I. Survey Administrator:

1. Safety Climate Assessment Surveys - a safety assessment tool: Marine Operations (MO) and Aircraft Operations Center (AOC) have developed surveys based on their workforce using best practices of other federal maritime and aviation communities under the direction of Advanced Survey Designs (ASD). While all participation is voluntary, the data are invaluable in shaping OMAO priorities this year and years to come. The value of the data is directly proportional to the effort that you (the survey administrator) and your command put into conducting the surveys.

2. Best path to enter the Online Safety Climate Assessment System website:      https://www.OMAOSurveys.org

3. Anonymity of the survey respondents: This survey process will NOT succeed unless survey respondents are assured that they have complete anonymity of their responses. Please emphasize that your CO/Unit Supervisor cannot connect any of the demographic data provided by the respondents to the opinions they express on the survey items.  Only the averages of the Likert survey items are viewable by the CO/Unit Supervisor and anyone with whom the debrief access codes are shared.

4. Confidentiality for the CO/Unit Supervisor: Only your CO/Unit Supervisor will receive the access code to view his/her data. If anyone else wants the access code, they will have to get it from your CO/Unit Supervisor. The access code is passed to your CO via telephone and by email.

5. How often should a unit conduct the survey process? The OMAO Online Climate Assessment Survey will be completed once a year prior to the annual Marine Operations Leadership Summit and Aircraft Operations Center Safety Conference. Overviews of each survey will be discussed at both of these meetings.

6. Who should take the surveys? Everyone assigned to your command at the time of the release of the survey. For marine operations this includes relief pool personnel. The relief pool will be offered their own survey (same questions) through their command but they should also be encouraged to complete your ship’s survey as well.

7. How many personnel should take the survey? ALWAYS request a number of surveys equal to the total number of personnel in your unit who should take a particular survey (e.g., all aircrew for CSA, all maintainers for MCAS, all support personnel for ASPA, all hands for Marine Operations, etc.). Then, strive to achieve participation from as many personnel as possible. If 100% participation is not achieved, refer to Table 1 at the end of these instructions for determining an acceptable level of responses for each survey.

8. How many personnel have taken the survey? The survey administrator can determine how many individuals have completed the survey by going to the "SURVEY ADMIN" link on the menu at left and entering the survey ID where it says, "Please enter the Survey ID:"  This will produce a dialog box showing how many surveys have been completed and provide the statistical confidence comparing this number of surveys to the total number of requested surveys.

9. Bandwidth limitation: Occasionally commands at sea find that Internet connectivity is insufficient for conducting the surveys through this website. If this becomes an issue for your ship please contact the Marine Operations Chief of Staff to assist you in providing an alternative.

10. Setting up the survey: To set up the survey for your unit, select " 4- SET-UP UNIT SURVEY" from the menu to the left.  Complete the web page indicating which surveys your unit requires, how many respondents for each survey, and your unit's contact information.  Then, to finalize your request, call the safety survey managers toll-free at:

11. How to conduct the survey: Recommend the unit allows for time that works best with your unit's work schedule that provides employees a private and quiet space to response. Each unit should determine the best way for their team to complete the survey. There will be a link provided in the email received and that unique link can be sent to your unit or you could login to computers and have them open to www.omaosurveys.org. The unique code (survey ID) you receive will be input by each individual employee.

12. Taking the first survey: Recommend the unit survey administrator take the first survey so that he/she is better informed if anyone has any questions. This same tactic could be taken with Chiefs, Branch Chiefs, Division Chiefs or unit leaders.

13. Minimum survey responses: Unit survey administrators should strive to obtain maximum possible participation. Table 1 at the end of these instructions shows the participation levels necessary to achieve 95% confidence that the survey results are within 5% of what they would have been had the entire unit population been surveyed. If a unit participates at a lower level than the figures given in Table 1, we will advise the CO/Unit Supervisor during debrief that the statistical confidence in the available results could have been better, possibly substantially better. Debrief is possible at any level of participation, but whether the data offers meaningful results is largely determined by what percentage of the unit provides survey responses. The more participants, the more confidence the CO will have that the results truly reflect the opinions of the unit. We do NOT monitor survey submission rates; that is the responsibility of the unit survey administrator. Once the administrator believes maximum participation is attained, contact us (see Instruction #14 below) and we will contact the CO to offer a debrief of the results.

14. What to do after completing the survey process: When the unit has achieved maximum participation, contact the safety survey managers (888-603-3170 or surveys@AdvancedSurveyDesign.com). They can verify your command's level of participation and then call your CO/Unit Supervisor with the access code(s) to view the survey results. If you are deployed aboard ship or in a location where phone access is impractical, your CO will receive the access code(s) via e-mail.

II. Commanding Officer (CO) / Unit Supervisor:

1. Safety Climate Assessment Surveys- a safety assessment tool: Marine Operations (MO) and Aircraft Operations Center (AOC) have developed surveys based on their workforce using best practices of other federal maritime and aviation communities under the direction of Advanced Survey Designs (ASD). While all participation is voluntary the data are invaluable in shaping OMAO priorities this year and years to come. The value of the data is directly proportional to the effort that you and your command put into conducting the survey.

2. Anonymity of the survey respondents: This survey process will NOT succeed unless survey respondents are assured that they have complete anonymity of their responses.  It is in the interest of the command to ensure that the survey respondents understand that you (the CO or Unit Supervisor) cannot and will not see demographic information about the respondents.  You can see only numeric averages for the various safety survey items and any open-ended responses that were provided.

3. Confidentiality for the CO/Unit Supervisor: Only the CO/Unit Supervisor will receive the access code to view the survey results. If anyone else wants the access code, they will have to get it from their CO/Unit Supervisor. The access code is passed via telephone and by email.

4. CO Access: After entering the Safety Climate Assessment Surveys" website, "6- VIEW RESULTS" is the sixth item in the menu to the left. Enter here. Then, enter your "COs ACCESS ID" (provided to you by a survey administrator), and press "SUBMIT." This opens the Survey Summary webpage; continue from here.  If you have the codes from your unit's last survey cycle, you may enter it in the bottom text box labeled "Option" - this gives a CO/Unit Supervisor the ability to compare the current survey results from those of the last cycle.

5. How often should a unit conduct the survey process?

• The OMAO Online Climate Assessment Survey will be completed once a year prior to the annual Marine Operations Leadership Summit and Aircraft Operations Center Safety Conference. Overviews of each survey will be discussed at both of these meetings.

6. Who should take the surveys? Everyone assigned to your command at the time of the release of the survey. For marine operations this includes relief pool personnel. The relief pool will be offered their own survey (same questions) through their command but they should also be encouraged to complete your ship’s survey as well.

7. How many personnel should take the survey? Recommend everyone eligible to take the survey, actually take it. Trying to develop a statistically representative sample of your unit (e.g., different departments and branches) takes significant statistical skills. Not done correctly, you have an inaccurate representation of the organization being surveyed. Refer to Table 1 at the end of these instructions for determining a minimum sample size.

8. Comparing your data with your organization's earlier data: For those organizations that have taken the survey process more than once, COs/Unit Supervisors can compare their unit's current survey results with the unit's prior survey results on a single screen. This feature is available on the "6- VIEW RESULTS" login webpage. Enter the current Access ID code in the white block provided. Then, click on the word "here" (hyper-linked) just below the "Login" button. This will open a second white block to input your prior Access ID code. Then, click on the "Login" button. On the Summary Graph, a white hash mark will appear on each survey item. The hash mark is the survey item average from your prior survey results. On the Single Item Graph, the blue bars are the current survey's values; the gold bars are the prior survey values. If you do NOT have the access code(s) for your previous survey cycle, contact Advanced Survey Design.

9. Comparing your unit's responses with other groups of interest: After logging in, the "6- VIEW RESULTS" menu expands to give the option to view various graphs and tables representing your unit's data. For example, selecting menu item "6(c)- SUMMARY GRAPH" will display the Summary Graph, showing results for all survey Likert Items. A rectangular box in the top left area of many of these VIEW RESULTS web pages summarizes selected organizational data comparisons. COs/Unit Supervisors may tailor comparison data options by clicking on the "wrench" at the top of the rectangular box to open and use the Filter Control Panel. The Executive Summary lets you make simple choices concerning the comparison data to be displayed. There is also a Detailed Analysis option that permits more specific settings for these comparisons. After making your choices, click the green button to close the Panel and refresh the display.

10. Survey Item Table: Menu option "6(e)- SUMMARY TABLE" lists all the survey items and their corresponding means for the unit taking the survey. The table can be ordered by: (1) the number of standard deviations below the comparison group mean (aka "z-score),   (2) descending order by your unit's survey item means, or (3) in the order that the survey was given.   A yellow flag appearing in the "text" block of a survey item indicates that your unit's mean is less than the comparative group mean, but within ½ standard deviation below it. A red flag appearing in the "text" block of a survey item indicates that your unit's mean is more than ½ standard deviation below the comparative group mean.

11. How to print from the display screen: The Safety Climate Assessment Surveys' webpage is basically divided into a left-sided panel (dark blue background) and a right-sided panel (light blue background). To print from the right-sided panel: (1) highlight anything (e.g., a title, a word, etc.) in the right panel, (2) go into "File" in the top left corner of the computer screen, and (3) "Print". Note, the colors within the panel have been selected to provide adequate contrast for black and white printers.

12. How to make a PowerPoint slide from the display screen: The Safety Climate Assessment Surveys' webpage is basically divided into a left-sided panel (dark blue background) and a right-sided panel (light blue background). To make a PowerPoint slide from the right-sided panel: (1) press the "Print Screen" key (usually located next to the "F1" through "F12" keys) on your computer keyboard, (2) open a blank slide in PowerPoint, (3) go into "Edit" in the top left corner on the computer screen, and (4) "Paste" the screen capture into the blank PowerPoint slide. Also, the Summary Graph and Single Item Graph pages provide the ability to dump the chart directly into a PowerPoint slide - just click on the button labeled "Graph → PowerPoint".

13. How to print a summary of the data: Click on "6i) Printable Data Summary" on the main menu. The CO can modify the total number of individuals that could have taken the particular survey (current number of potential respondents is shown in the box). Click "Enter." A summary of the data is provided. The CO/Unit Supervisor can print all or any portion of the data using the "Print the Summary" button. Note, this feature defaults to printing all sections of the data. A CO/Unit Supervisor can de-select printing different sections of data in the Product section (near the top) of this web page.

14. Open-ended Survey Items: Note, the last several survey items in each survey provide for open-ended responses. This allows respondents the opportunity to provide the CO/Unit Supervisor any additional input they desire and, type it in their own words. COs/Unit Supervisors have found these responses to be of great value.  To see these responses, go to the Individual Item Graph and under "Select Item to Display" in the top left, click on the number displayed and scroll down to the last several items on the survey. They will be displayed in green.  Select one and you will see your unit's responses to the open-ended survey items.