Barriers and Facilitators to Voluntary Reporting and Their Impact on Safety Culture

ABSTRACTObjective: Determine barriers and facilitators to effective voluntary reporting system (VRS) operation.Background: As human error accounts for a larger portion of accidents and incidents in high-risk industries, federal agencies that define regulations and guidelines promote various safety management techniques, including more robust safety data collection. VRSs aim to identify and address “near misses” (errors identified before resulting in negative outcomes) through employee disclosure of committed errors and violations. Despite their value, VRSs are underutilized.Method: A literature review was conducted to understand successful safety management practices and challenges, and define reporting requirements for accidents, incidents, and near misses (which rely on voluntary disclosure). Variations in the policies, processes, and utility of several VRSs were explored, and common themes were identified. Interviews were then conducted with VRS developers, users, and managers to further explore these ...