Introduction to All Employee Letter
When your operation decides it is going to implement a Safety Management System, it is good idea to have a central location for all employees to view the details of the implementation plan, and in turn understand management’s commitment to the Safety Management System.
The SMS Pro All Employee Letter provides that location for you.
How to Use the All Employee Letter
When you first announce your aviation SMS implementation schedule, you may want to send all existing employees a newsletter with this announcement in their email. When users become inducted into your aviation safety management system (initial SMS training), one requirement would be for them to read and understand the "All Employee Letter." Furthermore, having all new employees read the "All Employee Letter" is recommended as part of their SMS induction training.
Aviation SMS Template for All Employee Letter
Feel free to use the sample template provided. Make sure you change the names where appropriate.
To All World Aviation Employees:
On February 22, 2008, World Aviation will begin implementing an organization-wide aviation safety management system (SMS). All employees are required to participate.
World Aviation will implement this SMS using FAA's suggested "SMS MATURITY MODEL". Initial implementation strategy will follow the four phases outlined in the ICAO SMS training course (as of September, 2007).
The phases of implementation will be arranged in the format of a maturity model, similar to that developed as the Capability Maturity Matrix (CMM) by the Software Engineering Institute of Carnegie-Mellon University. This technique has also been employed by the U.K. Health and Safety Executive (HSE – equivalent to U.S. OSHA) as a safety culture maturity model.
Level One: Planning and Organization. The first step in development of the SMS is for the organization to analyze its existing programs, systems, and activities with respect to the SMS functional requirements found in Appendix 1 of AC 120-92. For this reason, the analysis is called a “gap analysis,” the “gaps” being those things in the standard that are not already being performed. Once the gap analysis has been performed, an implementation plan is prepared. The company organizes resources and assigns responsibilities and sets schedules and objectives.
Level Two: Reactive Processes. At this step, the organization develops and implements a basic risk management process. Basic information acquisition, processing, and analysis functions are implemented and a tracking system for risk control and corrective actions is set up. This allows the organization to react to problems as they occur and to develop appropriate remedial action. For this reason, this level is termed “reactive.” While this is not the final objective of an SMS, it is an important step in the evolution of safety management capabilities.
Level Three: Proactive Processes. Clause 5 of the SMS standard requires safety risk management (SRM) to be applied to initial design of systems, organizations, and products, development of operational procedures, and planned changes to operational processes. The activities involved in the SRM process involve careful analysis of systems and tasks involved, identification of potential hazards in these functions, and development of risk controls. The risk management process developed at level two is used to analyze, document, and track these activities. Because the organization is now using the process to look ahead, this level is called “proactive.” At this level, however, these proactive processes have been implemented but their performance has not yet been proven.
Level Four: Continuous Improvement. The final level of SMS maturity is the continuous improvement level. Processes have been in place and their performance and effectiveness has been verified. The complete safety assurance process, including continuous monitoring and the remaining features of the other SRM and safety assurance processes are functioning. A major objective of a successful SMS is to attain and maintain this continuous improvement status for the life of the organization.
Again, participation in World Aviation's SMS is mandatory.
Sincerely Yours,
Top Management
1 February 2008