Our Safety Kuleana

Bennet Walsh, Managing Director of Safety & Security, is marking his two-year anniversary at our company. When he started, he faced the challenge of a depleted Safety team while working through a pandemic. Since then, he has grown the core team, worked to break down silos among operating groups, improved data collection and analysis, and infused the program with our Purpose and Values. We spoke with Bennet to learn more about a Safety Kuleana campaign launching next month.

What has changed with our safety program? First, we needed to lay the groundwork to fundamentally improve our safety organization. We are committed to partnering with and mentoring our operational divisions to build a positive safety culture via our people, processes, and data. President & CEO Peter Ingram led the recharting of our Safety and Security Policy, setting the expectation from the top that Hawaiian Airlines would align safety and security culture with our Purpose and Values.

Our policy also incorporated Just Culture, a system of shared accountability between the organization and the employees –used by many industries – that recognizes everyone has a role to play in reducing accidents and incidents. There are lingering perceptions of inequity across divisions regarding discipline and corrective actions. Just Culture is a shift: the focus is recognizing that errors happen, but a transparent and collective approach to root cause – versus blaming – reduces errors and increases safety. We are the first U.S. air carrier to commit to it at this level.

Also, we expanded the team to better respond to incidents and analyze data for trends or risk centers in all operating areas. We have positioned our Safety team to close the loop with the people who need the information the most. We clearly heard that there’s little incentive to engage and report hazards and incidents if the employees submitting them do not know what becomes of their reports. That is changing with the launch of the Intelex app, earlier this year. Intelex is an enterprise safety system that breaks down silos across operations with better reporting avenues, programs, workflows, and data connectivity. The old app was ineffective for submitting incidents, especially for those trying to extract data.

The timing is right for a campaign to bring awareness and understanding to this work. We’ve improved processes and data, now we need our people — all our people — to ensure our program is fully realized.

What is the objective of the Safety Kuleana campaign launching next month? The best way to mitigate operational risks is through our people using their training and common sense to promptly identify and rectify issues. The campaign will offer messaging and training for all levels to promote safety ownership. Additionally, management training will center on identifying root causes by focusing on what rather than who.

It also brings our Purpose and Values front and center, where they belong. It is the great thing about our company, and you see it naturally reflected around the operation — people here care for one another. That comes from shared experiences and connections to the Islands and this community. So, to be intentional about Safety, it’s leaning into that feeling of mālama and elevating our shared responsibility to preserve that — for each other and our guests.

Our aim for this campaign and Just Culture training is to foster a team-based approach towards risk reduction, minimize the frequency, severity, and duration of accidents and incidents, and ultimately ensure the safety and well-being of our ‘ohana and guests. We can do the work to ensure we’re all contributing to our company’s safety legacy. Each of us owns that.

With our on-time performance focus, how do we ensure that safety is the top priority? Every movement we make must be safely on time. Our processes and procedures are designed to strike that balance. Sometimes conditions impacting the operation stretch procedures and personnel to a point where they feel they must compromise one or the other. Whether you are a manager or frontline, we all have the Safety Kuleana to recognize when it’s time to slow down. When we rush and compromise procedures, we increase risk. Additionally, our campaign aims to empower all employees to actively engage in safety reporting whenever procedures conflict with safe performance of their duties or when they discover a hazard.

How does this initiative change a typical frontline shift or day at the office? It encourages proactive risk and hazard mitigation. What that looks like can vary. It could involve employees speaking up if they notice something wrong, slowing down until the issue is resolved, or reporting incidents promptly to their supervisor or the Safety team. There will be more obvious signs that risk mitigation matters, and everyone should feel more empowered to take ownership of their safety as well as the safety of their colleagues. ■