Earlier this month the Maritime HR Association (MHRA) were thrilled to deliver a jam packed and insightful afternoon of maritime HR discussions, exclusively for MHRA members at the Oldendorff offices. Directors, HR Managers and Rewards specialists from a wide variety of the member companies attended, and debated current HR issues in the local Singapore region.
Following Karen Waltham’s (HR Consulting) introduction of the event and update of the Maritime HR Association Salary Survey, Julia Yeo from Clyde & Co LLP, presented a thought provoking session on potential contractual issues with employees and how to avoid them. Attendees all related to the examples given and this led to a discussion on the importance of planning and the following of processes, so as to prevent such challenges arising.
Career development from sea to shore was next on the agenda and how evaluating this area could be of benefit to the companies, HR departments and employees alike. Group debates on the subject divided the attendants with some believing that HR for sea employees and shore employees should remain separate whereas others believed they should at least work together more, if not combine completely. A presentation on the Spinnaker/ Nautilus Seafarers Survey, where a review of Seafarers opinions moving to a shore-based career resulted in many attendees understanding why more has to be done to develop the relationship between these two sides of the business.
An introduction to the Maritime HR Association “Career Bridges” topic perfectly linked to the previous theme and provided a potential solution to the issues highlighted. Karen discussed the research HR Consulting were currently undertaking to develop profiling tools designed to support the maritime industry. Such tools could benefit companies when selecting and developing their talent moving from sea to shore and with the need to consider long-term careers across the industry as a whole.
To conclude Michael Elwert (HR Director, Thome) led the round table discussion on the concerns in recruitment specifically in Singapore and across Asia. The talk focussed on the apparent lack of local industry experience in the area, the increasing costs of expats and government regulations. It was a common agreement that the culture in Singapore needs support to encourage local employees to remain in roles longer, so that experience and skills can improve.
We have been delighted with the feedback and would like to thank our co-hosts Oldendorff as well as our speakers for delivering such engaging subjects. If you’d like to find out more about the topics discussed or any of our up and coming events then please feel free to get in touch. [email protected]
