MaritimeJobs.com Recruitment Guide
The War for Talent
International shipping recruitment firm Faststream explains how companies can improve their chances of hiring top talent in a "candidate short" market. -- by Mark Charman, Managing Director, Fastream
The issue of finding experienced and talented shipping staff is always a challenge for the maritime sector, but in the LNG sector it is particularly difficult. In early October we polled members of the Society of International Gas Tanker and Terminal Operators (SIGTTO) to find out how important they perceived recruitment to be for their businesses. Nearly 60 percent of respondents to the survey agreed that recruitment was a big challenge. Vacancies across the LNG sector are at an all time high and we forecast them to continue growing. This will of course come to no surprise to anyone in the sector, but the key question facing companies in the LNG sector is how to overcome this problem and hire talent in a candidate short market. A growing shortage of qualified seafarers is the key factor behind this pressure. A lack of suitably qualified engineers in particular has led to rising salaries at sea with a corresponding rise in salary expectations ashore. The promise of a bonus is just not good enough, candidates expect a high base salary. Unsatisfied and disaffected with a life at sea, an ever increasing number of junior officers are coming ashore much earlier than previous generations of seafarers, leading to gaps in the leadership pipeline. Throw in the ongoing uncertainty sweeping the world in the wake of the current financial crisis and an unwillingness of many to relocate from a "safe" job to an unknown new position and the task of finding experienced LNG sector staff becomes even harder. Candidates are telling Faststream recruiters around the world that relocation is the main reason for not taking a position. We have also seen more pressure on qualified LNG marine engineers from outside the shipping industry, particularly power stations and banks desperate for people with LNG technical know how. But the purpose of this article is not to look too deeply at the causes of the problem, but to provide the reader with some practical suggestions on how to improve the situation and attract the best candidates to fill their vacancies. Firstly, anyone seeking to hire staff
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needs to put themselves in the candidate's shoes. Experienced shipping people are very much in demand. They are not walking the streets desperately seeking a job. They are passive job seekers, who have choices and know it. They know that if they are offered a position with a rival, their firm is likely to make them a counter-offer.
ny's. This approach will not work in a candidate short market. A company needs to use the opportunity to differentiate itself from its competitors and to sell itself. The company should have a good story to tell -- why should a candidate want to work here? If there is someone you want to work for you, then pursue them proactively and have a
can learn a good deal from other industries, particularly the IT sector which has developed sophisticated strategies to ensure that the right specialists are being found. Companies should always adapt their approach to suit the role. If you are looking to hire someone for a sales role, then you will need to sell the benefits of working for your company differently to
A lack of suitably qualified engineers in particular has led to rising salaries at sea with a corresponding rise in salary expectations ashore.
Mark Charman, Managing Director, Fastream
All too often shipping companies see recruitment as a distress purchase, an activity which is only undertaken when absolutely necessary and a job just has to be filled as quickly as possible. The company is simply reacting to a troublesome situation and the recruitment process is just seen as an inconvenient irritation. The net is cast as wide as possible and the company sits back and expects the candidates to come calling. Under this model, recruitment is not recognized as being part of the sales process and the candidate's needs are perceived as subservient to the compa-
sense of urgency about your approach. As a recruiter you need to sell the opportunity of working here and ask yourself "why do I work here?" All candidates that apply for a job should be engaged with in a positive manner. Remember that you are on show from the moment that the candidate hears about the position to the moment that you offer him or her the job. A negative experience at a preliminarily stage will not help in the future. Companies need to take a long term view on recruitment and build lists of prospective candidates now. We believe that the shipping industry
the operations person. Companies need to recognize that succession planning needs to go hand in hand with long term business planning. Long term planning is meaningless if there is no strategy to ensure that the top talent is there to implement these plans. We recommend that companies partner with recruitment firms to get the right people and that the companies also appoint internal talent scouts. In short, companies need to adapt their approach to suit the candidate and role and sell themselves. Do some things differently and do some things better.
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