Spinnaker Maritime People & Culture Conference 2023 – a roundup

conference

The 15th annual Spinnaker Maritime People & Culture Conference took place in London on the 11th and 12th May 2023 at the Grand Connaught Rooms in London.

The event, chaired by Spinnaker Chairman Phil Parry, featured fascinating talks, presentations and panel discussions covering the key issues facing the maritime industry and how HR and leadership teams can address them.

Parry says, “We are delighted that this year’s event has had a record turnout. Delegates have travelled from as far afield as Hong Kong, Singapore and North America and we are honoured that so many members of the maritime community have joined us. The sessions have been both informative and topical and tap into the key trends and priorities for HR teams in 2023.”

The event welcomed world-renowned international rugby player turned facilitator and performance coach, Rory Underwood MBE DL as a speaker on the topic of High Performing Teams. He also hosted a panel discussion alongside Catherine Logie (Ocean Technologies Group), Tim Browne (Professional Speaker & Performance Coach), Daniel Taylor (Principal Consultant, t-three) and Michael Sandaluk, Chief HR Officer (Anglo-Eastern)

Other topics on the agenda were Artificial Intelligence in HR from Heidi Watson, Partner at Clyde & Co. She told us that “Many employers rely on artificial intelligence to help with recruitment, management, and redundancy processes as AI can deliver huge efficiencies. However, a reliance on AI also exposes employers to discrimination and other legal risk.”

Her session aimed to help employers understand the risks associated with using AI and help them outline the steps that they can take to address those risks and mitigate the possibility of legal, reputational, and financial exposure.

Heidi also delivered a session on women’s health in the workplace which looked at the impact on female talent leaving the workplace due to menopause and fertility issues.

American Bureau of Shipping’s VP of Human Resources and Global DE&I Officer, Njsane Courtney delivered a walk through of ABS’s journey to establish a global DE&I program and shared personal stories that emphasised the need to address not only the cultural impacts of unconscious bias but also examined how our own personal biases impact the decisions we as leaders make every day that have on our employees’ everyday lives at work.

The Director of the 4 Day Week Campaign in the UK, Joe Ryle, also attended and spoke at the event and shared the findings from the recent pilot. This was then followed by a case study from Swedish maritime training organisation Seably who participated in the pilot last year and achieved a successful outcome.

NYK Europe also shared a case study of their recent hybrid working initiative and Lloyd’s Register delivered a session on the importance of Employer Branding.

Capt. Yasser Hashem from Bahri Shipmanagement said the event “The conference was of exceptional quality. It was an absolute pleasure to attend and be part of such a well-planned and insightful event. The sessions were engaging, the speakers were interesting, and the networking opportunities were invaluable. I returned with a wealth of knowledge and new connections that will undoubtedly benefit us.“

For more information on being part of the next event in May 2024 please contact the team via email. [email protected]

Watch the 2023 video:

Meet the Sponsors

company logos

A big thank you to the sponsors and supporters at this year’s Spinnaker Maritime People & Culture Conference.

We are delighted to have Ocean Technologies Group sponsoring the lanyards at the event and these will be available for all delegates on the day.

Clyde & Co will be returning for the fifth year as sponsors of the lunch break on both days.

You will also find Clyde & Co in our exhibition area alongside CleverPoint Marine, Novikontas Maritime College, Omnium Employee Benefits, Marine Society and Seably.

Read on to find out more about our sponsors and exhibitors.

CleverPoint Marine is a tech-enabled company, pioneering new generation neurotechnology in virtual reality to man­age employee performance and wellbeing. Our solution is an innovative device, developed and adapted for the mar­itime industry as a psychometric assessment and training tool, for supporting the cognitive and psycho-physiological abilities of an employee. www.cpmarine.pro

Novikontas Maritime College is a world-class Maritime and Offshore Training and Education institution. Our ex­perienced maritime industry staff delivers a broad range of courses and professional education programs for shore-based and onboard positions.

www.novikontas.lv

Clyde & Co’s employment team are recognised leaders in the delivery of HR legal services. Our experienced practic­es in the UK, the Middle East and across Asia-Pacific have a long track record of advising both local and internation­al businesses on employment issues, employee benefits, pensions, immigration, partnership, and trade union issues. From hiring, to managing change programmes, and resolv­ing disputes, the combination of our experienced and sizea­ble international team and network of international offices means that we provide clients with relevant and tailored employment advice when and where it is needed.

www.clydeco.com

Ocean Technologies Group provides maritime professionals with digital learning, assessment, maritime HR and fleet management solutions. It is built on the world recognised e-learning providers Seagull Maritime and Videotel and has been further strengthened by the COEX, Compas, Marlins, MTS and Tero Marine brands. Dedicated to realising the potential of every seafarer and every ship, Ocean Technologies Group help make the industry safer, stronger and able to excel. 

www.oceantg.com

The Marine Society & Sea Cadets aim to be the first in learning and profes­sional development for the maritime community and do this through their many partnerships. These enable them to offer tailored learning programmes that support learning and professional development at all levels, right through to postgraduate. They are also able to deliver distance-learn­ing programmes that are perfect for those who are unable to learn through the more traditional methods. Meanwhile their crew libraries and bookshop support seafarers through their learning and also offer a welcome escape from the pressures of life at sea.

www.ms-sc.org

Omnium are an independent benefits business and offer advice to clients of all sizes. They provide a full range of employee benefits and have over fifty years’ experience in the field. Their primary aim is to inform, educate and advise employers and employees on the real value of the benefits their organisation offers. They offer unbiased, unrestricted and wholly independent financial advice.

www.omniumbenefits.com

Seably was founded together with the Swedish Shipping Association in 2017 out of strong demand from the shipping cluster for better ways for seafarers to conduct their mandatory training.

They firmly believe that training is an essential component of a healthy and safe maritime industry. They believe that training should be a collaborative and diverse process with many contributors – training should be created by the many, not by the few.

www.seably.com

You can meet our sponsors and exhibitors at the Spinnaker Maritime People & Culture Conference on the 26th & 27th May

https://spinnakerconference.eventbrite.co.uk

What role does maritime HR play in meeting the challenges in the maritime industry? A Q&A with K D Adamson

maritime people and culture conference

Ahead of the 2022 Spinnaker Maritime People & Culture Conference we sat down with our keynote and special guest, shipping’s most famous futurist, K D Adamson.

One of the most sought-after futurist speakers globally K D Adamson’s keynotes have been likened to a TED talk on steroids.

With a stellar client list K D has advised organisations in multiple industries from the largest companies to start-ups, and is expert in ESG, agility, leadership, technology, digital and organisational transformation, and the Blue, Green and Circular Economies.

As the world’s foremost maritime futurist her client list spans the ocean industries, and she is renowned for combining visionary thinking, foresight and insight with sharp, straight-talking commercial and business acumen & expertise.  

As futurist-in-residence at Futurenautics she works with ship owners, operators & managers, maritime suppliers, policymakers, regulators, technology companies, charities, class, NGOs, banks, VC, port and logistics groups.

In the second part of our conversation, we asked her about the role that she saw maritime HR playing in meeting future challenges?

K D Adamson: For a very long time business has been organised, or rather divided, into line and staff functions, and broadly speaking that translates as the functions that make money and the functions that spend it. HR along with IT, procurement, legal, technical, HSEQ etc. has been very much a staff function, basically just a cost centre. But just like IT has done over recent years, HR is transitioning to become a core driver of future business value creation. And that’s for a couple of reasons.

Firstly because the way that we measure value in companies is changing. Up until very recently the only metric which really mattered to a business and its stakeholders was profitability, but that calculation, how the value of a company is measured, is becoming far more complex and far more nuanced.

As ESG reporting really kicks in then a whole range of metrics which have traditionally been considered pretty unimportant and are often invisible, are suddenly becoming core to profitability. So whether that’s diversity, equality and inclusion, whether it’s executive pay, governance, the ability to attract and retain talent or the introduction of agile ways of working, all of these things are beginning to have a material impact on how profitable the company is. So in many respects HR has been thought of as an Ugly Sister, when in actual fact it’s Cinderella.

And Cinderella is a good metaphor because there’s another reason that HR is going to play a critical role going forward, which is probably even more profound. And that is that future sustainable growth and value creation will depend on successfully transforming the way our businesses operate, so we can capture that value.

Now we’ve heard a lot about digital transformation but the reason so many digital transformation initiatives failed was because of cultural issues. The ability of a company to transform – it’s Transformation Quotient as I describe it, its TQ – is determined by its culture. So underpinning successful innovation, decarbonisation, digitalisation, all of it, is people, culture and mindset.

Changing the culture and mindset is a massive challenge on its own, and HR is going to be indispensable in leading the way to wireframe new working practices, mechanisms, and processes that will support the culture and mindset in a practical way. That will operationalise the culture and really enable sustainable transformation.

Pulling that off is going to require a deep partnership between HR and C-suite leaders, but it’s key. Because adopting new technology will never give you a sustained competitive advantage, because someone else can always buy it too. Whereas a holistic transformation of a company’s core and culture, is a sustainable transformation. It is a source of sustainable competitive advantage that will continue to deliver you returns.

You can watch the video to accompany this interview with K D Adamson by following this link

The conference takes place on Thursday 26th & Friday 27th May in the City of London, so follow this link now to view the full agenda and book tickets.

What are the biggest challenges on the horizon for the shipping and maritime industry? A Q&A with K D Adamson.

final challenges

Ahead of the 2022 Spinnaker Maritime People & Culture Conference we sat down with our keynote and special guest, shipping’s most famous futurist, K D Adamson.

One of the most sought-after futurist speakers globally K D Adamson’s keynotes have been likened to a TED talk on steroids.

With a stellar client list K D has advised organisations in multiple industries from the largest companies to start-ups, and is expert in ESG, agility, leadership, technology, digital and organisational transformation, and the Blue, Green and Circular Economies.

As the world’s foremost maritime futurist her client list spans the ocean industries, and she is renowned for combining visionary thinking, foresight and insight with sharp, straight-talking commercial and business acumen & expertise.  

As futurist-in-residence at Futurenautics she works with ship owners, operators & managers, maritime suppliers, policymakers, regulators, technology companies, charities, class, NGOs, banks, VC, port and logistics groups.

With such a broad view of the business future we asked her what she saw as the biggest challenges on the horizon for the shipping and maritime industry?

K D Adamson: Shipping is what’s described as a ‘harder to abate’ industry so when it comes to the energy transition it’s facing some specific challenges, and they are very significant. But shipping is also going to have to deal with a set of issues which have the potential to fundamentally reshape business itself, not just the shipping and maritime industry, and actually the fact that these issues are affecting every type of business gives you a steer about how we can solve them: the mindset we need to adopt in order to address them, which is to collaborate across our ecosystems.

That’s because whatever business you’re in the expectations of your stakeholders are broadly changing, so that could impact pretty much everything from how products and assets are designed, how materials are sourced, how we manufacture and build things, where we build them, how we recycle them, and of course how we transport them, because in future businesses are going to have to start pricing in the externalities of their operations, how they produce their products and services, quantifying the impacts they cause on stakeholders, societies and the environment etc., in order to make their profits,

And that’s never happened before, so I think it’s hard to overstate just how far-reaching this shift is going to be for businesses generally. But there’s an added layer of complexity for multi-national organisations, global industries like shipping, because they operate across national jurisdictions. I know many people aren’t fans of IMO, but the one thing it has managed to do for fifty-plus years is create a global compliance regime which has allowed ship operators and their vessels to trade anywhere in the world. Now when we talk about stakeholder expectations changing, it’s important to remember that those changes aren’t happening uniformly around the world. There are very different views within national and regional stakeholders about how companies should and should not behave, and that’s already filtering through into new legislation, which is really fragmenting the operating environment.

So, for those businesses which have global operations, which are part of global value and supply chains and critically, have globally and culturally diverse employees, securing what we refer to as a societal license to operate, is going to be a moving target. That’s because they will be faced with increasingly conflicting expectations and priorities from everyone from governments and political movements, environmental groups, lenders and insurers to customers, end consumers and employees. And in order to manage that successfully shipping and maritime companies must have a very comprehensive understanding of where and how they are going to transform their businesses to create sustainable long-term growth and value in the future, and, critically, a very clear roadmap for how they’re going to implement that sustainable transformation.

You can watch the video to accompany this interview with K D Adamson by following this link

The conference takes place on Thursday 26th & Friday 27th May in the City of London, so follow this link now to view the full agenda and book tickets.

Getting Fired Up!

ashes to flames

At this year’s Maritime People & Culture conference we are looking firmly at the horizon with our must-see keynote, futurist K D Adamson whose keynotes are described as a ‘TED-talk on steroids’.

The 2022 Spinnaker Maritime People and Culture Conference is now only a couple of weeks away and as the programme reflects, the industry finds itself facing a growing set of future challenges.

So, who better to invite to be our keynote speaker and special guest for the conference than K D Adamson, one of the world’s leading futurists and definitely shipping’s most famous, whose keynotes have been likened to ‘a TED-talk on steroids’.

But while as a futurist K D is expert in all sorts of technologies from AI to synthetic biology to quantum computing, don’t expect reassurance that the tech industry will ride to the world’s rescue, or solve the challenges faced by our businesses.

The message of K D’s keynote, The Ashes and the Flame is very different. Challenging the technology-defined future that the ‘Tomorrow Factory’, has been selling everyone, she argues that what comes next is not an AI apocalypse but a societal discontinuity. She describes the period the world is entering now as a liminal space, a threshold of the future where old certainties have been dismantled but what will replace them is still uncertain.

Pointing out that during liminal periods individuals and organisations have outsized opportunities to create truly lasting change, she encourages us to reframe the challenges ahead as societies and businesses and reject the technology narrative that disempowers individuals and companies, by de-emphasising human qualities of resilience and adaptability.

At a conference for people-people it’s a message that some might consider to be long overdue. After two years struggling to support our people at sea and ashore when many industry structures failed us and with critical industry-wide and global goals still ahead to be tackled, the importance of maritime HR, people, culture and mindset cannot be overstated.

Fire may have been the first technology, but K D Adamson says that the time has come to stop worshipping it and the tech industry that has hi-jacked the future. Instead, she warns that the only way to build the future we want is to focus on the core priorities of culture, human autonomy, purpose, and adaptability, to create ecocratic not technocratic leaders and to embark on a fundamental recalibration of what we value.

Sure to be delivered with her signature energy and dynamism, The Ashes and the Flame is a must-see keynote, and will be followed by an in-depth session with Spinnaker Chairman Phil Parry, where he will also be posing some burning questions.

The conference takes place on Thursday 26th & Friday 27th May in the City of London, so follow this link now to view the full agenda and book tickets.

In the run up to the event please also look out for a series of video Q&A’s with K D such as this one here.

Spinnaker’s annual Maritime People & Culture Conference to focus on ESG, maritime economics and culture transformation in first post-pandemic live event

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Press Release

Spinnaker, the maritime people experts, will host the 14th edition of its annual Maritime People & Culture Conference on the 26th and 27th May 2022 in London. The event will bring together senior HR professionals and shipping leaders to discuss the key issues facing the industry, network with senior leaders and attend informative sessions delivered by renowned speakers.

This year Spinnaker are delighted to announce K D Adamson as special guest and keynote speaker.

As Futurist-in-residence at Futurenautics, she works with ship owners, operators, managers, maritime suppliers, policymakers, regulators, technology companies, charities, class, NGOs, banks, VC, port and logistics groups.

At the event, a series of talks and panel discussions will address key questions such as the strategic and practical implications of ESG, flexible and agile working, technology deployment, digitalisation, decarbonisation, and purposeful leadership.
 
Speakers include Spinnaker’s Chairman Phil Parry, Managing Director, Executive Search Teresa Peacock, CEO of Lookout Maritime Martin Crawford-Brunt, Clyde & Co Employment Law Partner Heidi Watson, Chief HR Officer at the American Bureau of Shipping Chuck Kemper, Baltic Exchange CEO Mark Jackson and many more including HRDs and heads of crewing from shipowners and shipmanagers.

Phil Parry, chairman and co-founder of Spinnaker, said: “Like any other industry, maritime is evolving following the ongoing impact of the pandemic and global economic developments on its people. This year’s conference will identify todays and tomorrow’s critical strategic challenges in the maritime industry, and offer concrete practical knowledge and insight on how to tackle them.”

Participants will also get a chance to hear from experts on the skills, training and education required for the continued success of the maritime industry. They will share insights for employers on how they can best attract and retain talent, and the difficult decisions required to achieve shipping’s obligations to the environment, to clients, to shareholders, to employees and to society.

Sponsors include Ocean Technologies Group, Clyde & Co, Marine Society & Sea Cadets, CleverPoint Marine, Novikontas Maritime College, Seably and Omnium Employee Benefits.
The in-person conference will be held on Thursday 26th and Friday 27th May 2022 in London. To find out more and purchase tickets, please visit: https://spinnakerconference.eventbrite.co.uk

An interview with Martin Crawford Brunt, CEO of Lookout Maritime

lookout maritime

Q&A with Martin Crawford-Brunt, CEO of Lookout Maritime

Ahead of Spinnaker’s Maritime People and Culture Conference later this month, we sat down with panellist Martin Crawford-Brunt to discuss the growing tension between people, planet and profit in the maritime industry and how to ensure employees are engaged and invested in sustainability efforts

How does the growing tension between people, planet and profit affect the maritime industry? What are the positives and negatives you see today?

The maritime industry faces a growing and imminent obligation to reduce carbon emissions thanks to changing regulation and evolved expectations across the supply chain. A huge positive step forward has been that global bodies, governments and big business are aligned on this objective, and there is a clamour in the industry to be seen as being part of the solution. However, there is still little consensus on how this will be done in practice, how to make change quickly enough and who should pay.

There is a growing tension between people, planet and profit, as organisations seek to decarbonise while staying profitable and keeping their employees happy and engaged. Increasingly, there seems to be a disconnect between the shipping industry’s communicated ambition on emission reduction and the day-to-day reality of delivering this.

It can be dispiriting for organisations to discuss their plans for reducing emissions and then for people within the company to either see no visible change in practices or be left trying to implement change with limited tools at their disposal. This can lead to a lack of engagement as staff feel unsupported or even disillusioned by the disparity in headline decarbonisation mission statements and the reality of limited tangible progress.

What is needed to resolve/ improve this situation to increase engagement?

The danger is that organisations overreach in their eagerness to move forward and forget to bring their people along on the journey or disregard the implications for others. There is a widening gap between expectation and reality. To increase engagement, there needs to be clear communication between different stakeholders within the organisation. This may require uncomfortable conversations about how efforts to reduce emissions may change daily operations or how staff feel companies are not keeping to their word when it comes to decarbonisation. Honest and meaningful conversation can help bridge the gap between expectation and reality.

How can brave and honest leadership make a difference to the outcomes?

Finding practical solutions to these challenges requires brave and open leadership. We need to realise that pushing the risk and cost of decarbonisation onto the next guy in the chain solves nothing. In fact, this sort of action undermines trust and can damage relationships.

Brave and honest leadership can usher in a more collaborative culture that takes a wider perspective of acceptance towards intermediary alternatives and is needed now more than ever. Instead of waiting for tomorrow’s ‘perfect’ solutions, it’s important to understand what is possible to execute now and bring the entire organisation along for the journey. The maritime industry should not let great get in the way of good; small but incremental advances in optimisation should not be discarded just because they don’t solve the whole problem in one step.

What role does shipping play in improving energy and food security as well as prosperity for remote communities?

Shipping is a great enabler for trade, distribution of prosperity, resources, food and energy security. The difficulty with realigning priorities for decarbonisation is the knock-on impact this has on the global supply chain. Those living close to the breadline don’t have the same luxury of choice of many of us in the first world. Their situation will become even more pressing as the cost-of-living crisis spreads across the globe. We need an equitable solution, it can’t be that the large well-funded first world countries who set the agenda for the developing world. Change must be implemented responsibility in a way that protects remote communities and ensures they can still receive vital goods without it costing the earth in more ways than one. Shipping certainly has a key role to play in finding sustainable solutions for the future, but this must encompass people and wider societal impacts rather than solely focussing on the environment.

What practical examples have you seen implemented by shipping companies looking to increase their sustainability impact and staff engagement?

Simply put, the shipping industry can’t solve the environment question if it doesn’t bring its people along on the journey. Company values must align with employee engagement, and then supported by senior management.

Currently, there are no ready-made solutions for companies to follow. Instead, they must work in a structured way to find a path forward that works for them, meets their emission reductions targets, keeps their people engaged and ensures their operations continue. One successful example I have seen implemented is allowing employees to nominate a sustainability initiative that is then included as part of their annual review, with a few hours allocated to this activity each week. Although in accounting terms this added cost is measurable, one might argue that timesheets are not the best way to measure productivity. The increased engagement more than compensates for the cost, as engaged employees get more done.

Ultimately, shipping is a servant to global trade and while swift and decisive action is needed to tackle climate change, we must also be honest and realistic in our expectations.

Emissions will not immediately drop overnight thanks to one wonder solution; what is needed is a continuous focus on incremental improvement. Increased collaboration is critical, and organisations must also resist the urge to drop back into their various tribes if they are to achieve success. This will require joined up thinking that addresses the intersection of commercial and environmental concerns, as well as safeguarding staff engagement and shipping’s obligation to keep global trade afloat.

See Martin chair a panel on ESG at the Spinnaker Maritime People & Culture Conference on the 26th & 27th May 2022.  Full agenda and ticket information is available on Eventbrite

https://spinnakerconference.eventbrite.co.uk

Maritime HR Conference – what’s on the agenda?

Maritime HR conference attendees

Spinnaker is excited to announce the initial agenda for the 14th annual Maritime HR Conference, taking place in London on 14 & 15 May 2020.

The Maritime HR Conference sees over 200 decision makers and key HR people from the shipping industry in one room, and is expected to be its biggest yet.

Attraction and retention

The agenda includes a panel discussion on attracting talent to the maritime industry, chaired by Nicola Good of Lloyd’s Register, featuring insights from Spinnaker’s Managing Director of recruitment and executive search, Teresa Peacock.

On day two, a panel chaired by Julian Bray looks at retention. “We wanted to look at both sides of the coin,” says Karen Waltham, Spinnaker Managing Director, organiser of the annual conference and head of all the company’s maritime HR and consultancy output. “So on day one there’s a focus on attraction as we know there is a problem with getting people into the industry at ground level. But there’s also the issue of getting people to stay, which is the focus of day two.”

Panellists for the CEO session, Harnessing Skills, Experience and Talent include Paul Pathy, Chief Executive of Fednav, and Karin Orsel, CEO, MF Shipping.

Maritime economics, technology, safety and more

Other sessions include an update on Maritime Economics from Clarkson Research, Lloyd’s Register on how technology impacts the human element, and a case study of V Group’s Senior Officer Programme.

“Spinnaker has been working with V Group on this Senior Officer Programme and it focuses on leadership behaviours, with safety as a critical component.” says Karen Waltham.  

Book now

Book your ticket for the largest worldwide gathering of maritime HR and crewing professionals here.

The Maritime HR Conference is sponsored by MHG Insurance, Clyde & Co, ShipMoney, Omnium and Voyonic, with support from the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers, IMarEST, Ship Management International, Mission to Seafarers, t-three and Tradewinds.