MAN: The fourth component of a Safety Management System
is safety promotion.
So the communication and the education
and the training of personnel can take on many forms.
Of course, there's induction training where they'll learn about it.
There's continuation training where that is refreshed.
But there's also the ongoing training, education and communication
through various mediums.
It could be through posters around the organisation,
use of internal mail, use of internal intranet,
or indeed safety stand down days, or even the company barbecue,
where there's the opportunity for safety personnel
to address employees or contributors to that safety culture.
And it's that safe and just culture within an organisation
that encourages people to contribute to the Safety Management System
and a critical component of it.
Safety promotion is one of the most important things,
and, you know, safety promotion and education.
It sort of links in back into assurance as well
because, you know, when you're going to
implement any change in any organisation,
first off all, there's the communication
and then second of all is the reinforcement and the practice
of those new...it could be new procedures that you implement.
So training is what underpins and delivers
that change in your organisation.
Promotion is, well, how do we get our staff involved?
And the best thing to do is to involve them in the process
of when you're building the SMS, so get their buy-in.
WOMAN: Well, with the safety promotion,
I really enjoy that because it's face to face.
We do it face to face with all our people.
We include... At this stage it's organisational-wide,
so we have someone that's an accountant
sitting in with a pilot and an engineer,
and everyone has a lot to contribute.
I find that that face to face and sharing ideas
and also expanding on what a Safety Management System is about,
it does have a great result.
I've noticed that after we run those courses,
I've had an influx of safety reports, and I've thought,
"Hmm, I only just ran that course last week
"and there's been some proactive hazards reported."
So it does go to show me that's also so important
in keeping the Safety Management System alive and fresh
in the organisation,
and not something that just sits on the shelf and gathers dust.
MAN: Mindfulness is really important at a management level,
and a lot of people take that to be
that the manager is in your pockets micromanaging you.
We know that that's actually counterproductive to a workplace.
So mindfulness for managers is more about
allowing their employees to take ownership,
this idea of inclusion in decision making,
bringing in all of your workers in to hear them out
because you need to encourage them to take ownership of safety as well.
So in the video, one of the workers said about posting notes...
Nah. Told John, told Jane.
I've even put those little post-it stickers
on those boards in the office, you know, even used the little pink ones.
MORRISON: ..on the board.
"And this is what I've done and that's what I've done."
But there really needs to be ownership
at every level of the organisation.
What is the problem?
We all need to work together to build a safety culture.
Management need to be supportive of their workers
in relation to owning decisions.
So taking information out of a range of sources
is certainly the best option.
If you're only looking at your own organisation,
then you're identifying hazards in your organisation,
but, particularly for smaller ones,
it won't be a huge pool of data to have a look at,
so looking outside your organisation is certainly advantageous.
Plenty of safety information coming out of ATSB, for example.
They release statistics and Short Investigation Bulletins.
And the event will be similar to what could occur in any organisation,
particularly small ones.
They can be quite relevant.
So taking information out of a range of sources
is certainly the best option.
If you're only looking at your own organisation,
then you're identifying hazards in your organisation,
but, particularly for smaller ones,
it won't be a huge pool of data to have a look at,
so looking outside your organisation is certainly advantageous.
There's a lot of advantages that small organisations have
that the bigger ones unfortunately don't have,
and that is the lines of communication are much shorter.
You can sit down and have informal or formal meetings,
often at very short notice,
around the coffee table, around the briefing table.
And often there's a lot of positive safety issues
that come out of those meetings
that wouldn't normally come out of a meeting in a large organisation
because getting everyone together is so much more difficult.
The personal relationships that a manager has
with the people working for her or him are key.
And what does that mean?
That is a culture that allows the boss to hear bad news.
And if the boss every day creates a climate
in which bringing bad news to her or him is welcome, is OK,
is acceptable, is not sanctioned, that would be a great investment.
I don't think there is anything that
you can put in a Safety Management System
or put a card around the neck,
"I have a stop-work authority. Look, I can stop the work,"
it's not the same thing as a creation of relationship of trust
and confidence that bad news is welcome and will be acted on.
With promotion, it's about good communication
and having people onside, you know, and providing that opportunity
for everybody to actually talk to management
and talk to the key leaders in that safety world.
And so this extends right through - from the guy in the tool store
right through to executives participating in the program.
So the positive result from our SMS system is we improve safety.
That's the way we do business.