Ed Sims
Former CEO

Ed Sims

Airways NZ

Building a proactive reporting culture within Airways was important so the company could identify and eliminate potential problems before they did any harm.

How Just Culture supports a proactive reporting culture  

However, it getting people to voluntarily report incidents due to human error by themselves or colleagues wasn’t easy. People don’t like admitting mistakes or dobbing in workmates.

To overcome this reluctance, Airways has accepted that making mistakes is part of being human, and has adopted a just culture. Under a just culture, employees who self-report unintended mistakes aren’t subject to criticism or penalties.

This approach had a huge impact on reporting rates because employees knew they could file reports without fearing reprisals.  

Watch: Building a Reporting Culture (2013)

Building a Reporting Culture (2013) PDF • 351 KB
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“One of the great advantages of being the CEO is you have your hands on the financial, the operational, the commercial and the customer levers of your business. That’s a very powerful position to be in … when it comes to driving safety initiatives.”