Communication is key

Safety is generated every day by people committed to doing a good job and who are in a position to make a difference immediately.

That is why aviation is always such a personal business as well as having corporate features. Systems – be they management, quality or safety – still have to be implemented by people and no-one has a greater vested interest in safety than the pilot.

It is always surprising then that so little attention is paid to the ‘soft’ skills of people management that are so critical to engendering a powerful culture and reinforcing safety as a critical business outcome and bottom line.

As with most things, a focus on the importance of people in an organisation starts from the top. In an environment where there is no interest in developing people both the workplace environment and the organisational culture will suffer.

Obviously, the larger the organisation and the more resources available the easier it is to devote dedicated programs to supporting people through sound induction, ongoing training, feedback loops and communication systems. But that is no excuse for even micro-companies just ignoring these very powerful ways of improving businesses and safety. Regardless of the size of an organisation or whether it is in the public or private sector, these principles go to the heart of engendering and enabling safety.

The question then becomes ‘how?’. Apart from the basics of respect and empathy, these processes can be aided and buttressed by solid systems of communication that open up channels of information and which close the loop by ensuring actions are taken to remedy identified problems wherever possible. If your company doesn’t have a strong communication system this is an excellent starting point for change.

All companies with the AAAA AIMS (Aerial Improvement Management System) accreditation are firm believers in the power of communication systems as it continues to provide them with opportunities to improve their businesses – information they never had about issues they never saw because they can’t be at the coalface every day doing every job.

No-one has a greater vested interest in safety than the pilot.

In many cases, this simple intervention has reduced significant business and operational risks ranging from better provisioning to offset observed equipment failures through to better airstrip maintenance and wire risk management.

Small wonder the communication is such a big deal when building a safety management system! The critical element is developing a working system and introducing it to staff with the full support of management so that when an issue is raised there is a clear action to fix it within an acceptable timeframe. As with all management, if you don’t walk the talk, your people will not take you seriously.

Other aspects of the soft skills are equally important, including the need for ongoing training and growth opportunities and the need for feedback on performance.

While it is tempting to assume that a job and pay is reward enough for any pilot, this attitude represents a missed opportunity to keep people motivated and engaged with the company’s goals. If you treat employment as a purely transactional relationship, you are flying in the face of reams of research indicating that motivation and engagement is critical to good outcomes for any organisation. Simply imagine how much damage a non-engaged employee – or worse, an actively negative or even disgruntled employee – can cause to your business through poor client relations, reputational damage or simply missing opportunities to do a good job rather than an adequate job.

One way of improving engagement is to check if your organisation provides any opportunities for training, some level of mentoring for newcomers or junior employees or contractors, or regular feedback on how they are performing. This could be as simple as sending staff to relevant conferences or training sessions, or helping them gain new qualifications. Unless you can show some interest in them personally, you are unlikely to win their confidence for the long haul.

If you are unsure as a manager of where to start, perhaps consider some training for yourself – or simply self-education by checking out the professional development reading list available to all AAAA members.