Safety Leadership Charter, Guiding Principle 5: “Create an atmosphere of trust, where employees are encouraged and confident to report safety-related information”.
United Airlines has a robust flight operations safety reporting culture for ASAP voluntary reporting. The other operating divisions at the airline did not have as many employees reporting to their respective programs, and United Airlines wanted to increase participation across the company, seeing great benefit to these programs and believing there was more safety improvements and insight to be gained by increasing participation across the company.
The airline’s plan included adding a mobile application to all company devices to make reporting easy, quick, with no need for internet access.
United Airlines promoted these programs across the company at every opportunity and engaged division leaders in its efforts to build on its already strong safety culture.
As soon as the mobile application was rolled out, the airline saw a huge increase in flight attendant reports. Engaging ground employees during safety fairs gave a similar boost to the reporting volume.
The next phase the initiative is to engage all hub leadership to continue to carry the message and value of these vital programs.
If any other carrier is taking this journey, United AIrlines encourages them to prepare for the increase in reporting by having its review committees, IT, and support staffing ready to manage the increased volume of reports.
Responses and report disposition need to be timely and informative, to keep employees engaged and supportive of the programs.
