Introduction to General Issue Viewer

Airline and airport employees are curious as to what types of issues are reported in your aviation safety management system. Most aviation safety management software secures information from the general user base. This seclusion of data has its advantages and disadvantages. Studies have shown that when users are able to witness their contributions to an effort, they are more likely to continue contributing to this effort.

General Issue Viewer offers great functionality for safety promotion and keeping your employees involved in your aviation safety management system.

Purpose of General Issue Viewer in Aviation Safety Management Systems

General Issue Viewer is a special window into your airline or airport accidents, incidents and reported hazards. Being able to grant your general uses access into learning what types of issues are being reported in your organization will help keep your users involved in your aviation safety program. Very few aviation safety management software programs have a feature to desensitize issues for general consumption. The General Issue Viewer allows management to provide users with enough information to keep users informed and feeling as if their contributions enhance operational safety.

Pilots and other airline or airport professionals may be interested in conducting their own hazard analysis based on data provided. The General Issue Viewer allows users to sort and filter data for their own ad hoc data analysis.

What is General Issue Viewer

General Issue Viewer is a sortable and filter capable list of desensitized issues that are visible to all employees. Users can view all issues that management has considered safe for public viewing, although the public isn't viewing them. Users have to be logged into your safety management software program in order to view the list of desensitized issues.

Why Use General Issue Viewer in Aviation Safety Management Systems

Employees are naturally curious as to what types of issues are coming into their aviation safety management system. They also like to see their reported issues in a public location. This provides them a sense of "ownership" or sense of involvement in your aviation safety program. When users feel their reports are making a difference, they are more inclined to continue reporting airline and airport hazards, incidents and accidents.

Who Prepares General Issues for Aviation Safety Management Systems

Safety managers and SMS Admins have the safety management software permissions to prepare issues for general consumption. Users with only the Department Head role don't have permissions to access the functionality for preparing desensitized issues. However, this does not mean that department heads do not have a voice in the content of these desensitized issues. Comments can be made for every reported aviation hazard, accident and incident in the system by department head with permissions to view issues in the aviation safety management software.

How are Desensitized Issues Prepared?

After safety managers conduct their risk assessment of reported airline or airport hazards, incidents or accidents, they may wish to move to the Classification of the issue. At the top of the Classify tab in Issue Manager, the safety manager can set permissions as to the level of security. While setting security settings, safety managers can also set a "desensitized title" and a "desensitized description" for all users to see in the General Issue Viewer.

Safety managers don't have to set a desensitized title or description. In this case, the reported airline/airport accident or incident does not appear in the list for general users to view.

Safety managers can optionally use the original title and description of the airline/airport accident or incident. In this case, there is a simple checkbox and button to save these elements in the desensitized list, which is visible to all users with access to the General Issue Viewer.

When are Desensitized Issues Created

Desensitized issues can be created at any time after the airline/airport issue has been submitted. Most safety managers desensitize issue titles and descriptions either immediately after performing the risk assessment or right before closing the issue.

Sources of More Information on Safety Promotion Issues

EGAST Safety Promotion Links
Skybrary Safety Promotion
Safety Promotion Videos
Promoting Safety Communication Within Aviation Dept
Transport Canada Safety Promotion Activities
Other Ideas for Safety Promotion
Safety Promotion Video by CASA