In Halifax, Sky Caps & Janitors Are Now Part of the Team

Instead of using only its security staff to look out for suspicious goings-on, Halifax Int'l Airport (YHZ) just started a program to get every last one of its 5,400 employees to immediately report things like abandoned bags or strange behavior.

Although the advantages of having that many workers making reports have long been known, airports have been slow to implement programs on the same level as at Halifax. Many airports and airlines have been providing special training to certain job titles besides just their security staff, such as check-in and gate agents. Some also have included retailers and janitorial staff. It's the intention of Halifax's "iWatch" program to bring all these workers, plus the minimum-wage sky caps, into such an effort.

The Halifax-based firm, Strata Communications, has helped the airport develop and implement the new program. John Gray, the firm's principal, says that of the 15-20 major airports in North America and Europe his firm surveyed for "best practices," none seemed to have as comprehensive a program.

The first thing Strata did, in fact, was to research the workers' attitudes and knowledge levels about security, mostly through focus groups. This was done to determine how best to communicate program specifics and security concerns to a variety of workers. In a few weeks, Strata intends to to another round of research, to see if attitudes and knowledge have changed.

Some of Strata's initial findings were not too surprising. For one thing, it was confirmed that workers' concerns about security are cyclical, Gray tells Air Safety Week. If there's a significant security breach, interest rises for a time, and then drops if nothing else happens. It pretty much mirrors what's happened to the general public as 9/11 recedes further back in time.

Strata also found that workers didn't know what telephone number to call or how to make reports of possible security issues. Awareness also was job specific: building workers were more attuned to unauthorized people; ramp workers were more apt to spot unauthorized vehicles or a perimeter breach.

Also, airport workers specifically told Strata that they are so focused on deadlines and day-to-day job worries, that they really need frequent reminders about looking out for suspicious occurrences. Then again, whatever the messages are for workers, they need to be simple. That's why Strata got the basic list of things to look out for down to just a few items.

Workers also said they'd want to see something of themselves and their jobs in the training and the reminders. This led Strata to design the program posters depicting a possible breach scenario, with half of the face of an airport worker. The worker faces are not those of models, but are from the airport's staff.

Another interesting finding is that many workers apparently hadn't given much thought to the ripple effects of a possible security breach into the community and the local economy.

At this point, Halifax's iWatch program is just a few weeks old. When interviewed last week, the airport's security director, Joe McLaughlin, said there had already been six reported incidents of unattended bags, six reports of other people's suspicious behaviors, and two of unlocked doors. That's way above the level of reports received before the program.

Of course, it's easiest to get people enthusiastic about a program when it's new. For several years, the airport has been trying to make every worker conscious of security by having 1.5 hour training sessions on the subject before employment officially beings. Now, iWatch preparation is part of that initial training. Plus, workers will get various types of reminders, McLaughlin tells Air Safety Week. Besides making sure those posters don't disintegrate before they're replaced, two of the more interesting attempts to maintain worker awareness will involve the workers' access passes and a newsletter. With the former, workers will be wearing the program logo and the internal phone number to call. The latter will be an iWatch-specific newsletter, to be published every three or four months.

Also, when a check-in worker turns on their computer, there will be periodic messages about the program, airport spokeswoman Karen Sinclair tells Air Safety Week.

>>Contacts: John Gray, Strata, (902) 463-3541; Joe McLaughlin, Halifax Int'l, (902) 873-1417<<

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