This time last week the tenth Maritime HR Association conference was in full swing – and what an event it turned out to be!
As a relatively new team member at HR Consulting, who has spent most of the past 6 months sat analysing salary data in Excel spreadsheets, it was a great opportunity to get out and meet our members face to face. I wasn’t sure what to expect; after all there are plenty of shipping conferences (as frequently attended by our star man, Phil Parry) and of course HR conferences aplenty – but the maritime HR mix is quite unique.
Firstly I was struck by the family feel of the whole event; existing members getting together and catching up on their activities over the last 12 months – and new members being genuinely welcomed into the fold.
It was also a hugely interactive event, with nearly every session involving some kind of audience participation. There was certainly no chance for a sneaky snooze at the back of this conference room!
The topics were broad too, including maritime economics, performance management, the role of HR and career management. Feedback suggests these were both interesting and relevant, and there is a general sense that we continue to provide something really quite special.
Whilst we would love to sit back and relish in the glory, we are busy taking the feedback on board and preparing for next year’s event. We are also arranging webinars to share the highlights with our members who couldn’t attend – to make sure they don’t miss out.
We’ve got a heavy workload before next May – the salary survey is our next big thing, which evolves into the market analysis and before we know it will be conference time again… I for one am looking forward to it already.
Sarah Hutley, Compensation & Benefits Consultant, HR Consulting
