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IN THIS ISSUE

Welcome
Finance
Flexible working
Quantifiable performance
Making waves: triathlon challenge 2007
Pay rises expected to be less than 3.5%
Exam answers
Earn £400
Current Vacancies

WELCOME

The clever people at Clarksons tell us that on one day in 2006 the tanker and dry bulk trades had both shipped precisely the same amount of cargo (2.6 billion tons) that year. Reassuringly for statisticians, the two fleets are also pretty well the same size - 365m dwt for tankers and 368m dwt for bulkers.

But since 2000 it's the dry bulk trade that has seen the most growth at 5% p.a. compared to the 3.1% a year growth of the oil trade. Growing import demand for many dry bulk commodities is trending up and surprisingly investment in bulker newbuildings has been pretty restrained.

However that has all just changed. A bulker ordering stampede has begun with capesizes at the top of many owners lists. Add uncertainty about China's spending habits and the US economy and established owners in the sector start to get worried.

However the move to grow the dry fleet is unstoppable and from our point of view it's the impact salaries that needs to be monitored closely. Interestingly in the last few months we at Spinnaker have seen some above expectation increases in salaries for dry operations staff. As no new buildings have been delivered yet this is probably just a coincidence and has more to do with historic recruitment market supply and demand trends but it is interesting none the less (perhaps the market is adjusting in anticipation!)

If you are involved in dry cargo vessel operations please do participate in the Spinnaker mini salary survey that we are running this month. It will take less than one minute to complete and will help us to provide consistent and up to date salary information in what is a fast moving market.

To participate please either go to http://www.questionpro.com/akira/TakeSurvey?id=646983 or visit www.shippingjobs.com and wait for the pop-up.

The full results will be published in the next issue of Changing Course.

FINANCE

Since 2003 shipowner earnings have averaged $28,000/day, more than 2¼ times the average of the previous 12 years. Not surprisingly all this cash started to burn a hole in shipowners' pockets and they have been on a massive spending spree.

With such cash rich owners you may expect ship finance to be falling on tough times. From a recruitment point of view it couldn't be further from the truth.

This month we've got Vice President (Syndications Group) and In-house Asset Finance Lawyer roles for a Global Ship Finance Bank in London. We've also got a Credit Analyst position for a leading bank in Oslo.

And if you're a lawyer looking for a law firm don't feel left out as we're seeking a Marine Finance Lawyer in Hampshire, UK and a Ship Finance Solicitor in London.

If working in-house for an owner is more your thing we've got a Finance Manager role for a Global tanker owner in London and a Financial Controller role for a Shipping and Freight Trading company in Singapore.

To see our full list of positions go to the bottom of the page.

FLEXIBLE WORKING

WE parents all know that as soon as we tell our children to do something, it's the last thing they want to do. So it is in all walks of life. Staff dislike diktats from on high and employers dislike new legislation.

What we all like is a nice juicy incentive… a reason to do something… an answer to the question "What's in it for me?"

Flexible working belongs in both camps. On the one hand it can be regarded as bothersome, unwelcome, expensive and impractical. On the other, it's a great opportunity to win employee loyalty and to give workers access to quality of life. Now if ever there was an overused phrase-a-la-mode it's 'quality of life'. You can lead a horse to water and all that…

Anyway, back to the point. Flexible working is wanted, no doubt about that. Equal Opportunities Commission research reveals that 52% of men and 48% of women say they want to work more flexibly. Nothing surprising about that.

In the UK, and elsewhere in Europe, parents of children under the age of six, or disabled children under 18, have the right to request flexible working. This right to request flexible working will be extended to 'adult carers' from April. But now some government ministers are arguing for the right to request flexible working to be extended to all workers. According to UK Children's Minister Beverley Hughes, "All jobs should be advertised as part-time, flexi-time or shared unless there was a sound business case against this."

Now there's no doubt that flexible working is good for both employees and their bosses. At Spinnaker our workforce includes permanent home workers, part-timers, a reduced-hours parent and our consultants all have access to flexible working hours. It works for us within business limitations and it works for our staff.

But what worries not only we soothsayers at Spinnaker but also the Confederation for British Industry (CBI) is that these kinds of legislative initiatives are all to often brought in without phasing and without proper thought and impact studies. Small to medium businesses suffer disproportionately from the absence of one or two members of staff and can rarely afford the administrative or financial burden that goes with workforce-wide flexible working or indeed even dealing with formal requests. By all means encourage flexible working but surely the best way to do it is to demonstrate to employers what's in it for them and let them, not the civil servants, decide what constitutes a "sound business case".

See http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007 /02/12/nwork12.xml

QUANTIFIABLE PERFORMANCE

Our February poll posed the question "Which of the following methods do you use to evaluate the recruitment and selection process within your organisation?"

Over 42% of those who took part used informal feedback from line managers as their main tool to evaluate recruitment effectiveness. Conversely the 'Analysis of Appraisal / assessment ratings' and 'Sales or other results-based indicators' together only managed 33% of the vote.

This of course reflects the trust we have in our line managers and the fact that most companies use a mixture of techniques that combine feedback from line managers with performance figures. However, are we over reliant on the opinions of our line managers?

Well, yes and no. Line managers can assess the nuances of a team better than anyone. They can, if you like, assess the team dynamic and what each of the team members can contribute. Therefore their opinions count massively.

BUT …. this feedback needs to be compared to quantifiable performance to get the real picture. That way senior managers can ask the pertinent questions.

So, what's the best way to measure performance. Well, in our view, KPIs or 'Key Performance Indicators' deserve a closer look. We've used them for a couple of years now and they have been one of the best ways of improving performance. So what are they?

"KPIs are quantifiable measurements of the improvement in performing an activity that is critical to the success of a business. "

In additon the key performance indicators (KPIs) you choose for your business must:

reflect the goals of your business
be critical to its success
be measurable and comparable
allow for corrective action if things go wrong

That's all well and good but what does that mean? Well at Spinnaker we identified half a dozen key parts of the recruitment process and designed some ratios around those parts. It was imperative that we could measure and compare these ratios and it was also important they were critical to the success of our business and therefore critical to the success of our clients. We weren't measuring revenue but we were ensuring quality at the key stages in the process. Once they were set up and reporting the KPIs was streamlined (easier said than done) you end up with a system that acts in several ways:

1. If all other ratios are above average for a person but one is failing then it is very easy to plan training and support for that area. By being tailored the trainging can be time effective and 'real' to the person receiving it.

2. If regularly reported back the figures serve to promote self improvement.

3. Incentives can easily be tailored to specific business goals rather than just 'improvements in revenue' or 'increased volume'.

4. Line managers and senior managers can ask the pertinent questions in the knowledge they aren't working on a hunch.

Further information about KPIs can be seen at http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail?type=RESOURCES&itemId=1074429057.

MAKING WAVES: TRIATHLON CHALLENGE 2007

If you did not make that New Year resolution to get fit, here's your chance - start training for The Mission to Seafarers' triathlon.

The Making Waves: Challenge 2007 triathlon is a sponsored event to help the Mission continue its worldwide care of seafarers. It is intended to be a fun social occasion for all the family as well as a networking opportunity.

You don't have to be a super-fit athlete to take part in the triathlon, which consists of a 300m pool swim, a 15k off-road cycle ride and a 5km off-road run. You can enter as an individual and complete all three activities, or form a team of three with each member completing one of the elements (we like the sound of that).

The triathlon will be held at the Waterside Farm Sports Centre on Canvey Island, Essex, on Saturday 2 June 2007 at 3.30pm.

Lloyd's List newspaper is the lead sponsor for the event which is expected to attract much support from the maritime industry. It will be registered by the British Triathlon Federation.

Mike Porter, managing director of events and training products at Informa Maritime Transport, suggested a sponsored fundraising triathlon after requests to organise one for the maritime industry.

A standard triathlon is made up of a swim, followed by a cycle ride, followed by a run. Competitors race against the clock, which starts as they enter the swim and stops as they cross the finish line after the run.

To enter the Making Waves: Triathlon Challenge 2007, download a registration pack from the Mission's website www.missiontoseafarers.org and return all forms and registration fees to Lucy Gregory, The Mission to Seafarers, St Michael Paternoster Royal, College Hill, London EC4R 2RL. The registration fee is £22 for individual entrants and £51 for a team of three.

In return for to your support the men at Spinnaker promise to refrain from wearing their Borat style 'man thongs' on the day ….

PAY RISES EXPECTED TO BE LESS THAN 3.5%

A majority of employers expect to award staff pay rises of less than 3.5% in the winter pay round, according to the CIPD/KPMG quarterly Labour Market Outlook Survey.

The poll found that 58% of employers expect pay rises of less than 3.5%, with 32% expecting pay to rise on average by between 3% and 3.5%. Only 13% expect pay to rise on average by 4% or above.

The survey found that 82% of employers surveyed will be recruiting staff in the next three months, up from 79% in the autumn quarter. However, 46% of employers surveyed anticipate recruitment difficulties this quarter.

It found 42% of employers surveyed intend to recruit additional staff this quarter, however, there is an increase in the proportion of employers intending to make some staff redundant.

Dr John Philpott, chief economist at the CIPD, says: "Aside from the commonly observed tendency for some pay settlements to track the Retail Price Index seemingly regardless of the balance of supply and demand, a growing proportion of employers report difficulty in finding recruits with the attributes they are looking for. Lack of quality in the available labour supply might therefore mean that the market is tighter and potential wage pressure higher than measures of the amount of labour available suggest."

EXAM ANSWERS

We've all found the stress of exams hard to bear and we thought the following real exam answers might take you back to your school days…. (well at least those who gravitated towards the D and E marks. Those who got As and Bs can finally see what the rest of us were doing).

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.)

CURRENT VACANCIES