As 2025 draws to an end we have taken a look back at the last 12 months and Spinnaker’s business achievements this year.

January saw us launch a brand new and improved website! Improved resources for candidates and lots of news content from our clients. Take a look!
Changing Course | Spinnaker

February saw us launch new categories for our ‘HR Initiative Awards’ due to the success of last year: Learning & Development Award, Health & Wellbeing Award and Employee Engagement Award.

Teresa Peacock, MD of Spinnaker’s Executive Search division was voted the 53^rd most influential women in shipping in All About Shipping’s list of Top 100 Women in Shipping list. Well done Teresa! Teresa is an active member of WISTA UK and the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Women in Work!

In March, we welcomed James Stares to the Spinnaker team to work in, and expand, our Insurance desk.

We celebrated International Women’s Day and with a theme of ‘Accelerate Action’. We wanted to hear from HR professionals and women in the industry on how the industry is doing. Are we doing enough? What more can we do?

April was a busy month. Spinnaker’s HR Consulting division published their findings from the Gender Pay Gap analysis, which saw that in 2024 the UK Mean Gender Pay Gap (for all sectors) was 13.8% compared to the Maritime HR Association Mean Pay Gap of 34.19%.  Overall, there has been a gradual decrease in the Gender Pay Gap within the UK maritime industry, since reporting began in 2017 where the gap stood at 46.4%! More work I needed to close this even further.

In May, we hosted our 17th annual Maritime People & Culture conference in London. This regular gathering of Maritime HR professionals represented shipping companies from every corner of the globe. This year we hosted our gala dinner again after the success of last year, kindly sponsored by ABS, during which we announced the winners of the ‘Best HR Initiative’ Awards sponsored by Mintra, Agwa and Novikontas. This year we had winners in Learning & Development (Oldendorff Carriers), Health & Wellbeing (Navigator Gas) and Employee Engagement (Ardmore Shipping). A well done to all our worthy winners!

From June, we have been helping clients prepare for the upcoming EU Pay Transparency Directive which addresses pay inequality. With a legal transposition deadline set for June 2026, organisations operating within EU member states must prepare now to ensure compliance with these sweeping changes.

In July, we released our annual wage cost report for seafarers’ onboard vessels in deck & engine positions. The reports help shipowners and managers calculate the cost of crewing a ship, as the reports take into consideration not only the wages of the seafarers, but also their rotation patterns and whether they are employed or contracted. We also released the wage report for hotel staff working on board cruise ships. This year we were able to report 92 nationalities, which is a 53% increase on last year, 96 ranks across 28 job families.

We also welcomed Spinnaker’s second new member of the year, Megan Driscoll, who joins the Technical Team working with shipowners, shipmanagers and ship operators.

Throughout August, Spinnaker’s data team carry out the final checks on the shore-based salary survey which were released to participating companies and members of the Maritime HR Association in October. The reports enable clients to check they are paying their staff in line with the market in roles such as technical superintendents and operators in all of the major shipping hubs.

September was one of the busiest months here at Spinnaker. We hosted the 10^th anniversary annual OSCAR Dragon Boat at London’s Docklands Sailing Club. The event raises money for Great Ormond Street to help fund research into treatment for leukaemia for sick children. The OSCAR Campaign has now raised almost £4m! Until now, the Oscar Campaign has primarily funded research and treatment of leukaemia and other childhood blood cancers. The focus at the moment is on funding the construction of a new Children’s Cancer Unit at Great Ormond Street Hospital, which is costing £300 million. First timers, Pacific Basin were our winners this year after a nail-biting, millisecond difference final race!

September also saw Spinnaker take on London with the London International Shipping Week (LISW), with most of our consultants making their way into London for the week for networking and focusing on new maritime trends. This year, we hosted our own event at LISW, in conjunction with MLA College and Clyde & Co on attraction and retention and occupational health. You can catch up on the discussion at our Maritime HR Conference in London next year.

We also launched 30 under 30: Ones to watch, where we showcased 30 young people in the industry who are making waves and making their mark in the maritime industry. In 2026, we will be launching this as an annual competition in January, where you can nominate yourself and others, for winners to be announced before May. The next generation are the future, and we are dedicated to showcasing all the talented young people we have in the maritime pipeline.

In October, Chloe Harrington-Grace joined the Spinnaker Team to work on the Technical Desk, strengthening that team even more! We also celebrated the 20^th Anniversary of the Maritime HR Association. From what started as a gathering of 5 shipping companies, has now grown to over 110 shipping companies worldwide!

Our CEO, Phil Parry gave a talk on Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose and what motivates people at the Dry Bulk Terminals Group Conference in Poland.

November saw Teresa Peacock in Barcelona for the WISTA AGM and Phil Parry gave a speech at the London Maritime Arbitrators Association (LMAA) Lunch.

And here we are in December looking forward to our Christmas party and the holiday season with our friends and family.

We wish our clients a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year and we look forward to working with you in 2026!