Once a contract is signed, whether it be for a shoreside employee or a seafarer, the battle to retain them commences. Whether someone stays with an organisation for their entire career or stays for just a few months can often be decided in the opening weeks of their employment.
For shoreside employees, turning up on day one to a well organised induction process makes an enormous difference to long-term retention. In those first few days, meetings with key stakeholders, information on who to speak to about issues, and the right information on how to access and use systems are critical to a new team member hitting the ground running. Similarly, training on systems, processes, and/or required skills is a must.
When employees turn up to disengaged line managers, disorganised processes, lack of access to IT or equipment, and a lack of access to training it can immediately disengage them. For those working at sea, the onboarding process is even more important. It is a logistics exercise involving planes, trains, visas, hotels, port agents and eventually a ship that will be home for months.
Though joining a ship is sometimes unpredictable if the process is disorganised and poorly supported it can leave crew members feeling disengaged before they have even reached the vessel. A ferry with 4 crew onboard left port in good visibility. Autopilot was engaged and the master was left alone on the bridge. He became distracted writing up a manifest for the agent. When he looked up, he saw a cluster of rocks dead ahead. Despite putting the engines full astern, preventing vessel grounding was impossible.
Several factors contributed to this incident. But one factor underlines the importance of good onboarding. The master was not fully familiarised with the navigation systems onboard. He subsequently wasn’t using the electronic navigation system appropriately. Coupled with a range of other factors, this is what led to the vessel suffering substantial damage to her port bow. This incident brings to light the need for mariners of all ranks to have the right familiarisation on all equipment when on a new vessel, or to re-familiarise every time they join a vessel. As well as being a legal requirement of the company, it is just good practice.
The consequences of a poor or non-existent onboarding process can range from poor retention and all that comes with it, right up to the most severe of incidents. Avoiding incidents doesn’t just require good onboarding, it requires a strong overall approach to training.
For a more detailed understanding and exploration of the topics covered in this article, refer to our latest report, commissioned by Ocean Technologies Group. The Bottom Line: Why Human Capital Management is the future of HR and crewing. You can download the full report below:
