Monthly news and views on shipping, offshore and transport recruitment - commercial, technical, legal and insurance

Distributed free to over 10,000 maritime professionals worldwide

IN THIS ISSUE

Welcome
Anthony Nolan trust - helping beat leukaemia
Global talent crunch
In-house legal jobs
Sea in the city
Emma told lies
18,000 online job seekers reveal their tactics
Our monthly poll - the age issue
Current vacancies
Earn £400

WELCOME

WE'RE in a thoughtful mood this month. Slowly, ever so slowly, the British winter is being replaced by warmer weather and we're starting to cheer up a bit. The local yachties have manhandled their boats back into the water and the tonnage we see daily ploughing its trade up the Thames from the North Sea looks a little bit newer and shinier.

Perhaps we see the world through rose-tinted spectacles at this time of year but we like to think all reason hasn't left us. Spinnaker and shippingjobs.com are 9 years old this year and we feel like we've come of age. We hope to welcome on board three new members of staff next month and at the halfway point we're having a very good year.

It's not just about the finances though - we think we're getting better and better at what we do. We often pontificate in Changing Course about the virtues of training and career planning but do we practice what we preach? Probably not always, but in the last few years we've really invested in training at both operational and management levels and we're delighted with the results. Our delivery success rates are high and our staff are a great bunch who work hard, smile a lot and make us proud.

So, maybe it is rose tinted specs, maybe not. If so, look out for a miserable welcome in October's Changing Course! In the meantime, don't forget that if you're enjoying a good year and looking for new staff, Spinnaker would be delighted to help. We recruit worldwide both in the executive market and at operational levels in commercial, legal, technical, insurance and finance disciplines in shipping and energy. Visit www.shippingjobs.com for more unashamed selling!

ANTHONY NOLAN TRUST - HELPING BEAT LEUKAEMIA

Some of you may have seen the footer on this newsletter explaining the financial virtues of the Spinnaker candidate referral scheme. In short if you refer an individual for one of our jobs and they get the job … you get £400.

A recent beneficiary of this scheme, who found his own job through Spinnaker, has just donated his referral fee to the Anthony Nolan Trust. As some of you will know, our Chairman's six year old son Oscar is currently in hospital undergoing a bone marrow transplant which could literally save his life. It's close to our hearts therefore and we wish to express our gratitude publicly for such a generous act.

The Anthony Nolan Trust takes back lives from leukaemia by managing, and recruiting new donors to, the UK's most successful bone marrow register. They also conduct pioneering research into improving the effectiveness of bone marrow transplants.

You could be needed to save a life today. To sign up all you need to do is give a small blood sample. If you're called to donate, you'll need to spend a night or two in hospital and spend a week off work. Visit www.anthonynolan.org.uk for more details.

Full details of Spinnaker's referral scheme can be seen at http://www.shippingjobs.com/jobseekers/referral_scheme.asp

GLOBAL TALENT CRUNCH

Organisations around the world are facing a mounting talent crisis, with acute skills shortages hampering the majority of developed economies across the world.

That's the message reported in Recruiter Magazine from a major piece of research that reveals 40% of employers worldwide are struggling to fill positions because of a lack of available or suitable recruits. The Manpower White Paper surveyed almost 33,000 employers from 23 different countries, and warns of a growing recruitment crisis, with businesses across the globe facing major difficulties because of skills shortages.

42% of UK employers reported difficulties in finding the right people, compared with 57% in Spain, 53% in Germany and 48% in Switzerland. Across the rest of the globe the picture is even worse, with the shortages most acute in Mexico (78%), Canada (66%), Japan (58%), Taiwan (53%), Singapore (47%) and the US (42%).

Globally, engineering jobs are the second most difficult type of job to fill, which will probably come as no surprise to those of us in the shipping industry, where technical salaries have been rising way ahead of inflation throughout this decade with no sign of a slowdown or reduction in demand.

The report warns that as merging and developing nations build up their own economies, they too could face skills shortages and will need to retain talent for their own needs. As wealth builds up in these countries, fewer workers will choose to move overseas, further exacerbating talent shortages.

IN-HOUSE LEGAL JOBS

GOOD news for all you shipping lawyers who fancy being on the other side of the fence - a plethora of in-house legal jobs this month.

Whatever floats your boat, we've got the job for you, whether you're a litigator or a non-contentious lawyer: an oil major in the UK, two top notch tanker owners in Singapore and Europe and a leading liner group, this job based in the Mediterranean and being for a co/co or finance lawyer.

For more information or a confidential chat, please call Phil Parry on 01702 480142. In his absence, please ask for Sarah Madley.

SEA IN THE CITY

Many of you will be aware of City University's reputation for maritime education and as a result we are more than happy to plug their MSc in "Maritime Operations and Management".

The typical student is likely to be holding a responsible sea-going appointment, or a middle management position in one of the various maritime occupations and wishing to reinforce his/her professional skills and experience in order to seek more senior positions in the same, or related, sectors of the maritime industries.

The great thing about this programme is that it makes use of prestigious visiting speakers to supplement core academic content. The programme also benefits from advice from an industrial steering committee, which helps ensure that the programme meets the real needs of its students.

See http://www.city.ac.uk/sems/postgraduate/moam/index.html for more info.

EMMA TOLD LIES

A businessman who lost an employment tribunal against a former saleswoman has been accused of naming his latest racehorse, Emma Told Lies, after her. The businessman will learn next week how much compensation he has to pay Emma Nicholson who was sacked a month after becoming pregnant. Mrs Nicholson successfully brought a claim for unfair dismissal and sexual discrimination in February. Six weeks later her ex-boss registered his two-year-old filly under the name Emma Told Lies. The tribunal in Newcastle upon Tyne was told that Mrs Nicholson had been given the job for her appearance but was dismissed when she became pregnant. The businessman defended his right to give any name he chose to his horse.

The Telegraph

18,000 ONLINE JOB SEEKERS REVEAL THEIR TACTICS

The results of the UK's largest online recruitment survey have been published, providing a detailed snapshot of how Britain's 11 million job seekers tackle finding a job.

The National Online Recruitment Audience Survey (NORAS) 2006 results were gathered from 18,724 people - the biggest sample to date. Key statistics to emerge show the average online job seeker:

o Is 34 years old
o Has 13 years' work experience
o Visits over five sites when actively job hunting

The majority, 64% are looking for a full time permanent position with 27% seeking temporary work and 21% searching for a part-time job. 79% applied for work electronically, with 43% emailing their CV to an employer and 28% completing an online application form. Just 6% put a hard-copy CV in the post. Search engines were the main route for people finding a particular recruitment website (35%), followed by links from another website (20%).

OUR MONTHLY POLL - THE AGE ISSUE

This month's poll on shippingjobs.com looked at the Age Discrimination laws due to become law in the UK on the 1st Oct, 2006. 43% felt that they would actually reduce discrimination even if 8% thought they were a bad idea. 57% felt they wouldn't reduce discrimination even though two thirds of them felt it was a good idea. See the full results below.

Our opinion? Well, a bit like those who thought "good idea, won't work" we're a bit sceptical whether the new laws will impact upon people's attitudes. However research shows that over time discrimination legislation in general does have the desired effect. We hope it does and that it turns out to be a positive thing for employers in the maritime industry.

The industry's paranoia over age issues is exacerbated by retirement worries. Commonplace are comments along the lines that: "Our entire technical and operations departments are over 50. We have to hire younger blood to avoid everyone retiring on virtually the same day." Justified? Up to a point, yes.

But, there is no doubt that this 'succession-planning' reason is overused and we often find ourselves on the receiving end of quite justifiable moans from perfectly well-qualified candidates that they are not being considered by employers for jobs because of their age.

It seems to us that this group which is perhaps most overlooked within industry at large, is indeed the most stable, experienced and least politically troublesome of all.

Within shipping, there are large numbers of experienced shore-based staff from both a seafaring and non-seafaring background, current seafarers and even very senior executives, who have 5 to 10 years of working life remaining but who, for a whole variety of reasons, are on the job market.

Many employers miss out on these people through a misconceived notion of long- termism and worries that an older person will be unwilling to assume a subordinate role in the pecking order. But, nowadays, the reality is that very few CVs of candidates under the age of 40 reveal a job held for a period anywhere approaching 10 years. Younger people move companies for many reasons and two of the most common reasons are money and lack of prospects for promotion.

So, if you accept this fact, long-termism can only work if you are either lucky or you can deliver the career sustenance that an individual needs - job satisfaction, financial rewards and satisfaction of his or her ambition. If you cannot do that, then perhaps, commendable as it is, long-termism should be put to one side in favour of an alternative approach, namely positive age discrimination.

'Older' people have a lot of advantages. They have experience. They have knowledge. They have maturity. They understand client care and how to treat people properly. They often have less desire for promotion. They tend to have lower mortgages and do not have expensive small children. And so the list goes on.

And, importantly, the great majority of them understand that after 20 or 30 years in shipping, they neither want to go to, nor are likely to be wanted in, any other industry.

As a result the more mature job applicant can be a source of reasonably priced, reliable and dependable staff, who can hit the ground running.

The full results of our survey are set out below.

This month we will be looking at the seniority of those who visit shippingjobs.com. To participate in our 10 second poll please go to www.shippingjobs.com.

EARN £400

Below is a list of vacancies currently available. However, if you are not interested or not suitable for any of these positions but you know someone who might be interested, you can EARN YOURSELF A £400 referral fee by passing details of the vacancy onto them.

You simply need to go to http://www.shippingjobs.com/jobseekers/referral_scheme.asp and complete our simple form giving us details of the person you have referred the job to. Subject to the terms of the scheme, if that person gets the job, you get £400. Simple.

(Please note that those marked with an 'AD' reference are advertised directly by the client and are therefore not eligible for the scheme.)