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www.marinelink.com 31by which all employees are encouraged to report any safety-related issue. The ALERTs are quickly addressed and have resulted in everything from small chang-es in procedures to large construction projects.By April of 2013 approximately 4,000 ALERTs had been submitted, and this wealth of learning opportunities was fos-tered by a shift in BC Ferries? safety cul- ture. SpeciÞ cally BC Ferries has adopted a ?just culture,? wherein employees are not punished for honest mistakes or er- rors in judgment, and instead learning is gleaned from all opportunities. Because of this, employees never have a reason to conceal an incident or near-miss that can serve as a learning experience for the entire company. Phase Two Phase two of SailSafe was an exten-sion of phase one. In addition to address-ing the Þ ve action plans carried over from phase one, phase two focused on continuing and improving safety perfor- mance while addressing an additional 36 recommendations from the original ac-tion plan. The end of phase two also saw the creation of the SailSafe Ambassador Team ? more than 350 BC Ferries em- ployees volunteered for the job of being SailSafe representatives. Team members act as a two-way information conduit - disseminating SailSafe information, answering questions of employees, and collecting and reporting on safety sug-gestions.Phase Three As of April, 2012, SailSafe moved into phase three. This phase marked the transition from the implementation of a safety program to embodying safety as a normal part of all business activities. There were no new action plans intro-duced in phase three - instead it is the point where safety becomes an integral part of BC Ferries? culture. The ultimate goal of SailSafe is for the program, it-self, to no longer be necessary as safety becomes completely ingrained in every activity undertaken every day at BC Fer- ries. SpeciÞ cally, along with a focus on safety committees and team building, some of the primary phase three goals include the following:? Monitoring of phase one and two action plans to ensure that their goals are realized and out- comes sustained? Expanding awareness of Sail- Safe and safety in general, and engaging more employees in the process ? Continuing to build understand- ing of and use of the highly effec-tive ALERT process. In the words of a BC Ferries commu-nication to employees, SailSafe will be successful when BC Ferries has, ??seen and experienced a cultural change in [our] workplace?When safety practices are fully known and practiced by all em-ployees in all areas, all departments, and at all levels - from the President to the newest hire. We will be successful when all aspects of safety are accepted as ?just the way we do it around here ??.Training Effects SailSafe is all-encompassing and there are concrete effects to be observed throughout the company. These include the ALERT process, open communica- tion from the CEO to the employees, new procedures, the work of hundreds of SailSafe ambassadors, and more. In addition to all of these effects, one area greatly affected by SailSafe is training at BC Ferries. There are many aspects to this including a new and comprehensive simulation training program, leadership training, apprenticeships, certiÞ cate de- Chart 3 (Continued on page 33)MR #6 (26-33).indd 31MR #6 (26-33).indd 315/30/2013 12:45:26 PM5/30/2013 12:45:26 PM
