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

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IN THIS ISSUE

Welcome
Employer's guide to avoiding an outbreak of worldcup-ITIS
Our monthly poll
Microsoft chief urges bosses to get sacking
Jobs this month
A delicate balancing act
The future of online
Earn £400

WELCOME

By now our Managing Consultant, Russell Otter, should be wowing the great and the good of the shipping world with a speech about maritime recruitment at BIMCO 39 in Greece. He then moves on to attend Posidonia - the biggest event in the shipping calendar. For those feeling jealous of his week in the Greek sun, we should point out that the conference centre is a big un-air-conditioned hanger full of old men trying to sell you double-slip cambelts for your double turbine engine. Furthermore, you have to run the gauntlet of traffic jams and car crashes on your journey to and from the hotel. However at least he doesn't have our Chairman kicking him out of bed at 6am to "get networking".

As we know Posidonia is a little more glamorous than that with the owners, clubs putting on some great parties. However if you would like to hook up with Russell to offer him moral support, sponge a drink or even talk about recruitment give us call and we'll make the arrangements.

With less than a week to the start of the World Cup (heaven for 50% of the population and hell for the other 50%) we take a (semi) serious look at the implications of "Woldcup-itis". Before that here is a story relating to the beautiful game that caught our eye:

"Although Scotland failed to qualify for this year's World Cup, fans have already started gearing up for the tournament. Adidas have been inundated with orders for the shirt of Trinidad and Tobago. The reason? The Caribbean team faces England in the group stages and have five squad members who play in Scotland. But earlier this week Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish Nationalist MSP, called on Scots to support the "Auld Enemy" in the tournament. However that hasn't stop one retailer's offer of a full refund on televisions bought from him in the run-up to the world cup….. if England go on to win the tournament. " - The Scotsman

EMPLOYERS' GUIDE TO AVOIDING AN OUTBREAK OF WORLDCUP-ITIS

Worldcup-itis is an epidemic which recurs every four years during the early summer months. Symptoms include increased workplace absences, reduced productivity, inability to concentrate in the workplace, increased internet usage, increased alcohol-related issues. The problem can be treated with careful planning. Prepare for an increase in the level of annual leave requests for around this time. Consider asking employees to file their requests by a deadline. Tell employees the basis on which they will be granted e.g. first come first served. Remember that you are not obliged to agree to any request. However if you do wish to refuse a request you should comply with any internal holiday procedure and also the counter-notice provisions under the Working Time Regulations. Be careful when granting and refusing holiday requests at this time that you do not inadvertently discriminate against women.

TLT Solicitors

OUR MONTHLY POLL

This month's poll on shippingjobs.com looked at the seniority of those who visit shippingjobs.com.

22% were senior, 52% considered themselves experienced and 26% were junior or below. The largest group were those with 5+ years experience and management responsibility and accounted for 37% of those who took part.

Overall the poll confirms the widely held belief that Spinnaker is a specialist in mid and senior level recruitment. However it also confirms that Spinnaker has excellent access to the more junior end of the market. Some are graduates, some are young seafarers keen to start their shore career and some are school leavers with a passion to work in our industry. We are always impressed by the standard on offer.

Some clients use our advertising service to access them, some ask us to host graduate recruitment days and some instruct our consultants. If you have a need for junior staff call us to discuss how we can help.

Full details of the poll as follows:

This month we will be looking at Psychometric Tests. To participate in our 10 second poll please go to www.shippingjobs.com.

MICROSOFT CHIEF URGES BOSSES TO GET SACKING

As a follow up to our article about 'churn' or staff turnover in issue 46 of Changing Course (go to http://www.shippingjobs.com/changing_course/issue46.htm if you missed it) here are some more examples of how some large employers view this contentious issue.

"The chief executive of Microsoft urged British employers to sack as many under-performing staff as possible each year. The Microsoft CEO, who tries to dismiss 6.5 per cent of his global workforce every year, said, "Whatever you think you can do better with, you should double that. All companies of all sizes should be asking themselves that question." Microsoft, which has 61,000 employees, aims to push out 6.5 per cent of its staff each year who are not doing their jobs well enough. He urged British directors to make similar radical cuts. General Electric has made a virtue of dismissing 10 per cent of its management each year to keep executives on their toes but has refrained from advocating it as a general policy. "

The Times

JOBS THIS MONTH

This month we have, amongst others, a position for a Tanker Chief Executive in Eastern Europe, an In-House lawyer in Holland, a Market Analyst in Vancouver and a Technical Superintendent in Singapore. For a full list see the bottom of this newsletter.

A DELICATE BALANCING ACT

"Candidates applying for any job at the Dominion Housing Group are identified only by a number, rather than their name, in an attempt to prevent any prejudice creeping into the recruitment process. Their personal details, including gender, ethnic origin and whether they have a disability, are collected on the application form, but the data is unavailable to the panel responsible for drawing up the shortlist for interview. The director of human resources at the group says, "Recruitment managers tell me they don't know whether they will be interviewing a man or a woman until the candidate walks through the door."

Source: Guardian

This is an example of "blind" recruitment that not only benefits candidates but could benefit employers too. By removing preconceived ideas about the interviewee you should focus on their skills and attitude and therefore end up with a better employee. It's food for thought…

THE FUTURE OF ONLINE

Ever wondered what the online world will look like in 2016? …and how it may affect working life? Read on for two thought provoking opinions.

Alistair Baker, UK managing director of Microsoft assesses the business landscape in 2016

We'll be using smart devices that are always connected and push the content that we've defined as being important to us, in the format most useful at any particular time (so when I'm in my car, for instance, my device will know that and automatically switch to voice communication of my emails).

From a business perspective, the internet will allow people to work from anywhere they like, whenever they like. Businesses will be less centred around physical premises which will mean they will have a lower cost base and also it will have positive environmental benefits through less commuting.

However, this will also present challenges in management practices and the cultural and social aspects of working life.

The barriers to setting up a new business will be much lower and there will be greater potential for growth; people will immediately have access to a global marketplace for their products and services, even if they're a one man band working from home.

This means more people will look to change their working lives, moving out of big corporations and establishing their own enterprises in order to improve their quality of life.

In fact, bigger businesses will need to work harder and provide a much more flexible working environment to retain their best staff.

David Bradshaw, a principal analyst at Ovum presents his view of the workplace of the future

Most of the IT functions that companies do for themselves in-house will, by 2016, have moved out of house and be provided as a service. Only a few core systems will be so important (or so out of date) that they have to be retained on premise.

IT suppliers will have to radically change their business models, with business software increasingly bundled with business service. For example accounting software will be supplied by your accountants because doing so makes it far easier for them to carry out audits.

VoIP will result in complete convergence between web and telephony and this will open up new ways for companies to interact with customers. VoIP links will appear throughout websites, ads and TV programmes enabling consumers to speak directly and instantly to companies over their wireless web connection.

Community search will be firmly established and highly sophisticated. Users will browse the web from within a walled garden comprising the favourite sites and blogs of friends, family and colleagues, ensuring highly personalised and relevant search results.

User created content will continue to develop. In 10 years blogs will have been overtaken by more rich media user-generated content - and consumers are likely to be making money out of it.

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.)