SMS – A Tool To Communicate With Hazards
A Safety Management System (SMS) in safety critical industries such as airport or airline operations, is a tool to communicate with hazards. Communicating with hazards is the new way to operate a successful SMS. The first day of the SMS implementation phase, SMS managers and senior management became busy chasing Quality Control and improving safety by their reactive processes. After the SMS was fully implemented, they continued to apply reactive processes but missed an opportunity to use their Quality Assurance program.
COMMUNICATE WITH HAZARDS
Effective communication with hazards is the structured methods and strategies SMS enterprises use to identify, assess, understand, and respond to risks that may threaten people, operations, assets, or the environment.
While communication with hazards may sound abstract, it fundamentally involves establishing a two-way flow of information between an SMS enterprise and the dynamic risks it faces. This communication enables proactive management and informed decision-making to reduce the likelihood and impact of hazardous events.
The first step in communicating with hazards is hazard identification. SMS enterprises must establish systems for detecting existing and emerging threats. These could be physical hazards (e.g., machinery, chemicals), environmental risks (e.g., floods, storms), or operational hazards (e.g., cybersecurity threats, financial risks).
Data sources, such as incident reports, audits, personnel feedback, or external assessments play a vital role. The better an SMS enterprise understands the nature of a hazard, the more effectively it can respond to it.
External communication with stakeholders, vendors, regulatory bodies, emergency services, and the public is also essential. This involves transparent reporting of hazards and sharing mitigation plans. For instance, an energy company near a residential area might hold public briefings or distribute materials on what to do in case of a leak or explosion. An airport operator may hold regular meetings with the residents of the area to address observations and concerns by the general public.
Technology further enhances communication with hazards. Real-time monitoring systems, such as weather alerts, sensor data from equipment, SiteDocs live reports, or cybersecurity threat detection platforms, allow SMS enterprises to receive live feedback from hazards. This listening to hazards enables reliable responses and mitigations to risk controls.
SMS Enterprises may use scenario planning and simulations as a form of communication. By modeling possible hazard events and outcomes, they can converse with the hazard landscape, anticipating consequences and refining their preparedness strategies. These exercises also help communicate complex risks in an understandable way to stakeholders, vendors and other third parties.
TALKING ABOUT HAZARDS
Communicating with hazards
means more than just talking about them. It is about establishing a dynamic
system of detection, analysis, education, transparency, and adaptation. When
done effectively, it transforms hazards from unpredictable threats into
manageable risks.
Many managers in industrial, construction, and safety-critical industries believe that talking about hazards with personnel is equivalent to communicating and mitigating hazards. This belief stems from a combination of practical reasoning, managerial intent, and organizational habits. However, this equivalence can be misleading if not carefully examined.
At a basic level, when managers discuss hazards with workers, they often assume the conversation itself fulfills the responsibilities of hazard communication and risk mitigation. These discussions typically take the form of safety briefings, toolbox talks, or pre-job planning meetings. During these moments, hazards are identified, potential consequences are outlined, and safe behaviors are encouraged. From the manager’s perspective, this seems like a logical and proactive approach: identifying and sharing the knowledge of a hazard is seen as the first, and sometimes only necessary step.
Managers may also equate talking about hazards with action because they believe that awareness leads to prevention. If workers are made aware of danger, they are expected to act responsibly and avoid unsafe conditions. Thus, the act of verbal communication becomes synonymous with risk control. This belief is reinforced in environments where safety metrics are focused on lagging indicators (e.g., injury rates) and where the absence of incidents is taken as a sign of effective communication and hazard control.
Another reason is the constraints on time and resources. In time sensitive work environments, managers may face pressure to keep operations running while still mitigating hazards. Talking about hazards can be done quickly, requires no physical changes, and is easy to document. Compared to implementing engineering controls, changing processes, procedures or acceptable work practices, or investing in protective equipment, discussing hazards is simpler and less resource-intensive. As a result, communication becomes a stand-in for more thorough hazard mitigation.
There is also a cultural element at play. In some organizations, safety culture places a heavy emphasis on personal responsibility. This leads managers to believe that if a worker is told about a hazard, the responsibility shifts to the individual. The conversation, then, becomes a box to tick—ensuring the manager has done their part. In such cases, the belief that talking equals mitigating is a reflection of a transactional view of safety, rather than a systems-based approach.
The flaw in this reasoning is that talking about a hazard does not physically change the hazard. Real hazard management involves four decisions and action items such as accepting the hazard, mitigate the hazard, eliminate the hazard, or transfer the hazard.
While communication is essential and supports these actions, it is not a substitute for them. Effective hazard control requires both awareness and intervention.
Managers may equate talking about hazards with communicating and mitigating them due to a mix of good intentions, organizational pressure, and misunderstandings about their safety management system processes. While communication is a critical component of safety, it must be paired with concrete mitigation efforts to truly protect workers. Recognizing this distinction is key to evolving from a culture of compliance to one of genuine safety.
ORGANIZATIONAL HAZARD COMMUNICATION
Organizations must take a proactive and systematic approach to communicate with hazards effectively, meaning they must establish structured methods to identify, assess, and address threats before they escalate into incidents. Communicating with hazards involves more than simply recognizing risks, it encompasses an ongoing dialogue between the organization’s people, systems, and the environment in which they operate to minimize harm and ensure safety.
This communication is critical in safety critical industries and sectors such as aviation, manufacturing, healthcare, and energy, where the consequences of unmanaged hazards open the gates for special cause variations.
Training and education play a vital role in hazard communication. Personnel must be trained not only in the technical aspects of identifying hazards but also in the communication processes in place.
New hires receive indoctrination training, and orientation that includes learning about the safety management system policy (SMS Policy), how to use hazard reporting tools, observation tools, and how to submit their reports. Personnel are also trained in reporting of successful processes and why operations goes right most of the time.
Ongoing training is a tool for personnel to stay updated on current policies, regulatory requirements, and events. Interactive methods, such as workshops, role-playing, and scenario-based exercises, can further enhance engagement and retention of safety communication practices.
Internal communication tools such as newsletters, safety bulletins, meetings, and digital platforms are tools to communicate with hazards. If a near-miss incident occurs in one part of the organization, sharing the lessons learned through internal communications and include personnel in developing the corrective action plan, can prevent similar events elsewhere.
Communication with external stakeholders such as third-party contractors, regulatory agencies, and the public is also crucial. Transparent communication with external parties demonstrates accountability and enhances an SMS enterprise’s reliability and accountability.
Feedback loops are essential for sustaining effective communication with hazards. After hazards are identified, the organization must act and then communicate back to stakeholders about the actions taken. This feedback confirms that hazard communication leads to real outcomes, thereby reinforcing personnel engagement and continuous improvement. Without feedback, communication becomes one-sided, and personnel, stakeholders, vendors and third party contractors may lose motivation to communicate.
By encouraging open dialogue, implementing structured systems, such as the Safety Management System, and SiteDocs Compliance System, using clear visual aids, investing in training, leveraging technology, engaging external stakeholders, and maintaining feedback loops, organizations can create an environment where hazards are consistently identified, understood, and controlled. This ongoing oversight and mitigation of hazards ultimately put up barriers for special cause variations to enter into their production or service system.
SMS MANAGER COMMUNICATE WITH
HAZARDS
Safety managers play a vital role in maintaining safe environments across
industries, and their ability to communicate with hazards is not to literal
dialogue, but to their capacity to understand, identify, assess, and manage
risks effectively.
The concept of communicating with hazards emphasizes their deep familiarity with hazards, their mechanisms, and the context in which they arise. Safety managers speak the hazard language because they are trained to interpret warning signs, evaluate risk factors, and implement control measures. Their expertise in hazard management stems from rigorous training, experience, and a structured understanding of risk principles and safety systems.
Communication with hazards involves the ability to recognize and understand the different forms hazards can take, from physical and chemical dangers to ergonomic, biological, and psychosocial risks. Safety managers are trained to detect early indicators, or pattern changes, of such threats. They know how hazards manifest in different environments, whether it is a factory floor, a construction site, a laboratory, an airline, an airport, or an office setting. This recognition involves a blend of observational skills, technical knowledge, and familiarity with historical data. Safety managers are highly skilled at using tools like hazard identification tools, such as Statistical Process Control (SPC), job safety analyses, observation reports, risk analyses, risk assessments, and system analyses. These tools help them to comprehend the language of hazards, identifying patterns and opportunities for special cause variations to access processes.
SMS Managers communication with hazards also includes assessing the severity and likelihood of potential harm. By using structured methods such as risk matrices, safety managers can determine which hazards are most pressing and require immediate intervention.
This prioritization is a key part of their expertise—they know that not all risks are equal, and they allocate resources efficiently to minimize the most significant threats. Safety managers also understand the cause-and-effect relationships that lead to incidents. For instance, they know how a poorly maintained machine can lead to mechanical failure, or how a lapse in protocol can result in a chemical spill. Their fluency in these processes allows them to not just detect but effectively converse with hazards by predicting their outcomes and preemptively applying control measures.
Safety management system managers roles and responsibilities are highly unique, and communicating with hazards is one of their specialties in safety critical industries. SMS managers are one of the few professional positions that must be independent from being beholden to certificates of achievements, awards or rewards.
Safety managers constantly update their knowledge to remain fluent in evolving hazard language. Hazards can change due to technological advancements, changes in materials, or new work processes. For example, the increasing use of lithium-ion batteries introduces different fire risks compared to traditional power sources. A safety manager fluent in hazard language will understand how to assess thermal runaway, plan for containment, and communicate to mitigate special cause variations. This dynamic adaptability ensures they remain relevant and competent in their role and prepared to engage with emerging threats at any time.
Another reason safety managers are considered experts in hazard management is their ability to translate technical risk concepts into actionable strategies for workers and decision-makers. While hazards are a form of technical data, the people affected by them, employees, supervisors or executives, often need that data interpreted in a practical, clear manner. Safety managers serve as interpreters, converting complex risk assessments into understandable warnings, training programs, and safety procedures.
This human element is critical. Speaking the hazard language is not useful unless it results in behavioral change or improved decision-making. Through toolbox talks, safety drills, signage, and safety culture programs, safety managers open the doors for everyone in the organization to become part of the conversation about hazards.
Experience also plays a critical role in why safety managers are experts in hazard management. Their experience allows them to make informed decisions under pressure and to foresee risks that others might overlook. This practical wisdom is one of the strongest indicators of expertise, as it enables managers to lead with confidence and credibility during safety audits, inspections, or emergency responses.
Safety managers are experts because they are systems thinkers. They do not view hazards as isolated anomalies but as parts of broader organizational systems. They understand how culture, communication, training, equipment, processes, and leadership interact to either produce or prevent accidents.
This holistic view enables them to implement proactive safety systems rather than reactive fixes. For instance, instead of merely addressing a slip-and-fall incident, a skilled safety manager review floor maintenance schedules, footwear policies, lighting, and signage to eliminate the root cause systemically.
Safety managers are able to communicate with hazards because they understand the nature and behavior of risks in detail. They speak the hazard language thanks to their training, knowledge, wisdom, and ability to apply practical solutions. Their expertise in hazard management is rooted in both education and hands-on experience, allowing them to interpret, manage, and mitigate risks across diverse environments.
Through a combination of analytical thinking, technical fluency, interpersonal communication, and real-world application, they act as the bridge between special cause variations and process reliability.
HAZARD DECISIONMAKER
When a person is unable to
communicate with hazards, it significantly undermines their capacity to be the
final decision-maker in hazard management. Hazard management relies heavily on
clear, accurate, and timely communication with hazards. This includes the
ability to interpret correctly information about hazards and then relay it to
relevant parties or act. If a person cannot communicate with hazards, they may not
receive critical updates or be unable to inform others, respond appropriately,
or request assistance. This puts everyone involved at risk for special cause
variations to enter their processes.
Hazard communication is not limited to speaking. It involves understanding, processing, and conveying information. Someone who lacks the ability to effectively communicate with hazards might misinterpret the severity of a hazard or miss subtle cues that others are picking up on. This can lead to delayed responses, inappropriate actions, or even inaction. For instance, if there is a chemical spill and the person in charge is unaware of its toxicity because they cannot receive or understand a report about it, they might make a decision that increases exposure to others.
Decision-making in hazard management also requires the ability to coordinate with teams, delegate tasks, and ensure that safety protocols are followed. If the decision-maker is unable to understand the hazard language and translate the language to give instructions, seek clarification, or adapt plans based on feedback, it creates confusion and inefficiency.
Others may hesitate to act, unsure of what the protocol is or if their actions are aligned with the decision-maker's intent. In crisis situations, this gap in hazard communication can create chaos, as teams need clear leadership and direction.
A person who cannot communicate with hazards will struggle with essential administrative tasks, which are vital for future risk assessments and continuous improvement. Without clear communication with hazards, it becomes difficult for SMS enterprises to learn and prevent similar events.
Hazard communication is also essential for operational processes to conform to regulatory requirements, and for liaising with external agencies, vendors, third-party contractors or other stakeholders.
If the final authority on decisions cannot interact with hazards and other entities, the SMS enterprise could experience open doors for special cause variations to enter into their processes and causing interruptions and deviations.
Being unable to communicate with hazards fundamentally compromises the effectiveness of any decision-maker in hazard management. Communication with hazards is the backbone of safety planning, response, and recovery. Communication with hazards is a tool to ensure that everyone is informed, coordinated, and capable of acting appropriately.
A final decision-maker authority, such as an Accountable Executive (AE) must be able to interpret hazard communication, understand risk, convey urgency, and coordinate with others, all of which require strong leadership skills. Without these skills the Accountable Executive must totally rely on and comply with an SMS Manager’s decision.
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