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

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IN THIS ISSUE

Welcome
Dynamism won't get you a job here
Underwriters!
Spinnaker Poll
Seafaring as a career - an insight
Update. The ship and the plane, are they the same?
India: Challenges and oppurtunities for shipping, ports and logistics
Current Vacancies
Earn £400

WELCOME

Traditionally, "HR" in shipping was an amateurs' game and all too often it was the department used to sideline those whose use elsewhere had become, shall we say, questionable. Those days are long gone. Shipping is more corporate than ever and everyone now seems to recognise that good people are becoming a scarce commodity. At an internal Spinnaker 'love-in' last month, we noted the unprecedented simultaneous supply-demand imbalance in virtually all sectors of the industry. And so it is then that we are witnessing the rise of the HR professional in shipping.

Not only are more and more of them being brought in from other industries, but employers are recognising their strategic importance and placing them right at the heart of the business. It makes sense - making changes in pursuit of strategic objectives impacts heavily upon staff, so who better to implement those changes than people skilled in managing human resources. (If it sounds as though we're just trying to butter up HR here, it's a fair cop!)

We recently chaired a round table discussion of shipping HR managers and we spoke at the Maritime HR Summit in Singapore last week and can only describe the difference in approach from ten years ago as stunning. The new breed in shipping HR know that success means retaining top talent, keeping their best people on side and motivating them. HR is now hungry for information and we are constantly being asked to benchmark shoreside salaries and benefits to help our clients stay competitive.

A topic high on the agenda for many at the moment is bridging the gap between the performance management and rewards of seagoing and shoreside staff. How do you make people feel part of the same organisation? How do you keep them? What career plan can you offer them? The letter we publish below from the disgruntled wife of a seafarer just goes to show the challenges faced by employers if we are to keep good people in the industry, let alone attract new blood.

It's an exciting and no doubt frustrating time to be involved in HR in shipping. How many other global industries can offer HR professionals the challenge of a blank piece of paper?

DYNAMISM WON'T GET YOU A JOB HERE

One of the UK's largest recruitment agencies has issued internal guidance that certain banned words should "under no circumstances appear in any advertising from this point forward". Vibrant, dynamic, gravitas, ambitious, hungry and 17 other words or phrases have been banned by this top recruitment agency for fear of falling foul of new anti-ageism laws. The banned list begins with words such as young, old and mature, which are widely held to constitute obvious breaches of the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations. The list goes on to include energetic, youthful, vibrant, quick-learner, self-starter, high-flyer, gravitas, newly-qualified, soon-to-be-qualified, dynamic, experienced, ambitious and recent graduate.

The Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/20 06/10/16/nageism16.xml

Make of it what you will but at least they aren't going as far as an insurance firm we have heard about that has banned its employees from sending each other birthday cards in case jokey comments about the recipient's age cause offence. (We thought that was the point of birthday cards …)

UNDERWRITERS!

If you're a marine underwriter, regardless of your level of experience, we would like to hear from you. In particular liability / P&I underwriters are piquing our interest. Good packages and prospects on offer for the right individuals - as the well worn line goes….

SPINNAKER POLL

Spinnaker are back with a series of online surveys designed to provide a snapshot of opinion regarding issues of current interest to both employers and employees.

This month we will be looking at:

"The Reasons for Recruitment Difficulties"

To take the survey either http://www.questionpro.com/akira/TakeSurvey?id=573943" or go to www.shippingjobs.com

The results will be published in next month's Changing Course. By the way if you would like a question put to the great and the good visiting shippingjobs.com please send your request to ebranson@shippingjobs.com.

SEAFARING AS A CAREER - AN INSIGHT

The following is an extract from a letter we received from the wife of a seafarer. It gives a more personal insight into why seafaring is becoming less popular as a career path and requires no further comment from us.

"My husband always get the Spinnaker Consulting newsletter. I would like to raise a couple of issues with you from a ship captain's wife point of view, (my husband is currently at sea)

I am so unimpressed with my husband's career at present for the following reasons:

He is working in the offshore industry, whilst the guys on the rigs live in the lap of luxury, he is reduced to a"prison sentence" with no beer or alcohol, no bars of chocolate or crisps if he craves it, no e-mails to home, only a quick phone call once a week. No newspapers. Might just as well be in a prison cell for the amount of civil liberties he has.

Whilst shipping has changed over the years, where sailors were away from home for a year or longer, now sailors do 3-6 months stints, but in worse conditions, ie before they would be in port a week or more, now a couple of hours. All the guys I speak to certainly don't get their required sleep time, but that can't be allowed to interfere with the cost of shipping?

And sure he has tried to come ashore; work ashore is just as scarce because all the retired sea-staff have taken up these jobs, because they need to supplement their pensions (and therefore also skew the salary expectations).

Whilst my husband is a proud seafarer and carries his rank with pride and respect for the profession, I feel a lot of anger and resentment towards this industry, that prevents normal healthy family life, and because of this will discourage my children from following their father's footsteps.

I hope this will give you insight into what is the real reason why you have seastaff shortages! I just hope my opinion can do something to improve this industry!"

UPDATE. THE SHIP AND THE PLANE, ARE THEY THE SAME?

The London Shipping law Centre have asked us to update some details about the upcoming Cadwallader lecture, this Thursday in London. Under the chairmanship of Stephen Van Dyck, Chairman of Intertanko, the panellist list has now changed to:

Prof. Erik Rosaeg of the Scandinavian Institute of Maritime Law
Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, Chairman - the easyGroup
Mr Spyros Polemis, Chairman - International Chamber of Shipping
Mr Rupert Britton - Secretary and Legal advisor to the UK Civil Aviation Authority

Venue: Lloyd's of London
Date: Thursday 16th November 2006 - Time: 5.30pm

Further details for registration can be obtained from the Centre's web-site: www.london-shipping-law.com or from the Centre's office: shipping@ucl.ac.uk

INDIA: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR SHIPPING, PORTS & LOGISTICS

Whilst much is made of China's appetite for raw materials and the positive effect on freight rates India is also one of the most exciting emerging markets and the business opportunities for shipping, ports and logistics companies are huge.

A one day conference in London on the 31 January 2007 organised by Mike Elsom of Navigate PR, in association with UK Trade & Investment, will examine the many opportunities open to foreign companies, provide an insight into current and future trading and economic patterns, and tackle the many complexities involved in doing business in India.

Speakers include:

" Chairman of the House of Commons Trade & Industry Select Committee
" Confederation of Indian Industry
" Indo-Britsh Partnership Network
" Maersk Logistics
" Shipping Corporation of India
" Drewry Shipping Consultants
" PriceWaterhouseCoopers
" Norton Rose

For the full conference agenda and booking form click here or contact Mike Elsom on +44 (0)20 7369 1656 or melsom@navigatepr.com

The conference fee is being held at £320 for those who book before the 30th November. Hurry though - the last one-dayer attracted over 150 participants and these one looks like doing the same.

CURRENT VACANCIES

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.)