International Helicopter Safety Team Safety Management System Toolkit

SAFETY POLICY
Brainstorm your organiziation’s values and write
them down.
The opening paragraph of your safety policy should
reflect where safety fits into your values.
Dream - what would you like the SMS to do for
your organization?
Set those as the SMS objectives in your policy.
Outline high level responsibilities for all employees
of your organization.
The policy must be clear, concise and emphasize toplevel
support --- including a commitment to:
Implementing an SMS
Continuous improvement in the level of safety
Managing safety risks
Complying with applicable regulatory requirements
Encouragement of, not reprisal against, employees
that report safety issues
Establishing standards for acceptable behavior
Provideig management guidance for setting and
reviewing safety objectives
Documentation
Communication with all employees and parties
Periodic review of policies to ensure they remain
relevant and appropriate to the organization
Identifying responsibility of management and
employees with respect to safety performance
Integrating safety management with other critical
management systems within the organization
A safety component to all job descriptions that
clearly defines the responsibility and accountability
for each individual within the organization
When the policies are defined, procedures must
be developed to facilitate policy implementation.
Safety principles provide safety values that guide
the organization.
SAFETY PRINCIPALS
• Operate in the safest manner possible.
• Never take unnecessary risks.
• Safety does not mean risk free.
• Identify and manage risk.
• Familiarity and prolonged exposure
without a mishap leads to a loss of
appreciation of risk.
16 SMS Toolkit