Improving the Reporting Culture

Safety Leadership Charter, Guiding Principle 5: “Create an atmosphere of trust, where employees are encouraged and confident to report safety-related information.”

Background 

To support Ibom Air’s non-punitive reporting policy, which aims at promoting the sharing of safety-critical information without fear or threat of retributive actions, Ibom Air has established a reporting system that encourages personnel to identify safety hazards, expose safety deficiencies, and raise safety concerns.  

Brief description of the initiative 

Ibom Air facilitated a shift from the traditional use of safety reporting forms (hard copy) which were either dropped in report boxes or scanned and sent to a dedicated email address, to reporting safety concerns via an online reporting platform by personnel scanning a QR code to access an electronic safety reporting form.

This initiative was aimed at bringing about an improvement in the reporting culture of employees, ultimately leading to an increase in safety reporting by all personnel.

What Positive Changes Did It Help Bring 

The new reporting system made safety reporting easy, convenient, accessible and interactive. Implementation of this initiative was planned to be executed in different phases.

Phase 1 
Employees were invited to complete an anonymous online safety survey, to highlight hinderances and barriers to reporting, which they had previously encountered.

Phase 2 
Development of the online reporting form with easy-to-populate fields, and options for anonymity and confidentiality.

Phase 3
The use of the QR code to access the online reporting form was included as part of personnel SMS recurrent training (safety reporting module) to create awareness with all employees (beginning with Senior Management).

Phase 4
Continuous promotion of the new reporting system with the use of the QR code.

Regular visits to stations and line offices to sensitize personnel on the benefits of using the new system, and its features, such as anonymity and confidentiality.

Main challenges and lessons-learned 

The challenges and lessons learned in implementing this reporting system included:

3. Difficulty in convincing personnel on the anonymity and confidentiality associated with this new reporting system.
   • A pilot session on the use of the new reporting system was included in the SMS recurrent training, showing employees the anonymity and confidentiality features embedded in the system.
4. Employees had to be taken through a step-by-step process, to support them on how to correctly populate the fields in the online reporting form.
5. Most employees did not complete the safety survey when it was initially sent out.

• Sensitization on the importance of the survey along with its objectives had to be carried out.