Monitoring safety performance is essential to improving safety performance, but selecting the parameters and targets to watch and report is not a simple task.
In Annex 19, Safety Management, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) defines a safety performance indicator (SPI) as a “data-based parameter used for monitoring and assessing safety performance.” In the same document, a safety performance target (SPT) is defined as “the planned or intended objective for safety performance indicator(s) over a given period.” Annex 19 also requires service providers to “develop and maintain the means to verify the safety performance of an organization and to validate the effectiveness of safety risk controls.” In other words, SPIs and SPTs are essential elements of effective safety management systems.
But not everyone agrees on what make makes an effective SPI or SPT. In research conducted as part of our ongoing Global Safety Information Project (GSIP), …
