SMS Quality Quiz. Find out what letter grade your SMS program deserves.

Congratulations on having an SMS program in the "A" range, which indicates that you have a best-in-class SMS program. What does this mean?

Top quality aviation SMS programs are very rare. Certainly, no more than 5% of all SMS programs will score this highly. A-level SMS programs generally have many the following characteristics (do they look familiar?):

• Very few audit findings;
• Very good involvement in the SMS (safety culture, hazard reporting culture)
• Upper management who is dedicated to providing many SMS resources;
• Complete documentation of hazards, risks, safety control measures, etc.;
• Commitment to particular performance monitoring activities (i.e., monitoring mgmt. efficiency or employee safety performance);
• Strong sense of accountability and ownership within the program;
• Full SMS implementation;
• Dedication to initial and recurrent SMS training; and
• Employee feedback and data collection system that offers employees many avenues of communication.

Considering that you have an A-level SMS program, the important question is: now what?

Highly developed SMS programs have three main concerns that they should focus energy on:

• Maintaining safety performance and positive safety culture;
• Seeking out final areas of less than optimal safety elements, such as incomplete documentation, data metrics, etc.; and
• Ensuring that upper management stays committed to the SMS.

It might also be helpful to review what other top quality SMS programs are doing so that you can further improve existing processes

Congratulations on having an SMS program in the "B" range, which indicates that you have a good or very good aviation SMS program. In other words, your SMS program is better than most.

What does a better than average SMS program look like? They generally have many of the following (do they look familiar?):

• Low level of audit findings, and 0 repeat findings;
• Strong hazard reporting culture and no significant problems with resistance to change;
• An appointed SMS executive manager who takes his role in the safety program seriously;
• Thorough documentation of hazards, risks, safety control measures, etc.;
• Fairly good general performance monitoring activities, such as by having solid list of KPIs and some trending data metrics;
• For the most part, employees understand their role in the SMS program;
• Phase 4 of SMS implementation (or completing phase 3);
• An established initial and recurrent training process is in place, though something like automated training may improve training efficiency; and
• Strong data collection system with multiple avenues of hazard reporting.

At this point, you might focus on doing any of the following to start to move towards an A-level SMS:

• Focus on creating data trending metrics that are unique to your organization (i.e., Leading Indicators);
• Seeing if garnering more upper management support for more resources will aid you in improving risk management tools; and
• Completing aviation SMS implementation, and ensuring that SMS documentation reflects real world performance.

You SMS quality grade is in the "C" range. This means your SMS program is about average, which is another way of saying it is similar to the majority of SMS programs.

C level SMS programs tend to either be fairly new, or have historically experienced some setbacks and difficulties. A majority of C-level SMS programs have the following (do they look familiar?):

• Moderate, but not bad, number of audit findings, with perhaps a repeat finding;
• A hazard reporting culture that is established, though there may be some problems with resistance to change;
• Upper management who is committed, on paper, to the SMS program, and may invest some interest in improving it;
• Decent documentation of hazards, risks, safety control measures, etc., though the lists may be incomplete or require review;
• Fairly good general performance monitoring activities, such as by having solid list of KPIs and some trending data metrics;
• For the most part, employees understand their role in the SMS program;
• In phase 3 of SMS implementation (or completing phase 3);
• An established initial or recurrent training process is in place, though it could be improved; and
• Employees know your hazard reporting process, and you may even have more than one way of collecting hazard reports.

At this point, you might focus on doing any of the following to start to move towards an B-level SMS:

• Continue working towards completion of SMS implementation (completing Phase 3 is a big deal!);
• Work on involving front-line employees in the SMS program and SMS changes (Safety Promotion); and
• Getting more resources for your SMS program.

It's not great news: your SMS quality grade is in the "D" range. This means your SMS program is below average, which is another way of saying that a majority of other SMS programs are more developed than yours.

D level SMS programs tend to either be new, or be struggling with support for the program from upper management and/or employees. It's an important point to note that the characteristics of a D-level NEW program and D-level EXISTING program may be similar but for dramatically different reasons. Here are some of those characteristics - does this list look familiar:

• Concerning number of audit findings, with one or more repeat finding;
• A hazard reporting culture that is most likely struggling, either from lack of support or due to resistance to the SMS program;
• Upper management is either not committed (if SMS already exists), or are unwilling to take ownership (if program is new);
• Documentation of hazards, risks, and control measures is incomplete - implementation of risk controls is also mostly likely incomplete;
• Below average to average performance monitoring activities, such as having some generic trending charts or other simple data mining methods in place;
• Many employees understand their role in the program, but a significant number may NOT understand their role or be reluctant to fulfill their role/responsibilities in the SMS;
• In phase 1 or 2 of SMS implementation;
• Some initial and recurrent training that is already in place, but more training processes would benefit employees; and
• Employees aren't entirely comfortable with your hazard reporting process (new SMS programs), or you are still using paper hazard reporting forms

At this point, you might focus on doing any of the following to start to move towards a C-level SMS:

• Complete all policy and documentation elements (Phase 2) so that they are finished and current;
• Make strong push for developing hazard reporting culture, such as by making hazard reporting more convenient (multiple ways to submit reports); and
• Make strong push for more resources and support from upper management.

We're sorry to report that your SMS quality grade is an "F". From what we have seen, this usually means one of three things:

• Your SMS program is new; or
• Due to lack of upper management support, your safety program stalled after the last safety manager left; or
• Due to lack of upper management support and resources, you find it very difficult to make any real safety improvements.

If your SMS program is new, we highly recommend that you read this article about Tasks for Getting SMS Program Started.

When struggling with unsupportive management or strong resistance to change, the best advice we have is focus on very small changes. Patience and perseverance with Safety Promotion and SMS Implementation can make a big difference over time, even in toxic SMS environments.