As safety managers across diverse aviation organizations implement, operate, and enhance Safety Management Systems (SMS), the challenge lies not just in daily risk management duties, but in cultivating the right culture to sustain it. A multi-dimensional Safety Culture Survey (SCS) tool emerges as a vital tool for periodic assessment and improvement of the organizational dynamics of your employees. This also helps fulfill the spirit and intent of continuous improvement requirements of 14 CFR 5.75.
The Importance of Safety Citizenship Behaviors
Safety citizenship behaviors refer to the voluntary actions taken by employees to promote and enhance safety beyond their basic job responsibilities. These actions can significantly influence the overall safety culture and effectiveness of the SMS. By understanding and evaluating these behaviors, you can uncover the intrinsic motivations as to how your employees prioritize their own safety limits and model behavior for their crews, teams, and peers. Understandably this can easily be complimented by collecting insights of their emotional intelligence, to deepen their understanding of these behaviors and begin to describe the living DNA of your SMS. Citizenship encompasses: 1) attention to coworker safety, 2) willingness to intervene in dangerous situations, 3) perceptions of reporting external safety hazards, 4) perception of collaborative risk mitigation, 5) willingness to suggest safety improvements, 6) initiative to communicate and comply with all safety procedures.
Integrating Emotional Intelligence
It is said that a person’s IQ does not improve, but emotional intelligence (EI) can be continually developed. Emotional intelligence encompasses self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, and social skills — all of which play a vital role in promoting a proactive ‘living’ SMS culture. Thus, organizational effectives and especially safety citizenship behaviors are more easily maintained with strong EI quotients.
How to Frame Citizenship Questions with EI
Here are some topical examples and tips on constructing citizenship survey questions that will give you the assurance that your employees will grow and sustain your company’s safety culture:
1. Proactive Safety Identification
Element: Demonstrating a proactive approach to identifying safety concerns.
Emotional Intelligence: Self-awareness and self-regulation.
Survey Question: “How often do you take the initiative to identify potential safety concerns in your work environment?”
Tip: Consider using a Likert scale (e.g., Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Often, Always) to gauge the frequency of these behaviors.
2. Open Communication
Element: Engaging in effective communication to promote safety.
Emotional Intelligence: Communication skills and empathy.
Survey Question: “Rate your ability to share safety-related information clearly and supportively with colleagues.”
Technique: Include open-ended questions alongside scaled responses to capture qualitative insights about communication barriers and successes.
3. Team Collaboration
Element: Collaborating with team members on safety initiatives.
Emotional Intelligence: Social skills and motivation.
Survey Question: “To what extent do you actively participate in team efforts to improve safety practices?”
Example: You could follow up with a question asking for specific examples of collaboration, which can reveal deeper insights into team dynamics.
4. Mentorship and Support
Element: Willingness to mentor peers in safety protocols.
Emotional Intelligence: Empathy and social skills.
Survey Question: “How often do you provide guidance to colleagues regarding safety standards?”
Tip: Encourage respondents to think about not just actions but the impact of their mentoring on team safety culture.
Fostering a Culture of Safety Excellence
Utilizing the insights from your safety culture survey can lead to targeted training and development initiatives, creating a feedback loop that promotes continuous improvement. By regularly revisiting the survey, you can track progress and adapt strategies as needed.
Conclusion
Managing safety culture is very much like baking bread. It is a living organism that no matter how you measure the same ingredients, proof and bake it, each loaf bakes and performs with its own uniqueness in shape, color and crumb. As a safety manager you may have all the right safety management ingredients, but you have to keep sampling, measuring, and proofing, to get that perfect citizenship loaf.
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