions in the aviation SMS, including:
As said, what the “process” of identifying hazards entails is that hazard identification is the result of many actions within the safety program. The hazard reporting process can be summarized in 3 stages.
First stage: awareness and safety culture building activities. This stage of the hazard identification process is designed to stimulate the performance of identification ability, such as with:
Second stage: recognizing hazards in the operational environment. This stage is the actual action of perceiving threats in the workplace:
Third stage: reporting hazards and other safety issues. This stage simply involves reporting issues through the formal hazard process, which usually is:
All three stages described above are essential for effective hazard identification.
The hazard identification element of aviation SMS is satisfied when:
This element is satisfied when safety issues are being identified and reported in the organization, and then acted upon in a timely manner. Based on the reported issues, safety management should close the feedback loop by focusing safety awareness on the most relevant safety issues.
An extremely important topic to briefly discuss is what the operational environment is in aviation SMS. Too often safety managers and upper-level management are under the impression that front-line employees are the only people who should be identifying safety concerns and reporting them.
This comes from misunderstanding the operational environment as, essentially, the location where actual operations take place – such as the runway, baggage handling areas, etc. In fact, the operational environment is much more extensive than this and needs to be understood as including:
Long story short, the operational environment is any factor that has a bearing on safety. These factors exist internally at the front line, bureaucratic, and upper management levels. These factors also exist externally with:
While aviation SMS commonly focuses on hazard identification, aviation service providers should not neglect to also pursue and evaluate opportunities using the same risk management processes. Healthy risk management attitudes focus not always on avoiding operational risk, but also on economic risk based on identified opportunities that present themselves.
A healthy safety culture with engaged employees will have considerably more SMS participation. Employees will see the advantages of constantly improving operations. These are the kinds of employees that I like working on my team. Not only will they report when something doesn't look "right" or "proper," but also communicate potential opportunities that may not be obvious to management. Your SMS will mature into an integrated SMS and QMS.
A fantastic way to immediately improve hazard identification is to:
While every aviation SMS will use a combination of approaches to identifying hazards, each program will also stress one approach more than others. We understand this as the primary approach to hazard identification. 4 primary approaches to consider are:
If you wish, you can explore these tips for identifying hazards in more detail.
Effect hazard identification activity in aviation SMS is where we all want to be, especially the accountable executive. When employees identify hazards and report them, the accountable executive will have the necessary "initial fodder" for the SMS' risk management processes to measure, categorize, and refine risk controls.
Your accountable executive needs to monitor the safety performance of the SMS to demonstrate continuous improvement of the SMS. Without an effective hazard identification strategy backed up by actual safety reporting performance, the accountable executive and the safety team will have some explaining to do. If this happens to you, don't hem and haw around making excuses for your poor safety culture. The best approach is to provide a solution - i.e., yes, we know we have a problem and this is what we are doing about it.
If you need help with your safety culture and hazard identification processes, we can help. We have tools to turn your SMS into a profit driver that will also provide assurance to your account executive when auditors come calling.
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You may find this quiz and training syllabus very helpful for assessing current hazard identification abilities in your aviation SMS program.
Last updated October 2024.