Non Punitive Policy

By Didrik Strand offroadpilots@gmail.com
A non-punitive policy is not a "get out of jail free" card or an organizational excuse to deliver inferior quality job performance.  A non-punitive policy represents accountability and excellence.
A Safety Management System (SMS) includes a non-punitive policy as a tool to collect operational data and establish an open communication door. It is possible that an organization drifts away from quality and fall into a trap that there is not enough time to do the job right, but that there is enough time to do the job twice. A non-punitive policy is a tool to discover operational drift and quality of service, since customer service is variable with operational decisions made by employees.


In a non-punitive environment there is a just-culture, or a safety culture of how to apply a job performance tool to instil employee accountability.  

Without a non-punitive policy human behavior cost is a hidden cost.  



Simplified;  a just –culture are categorized into 3 areas;
  1. Human behavior, or Human error as a negative input
  2. At-risk behavior
  3. Reckless behavior
Human error is when a person applies an action that is different than the normal procedure.  E.g. an airport vehicle operator has a plan of action to stay between the marked boundary lines, but unintentionally moves across an assigned line.  Crossing this line is a reaction of a person in response to an external or internal stimuli.


At-risk behavior is when a person makes a decision to deviate from a procedure. E.g. an airport operator has a procedure in place to stay between the marked white lines when travelling from one point to another point. However, the vehicle operator makes a decision to deviate from the marked boundary lines and take a different route.      


Reckless behavior is when a person makes a decision to put someone or something in harms way. E.g. an airport vehicle operator crosses the boundary lines, speeds towards equipment or people and then makes a sharp turn to avoid contact. Accepting at-risk behavior leads to behavioral drift. Two stop signs on a two way road implies it's a one way street.


With a non-punitive policy in a just-culture a possible Corrective Action Plans (CAP) applied to these human, organizational and environmental factors, are to console human error, coach at-risk behavior and punish reckless behavior.


When CAPs are completed, apply a cost factor of time spent on organizational behavior reports to analyze how human factor incidents affects  the profit margin. Without a non-punitive policy organizational behaviors are unknown and hidden costs.
Reckless behavior  is to use a vehicle not suited for the job or condition.

In a just-culture employees know their duties, roles and responsibilities and are able to make choices which delivers high quality customer service.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Accepting or Rejecting Risks

By Didrik Strand offroadpilots@gmail.com
Image
Accepting or rejecting risks is a fundamental principle in a successful safety management system (SMS). A person managing the safety management system is expected to maintain a process for identifying hazards to aviation safety and for evaluating and managing the associated risks and ensuring that personnel are trained and competent to perform their duties as they apply to the safety management system. This includes training for both the accountable executive and SMS manager, in addition to other airport and airline operations personnel. A level of risk is an inherent element of aviation safety and there are several types of risks to consider when accepting or rejecting risks. One type of risk may take precedence over another type even if it is not directly associated with operations. Risk control strategies are beyond accepting or rejecting a risk, it is to justify control actions based on defined criteria. There are five categories of risks. The total risk is the sum of identified an
Read more

Lawless

By Didrik Strand offroadpilots@gmail.com
Image
A safety management system (SMS) is a regulatory requirement for airport and airline operators, the SMS regulations are performance-based, processes must conform to regulatory requirements, but still, a healthy SMS is lawless. In a lawless system events are unrestricted, actions are reactive to immediate threats, and data are collected by random chance. A safety management system contains multiple components to conduct research study of patterns. Research study design is a framework, or the set of methods and procedures used to collect and analyse data on variables specified in a particular research problem. A safety management system research study designs comes in many shape and forms, with advantages and limitations. A rule-based SMS is an overcontrolled system to justify an expected definite and unambiguous output. A system where predetermined results exists, is a system without trust, without learning, without accountability, and a system where information sharing impossible. A la
Read more

Human Factors

By Didrik Strand offroadpilots@gmail.com
Image
Human factors and human errors are two separate things but are often used interchangeable in conversations and in the aviation industry. Human errors are attached to a person who could be linked to an occurrence. In addition, the severity of the outcome is a predetermining factor how important it is to assign human error as the root cause after an accident.  Human error root cause analysis has widespread support from the aviation industry. However, with the implementation of the Safety Management System (SMS) regulations, accountability came into play, and it became impossible to justify human error as the root cause.  A healthy SMS looks at the organization and its systems, and the fact that a person overlooked, or missed an item is no longer a root cause, such as a pilot missing a checklist item. Checklists are required and are used for any flight, but there is no evidence a missed checklist item was the root cause of any accidents. At the other end of the spectrum, completing the ge
Read more