Bristow Shares Fair Culture Knowledge with Maritime and Coastguard Agency

As part of its efforts to introduce Just Culture to its organization, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) invited Bristow's Europe Caspian Region Head of Safety Steve Harriss to address their project board.

The MCA is working towards formally signing up to a Just and Fair Culture program – focusing first on its post-mission review process. This step will ensure staff can report openly and honestly and that the organization learns from reports made. As part of its project, the MCA is looking at Just Cultures across industries where the program is well developed, including aviation.

During his presentation, Harriss discussed how Bristow introduced Fair Culture, the challenges faced and how the organization tackled them.

"Just Culture is relatively new to the MCA, but something we've been doing for a long time," said Harriss. "We’ve recently gone through a refreshment period where we've introduced the next iteration across the Bristow Group utilizing new post-event review processes.

"Reporting is the life blood of our Safety Management System (SMS). Ultimately, Fair Culture is in place to respond appropriately to those reports. It enables us to manage risk more effectively. Fair Culture provides us with leading indicators that paint a clear picture of our employees' reality and help us manage it more proactively before it becomes a problem.

"Fair Culture ensures we have a level of trust within Bristow, and that we have a commitment to our employees that we listen and respond appropriately to their concerns."

"Steve's knowledge of Just Culture and safety management from his current and previous experience was excellent," said MCA Just Culture Project Manager Jeremy Gautrey. "His presentation was excellent in promoting a good debate about the importance of adopting a Just Culture within the MCA, especially the benefits for the Executive Team.”