During our most recent live information exchange, Spinnaker welcomed Maritime HR Association members to discuss the value and evolution of performance management.
Our members agreed that a ‘back to basics’ approach to performance management based on fairness was the most popular approach, with job descriptions creating a good foundation.
Systems and Processes
All our members complete appraisals annually alongside a 6 monthly informal or formal discussion, with the annual appraisal being predominantly based on goal setting and the mid-term discussion focusing on performance and training.
Whilst most members use a traditional style approach to appraisals (with the employee and line manager completing a questionnaire or competency-based points card, followed by a meeting), one of our members had been working on evolving their Performance Management system using a HR system to record discussions. This system can be updated continuously throughout the year, with regular check ins and feedback.
Salary and Performance Management
It was discussed as a group that performance management discussions can often centre around salary reviews, and all agreed that the two topics are best kept separate – so the focus remains on performance, behaviour gaps and training rather than directly related to pay.
How do we help management have difficult conversations?
Training and workshops were a method used by a number of members, both at sea and onshore. Managers are helped to give honest feedback and to ensure development ideas and objectives for the next year are in line with the organisation’s strategy.
Personal Development
Performance management discussions can be a great way to talk to employees about how they can grow within the company and further develop their knowledge and experience. These discussions were thought to be more forward looking (to the next 12 months) setting goals and objectives and not just about improving past performance.
If you are interested in becoming a member of the Maritime HR Association and joining over 80 other maritime companies please contact [email protected]
The way we recruit and onboard employees has changed rapidly over the last year. From WebEx technical difficulties to home-delivered fruit baskets, here at Spinnaker along with our Maritime HR Association members, we have explored the pros and cons of the ‘new norm’ for recruitment during the pandemic.
Recruitment
• As a global industry, many maritime HR professionals were already experienced at conducting interviews virtually – and while face to face interviews have all but stopped there remains an appetite to reinstate these for second rounds when permitted. • Recruitment volumes have remained steady in most cases – one member reported an increase in short term contracts (to cover an increase in the number of maternity cases) as well as an increase in turnover for local staff (arising from current travel restrictions). • While some have encountered technical difficulties with online interviews, one member reported offering a range of video tools to suit the candidate. • If there are sufficient vacancy volumes and timing allows, new joiners will start together where possible – driving an instant ‘friendship’. • Remote interviews were identified as an opportunity for more diverse recruitment panels and while the composition of recruitment panels varied by member, many typically reported including a member of HR (who would ensure diversity and likely be female). • The Maritime UK Interview Pool is available to those who wish to explore more balanced interview panels. See https://www.maritimeuk.org/priorities/people/diversity-maritime/projects/interview-pool/
Onboarding
• Relocations are still happening where COVID restrictions allow, but last-minute changes in government guidance are driving lots of creative work arounds and the cost of relocations has increased significantly in line with container rates. • It was acknowledged that virtual onboarding can take more time, yet in some jurisdictions probationary periods are limited. Preboarding – the concept of starting employee integration before they start – was identified as a great way to extend the induction and welcome staff before they even commence employment, including checking technology before day one and connecting them with a buddy or mentor. • Feedback from candidates suggest that being organised and planning ahead makes a huge difference to their onboarding experience. Managers are encouraged to set a full schedule for those first 2 weeks, with regular check-ins, but allow time between meetings to avoid zoom fatigue and provide time to digest and reflect. Self-study packs were offered in some cases, for new starters to work through in between sessions as well as dedicated single points of contact (HR, IT etc) and supporting desktop instructions for resolving issues. • An understanding of company culture and values (i.e. feeling the pulse of the organisation) is something that can be hard to get a sense for remotely. Specific sessions on this are particularly welcome by new starters and there may be an opportunity to share as part of ‘re-onboarding’ those employees returning from long term homeworking too. • Finally, team integration and generally ‘getting to know each other’ is possibly more important than ever. Assigning project work can help drive this in a work capacity and ending the first week with a social event (e.g. virtual lunch or team drinks) could mark the start of regular team events.
If you want to share ideas, challenges and best practice with other maritime HR professionals, get in touch to find out more about our association via [email protected] or +44 (0)1702 481660.
Spinnaker surveyed 29 members of the Maritime HR Association to find out what companies are doing with the ‘flight home’ benefit this year in light of the coronavirus pandemic.
39% of the companies said they will be carrying the benefit over to next year. 29% said the benefit will be lost.
Some companies pay a cash allowance to cover the cost of an annual flight home. Some companies include the cost of a flight home in to the employees base salary, so it was not an issue for them.
For those companies that said the flight home benefit will simply be lost due to the pandemic, we know some members will carry over this allowance in exceptional circumstances.
Companies have differed in the timescale their employees are able to use up the benefit in 2021, some allow them for the whole of the year, where some companies have urged employees to use their flights by the summer.
Regardless of the pandemic some members always give employees the option of paid flights, or a cash equivalent. Two companies said they would buy out the unused flight if the employee was unable to fly home due to COVID. Whereas some members have said they would cover 50% of the cost of the flight.
Companies are all adjusting and re-evaluating in these unusual circumstances this year, and it looks as though the knock on effects of it will last well into 2021, though recent news of the successful and promising vaccines gives us the impression that we may see some semblance of normality in 2021.
Find out more about the Maritime HR Association here.
To say that 2020 has made us change the way we go about everyday life is an understatement. With all the challenges this year has brought to organisations, with maritime being no exception, it’s all too easy for HR to get forgotten.
However, HR is more important than ever. After an unprecedented period of working from home, you may be seeing that employees are less motivated, that they aren’t fully engaged with the organisation or perhaps even seen a drop in productivity.
Investing in your team
It’s especially important for employees at this time to feel that their organisation is investing in their personal development.
Our maritime leadership development programme can form part of your organisation’s learning and development (L&D) strategy which can help reflect your overall business strategy.
Developing your leaders
We offer open programmes, where maritime professionals from a range of businesses and professions come together and network (virtually). Some employees may prefer this style of programme as it provides a safe environment to share problems. It also provides a great learning experience as participants learn what other successful organisations are doing.
We also offer an in-house programme. This is a great method for organisations to ‘tailor’ the programme to their own mission and vision. It is excellent for team building which can be very useful when team members work in different offices globally.
What our participants say
“This was a great session!”
“I found it very useful… some great tools to assist with managing my team.”
What it involves
Both programmes include a one-to-one Facet5 personality profiling session for each participant, virtually delivered workshops, and follow-up coaching to embed learning.
For further information please contact Helen at [email protected] or call +44 (0) 1702 595 302
Most people want to be the best they can be and achieve their full potential at work. As a consequence, personal development opportunities in the workplace are important for attracting, retaining, and engaging talent. People tend to be more satisfied at work when given chances to grow and develop.
Personal development can cover anything from training or building a new skill, to pursuing a passion, to increasing confidence or improving relationships with other people. It can also cover things outside of the workplace too, like achieving a better work-life balance, or being more present when spending time with family and friends.
We look at the benefits of personal development at work, and the valuable role feedback plays in helping people to establish goals to help them grow.
The benefits of personal development at work
Providing people with personal development opportunities is one of the best things you can do to nurture talent and keep people engaged so they want to continue working for your company. Plus, personal development makes your people better. And by making your people better, your business becomes better at what it does.
Personal development benefits people in the following ways;
Encourages a positive attitude – The more people feel like their job supports them to be better, not just in a working environment but in their personal life too, the more positive they will feel about their work.
Boosts motivation – Observing the results of our own personal growth can be incredibly motivating and encourage us to strive for even bigger achievements.
Increases confidence – Improving ourselves helps us to feel more confident. When we reach a goal we had set, gain a new skill, or learn something from a situation that helps us in our life both in and outside of work, the more we keep developing. And, the more confident we feel that we can achieve new things and experience greater fulfilment.
Develops strengths – Personal development isn’t just about helping people to improve on their weaknesses. It can also help people to develop their strengths. Giving people time to nurture and hone their strengths helps take them from good to great, and that can be extremely rewarding.
Gives people a purpose – Through ongoing personal development, people can learn more about their abilities and aspirations and figure out a clearer purpose for what they’re doing, both on a personal and professional level.
Improves career prospects – Personal development can be a great way to help people achieve their career goals. It’s not just about what they learn either. Being committed to personal development demonstrates a willingness to learn and grow, which is desirable for many employers.
Builds loyalty – People are more likely to stay with companies that provide good development opportunities.
The role of feedback
An individual’s personal development starts with understanding where they are at the moment, versus where they want to be, and what is expected of them to get there.
To understand and identify their personal development opportunities, people need to know their strengths and weaknesses. And this is where feedback can provide a ray of light.
Receiving feedback from managers and colleagues helps people become more self-aware of both their strengths and the areas they need to work on, as well as how others perceive them. And this gives people the opportunity to use this information towards their own personal growth. For example:
A person can take the learnings from feedback to establish goals for themselves. If they discover that they come across as hesitant when presenting to a group, they may choose to focus on developing their confidence. Or, if they learn that people see them as holding on to work, they may want to asses whether they could be letting things go a bit more, and how this could help them achieve a better work-life balance.
Feedback also helps people to see how their behaviours might impact other people’s development opportunities. For example, a manager might choose to use their own judgement when allocating tasks to the members of their team. But by doing this, he or she are effectively disempowering those individuals in the team. It might be that one person really wanted to do a task that was allocated to someone else because they want to grow in that area. But the opportunity wasn’t given to them, and this can cause them to lose motivation and confidence, and even resent their manager.
Personal development is important to everyone. Whether an individual wants to develop more confidence, pursue a work-related passion or achieve a better work-life balance, feedback gives them a more objective view of themselves and provides a great starting point to help them achieve those goals. And the more a person feels like they are getting personal fulfilment from work, the more likely they are to remain engaged, both in their job and in the company.
Personality assessments are a powerful tool for raising the self-awareness of the people within your organisation, and through self-awareness you can influence behaviour change that helps your organisation get to where it wants to be.
If you have never had a personality assessment in your organisation, selecting one from the myriad of options can be difficult. Alternatively, maybe you already have one embedded within your organisation but you’re not getting the return you hoped for, and are looking to replace it with one that will make a real impact on your people and your business – but, you don’t know where to start.
The first thing to consider is that personality assessments typically fall into one of two categories: type-focused or trait-focused. Here, we lay out the differences (and similarities) between the two, to help you narrow down the choice.
Type-focused personality assessments
Type-focused personality assessments are based on the Jung theory of personality. Jung theorised that individuals fall into one of two categories; introvert or extravert. Introverts are most aware of their inner world, and by contrast, extraverts gain more influence from the outer world.
Typically, type-focused personality assessments measure an individual’s personality across four factors. They are ipsative, which means a person is defined as one ‘type’ or another. For example, a person is defined as either an introvert or an extravert.
One commonly used example is the Myers Briggs personality test (MBTI). The tool was developed in the 1940’s by Isabel Briggs-Myers and her mother Katherine Briggs, based on their work with Jung’s theory. It was first published in 1962.
MBTI categories individuals into one of 16 distinctive personality types that result from the interactions among their preferences for each of four psychological functions;
Extraversion (E) or Introversion (I)
Intuition (N) or Sensing (S)
Thinking (T) or Feeling (F)
Judging (J) or Perceiving (P)
When put together you get a personality type code, for example, ENTJ, ISFP or ESTP.
Type-focused personality assessments like MBTI are easy for people to remember and reference, and can help create a common language that people can easily identify with.
However, personality theory has moved on significantly since the likes of Jung. In fact, the MBTI has been heavily criticised by personality psychologists, who argue it is based on wholly unproven theories, is a limited way of studying personality, and provides inconsistent results.
Personality psychologists now largely agree that individual differences in personality are better described by continuous traits than distinct type categories. It’s even been found that most MBTI scores fall somewhere in the middle, rather than at the very low or very high end – which disproves the very theory that we are one ‘type’ or another.
Trait-focused personality assessments
The Big5 theory of personality is now widely considered the best way of describing the fundamental building blocks of an individual’s personality. Psychologists have recognised that personality isn’t as simple as Jung’s type theory. Instead, the Big5 theory recognises personality as the unique pattern of enduring psychological and behavioural traits by which each person can be compared and contrasted to others.
Trait-focused personality assessments are all based on the Big5 factors model. Individuals are measured by ‘how much’ of each of the five traits they possess, rather than being forced into a ‘type’.
Facet5, created in the late 1980s, was the first Big5 measure in Europe. It measures five factors, or ‘facets’ based on the Big5 theory. A person has a certain amount of each of the facets, and it is this pattern of scores that gives the overall picture of their personality.
Control
Will
Energy
Affection
Emotionality
Each facet is made up of a number of sub factors. For example, a person’s Will score is an accumulation of their scores on each of the three sub factors of Will: determination, confrontation, and independence.
Trait-focused personality assessments give information rather than hard data, making them a much more powerful tool for developing people and influencing behaviour change. Though there is no snappy four letter identification, trait-focused tools like Facet5 still create a common language for organisations. For example, if using Facet5 you might refer to someone as “low Will” or “High Emotionality”. But it’s not so definitive as to put people in ‘boxes’ and force a label on them.
Trait-focused personality assessments give a more granular picture of an individual’s personality than type-focused tools. They offer people a more accurate reflection of their natural preferences and behavioural styles, so that they can both relate to them more, and getter a better understanding of why they behave in certain ways in particular circumstances. What’s more, re-test reliability is significantly higher for Facet5 than it is for MBTI.
The broad consensus today is that trait-focused tools are a much more powerful in the workplace than type-based tools. By giving a more accurate view of an individual’s personality, they are far more effective at triggering behaviour change, as they help people understand themselves better in the first place. If you focus on trait-focused personality assessments only, you effectively cut the list of potential options in half, and become one step closer to finding the right solution for your company.
When employees leave a company, outplacement services can provide job search support to help the individual navigate the market and seek suitable employment as smoothly as possible. Spinnaker provides outplacement support for its clients and their employees, which is particularly helpful during the COVID-19 pandemic where companies are being forced to re-evaluate their staffing.
Why do companies use outplacement services?
If an organisation utilises the support of a company such as Spinnaker, it leaves their time and resources dedicated to the business, and allows us to use our considerable HR expertise to support the employees leaving.
Spinnaker gives clients peace of mind that their staff will get practical advice; we are proud to provide a personal service; we’re not interested in a blanket approach – we give clients and their employees the chance to reap the benefits of over 20 years of shipping industry recruitment expertise and our strong HR background, including large scale downsizing projects and career transition expertise.
What is the benefit for the employee?
Using a bespoke approach like we do at Spinnaker, outplacement provides employees with the confidence and tools to take the next step in their career. Our personalised service gives the individual practical advice, genuine market expertise, and a sensitive handling of what can be a challenging time.
What we offer
Combining the skills from our recruitment and HR consultancy teams, we offer:
Personality profiling and feedback;
CV advice and coaching;
cover letter writing;
how to write a great LinkedIn profile that will get you seen;
interview preparation and techniques;
career action plans; and
registration with Spinnaker specialist recruitment; sign-up to monthly newsletter and jobs bulletins
A CV is a personal advertisement. Together with a covering letter, it gives a jobseeker the opportunity to sell themselves and impress a potential employer. We offer a personal service to help people improve the chances of their CV being successful.
Career coaching is not directive, but encourages employees to take personal responsibility for shaping their own future. It is easy to underestimate the emotional and psychological effects of the sudden change. Losing a job and a work routine can be equivalent to a major ‘stress event’ such as a bereavement or moving home.
Our services can include guidance on completing application forms, job search techniques, utilising social media and interview preparation. Our experienced global recruitment consultants are also on hand to pro-actively market those being supported to their preferred maritime employers.
Personality profiling
A better understanding of personality helps individuals with their self-awareness, how they cope with change, and supports the job transition and search process.
After completing an online questionnaire, participants are provided with a 17-page report supported by a one to one feedback session. This can be used to enhance the participant’s CV content and can be shared with potential future employers to support the recruitment process, as well as providing bespoke support with personal and professional development.
The tool we use at Spinnaker is Facet5; one of the most modern and advanced measures of personality available today. Facet5 harnesses the power of personality, supporting individuals, teams and businesses to realise their full potential in the workplace.
If you would like to know more about our outplacement services, contact Lucy McQuillan at [email protected].
Do you want to know what technical superintendents should be earning in Singapore? Or what bonus to pay your chartering staff in the US?
There are many reasons why salary benchmarking is important; employers don’t want to risk losing some of their top talent and important c-suite team to competitors because they couldn’t offer a competitive salary. Salary benchmarking is also a great way of stakeholders keeping up to date with what’s going on in the industry – what are the trends? How are competitors reacting to the current economic climate? Salary benchmarking is also a good way of showing the value of your staff – if they’re top performers, you can justify their place in the business and make sure you’re paying them what they deserve.
Shore-based salary benchmarking
Since 2005, Spinnaker has been benchmarking shore-based maritime salaries.
The types of roles captured in the shore-based survey include maritime specialisms for 19 job families and 150+ jobs: C-suite, commercial/chartering, operations, marine & technical, newbuildings, health & safety, crewing, purchasing & bunkering, shipbroking, accounting and finance, HR, legal, claims & insurance, sales & marketing, logistics, customer service & documentation and risk & compliance.
Participants to the shore-based salary survey come from all trades: oil, bulk, cruise, liner, offshore.
In 2019, 90 companies participated in the survey, reporting data for more than 30,000 maritime industry professionals in 100 countries.
“We have found it a true benefit over time to be part of the Maritime HR Association. The shared experience within the maritime sector is second to none.“
Maritime HR Association member
Seafarer wage costs
From 2016 Spinnaker has also been benchmarking seafarer wage costs for members of the Seafarer Employers’ Association.
Since the inception of this membership body, the daily cost has been identified as the best way of comparing companies with each other. This takes into account things such as leave pay and enables members to identify the cost of employing particular seafarers on particular vessels, whether for a day, a month, a tour of duty, a year and so on.
P&I salaries
Spinnaker publishes a P&I Club Salary Survey Report every 2 years. The report includes roles in claims, both legally qualified and non-qualified, underwriting and loss prevention from junior to director level, as well as roles in corporate services and the senior leadership team.
Alongside the benchmarking of base salaries, total compensation and bonuses, the report also includes analysis of common benefits such as pensions, healthcare, leave benefits and also pay review budget projections.
The last P&I Club salary survey took place in 2019 and included over 1,600 incumbents, enabling us to report more than 100 P&I roles in the UK, Greece, Hong Kong and Singapore.
“We have a better understanding of salaries in shipping industry and Spinnaker help us to pay fair salaries and benefits around the globe.”
Maritime HR Association member
Sharing data with confidence
Reports are generated in accordance with US anti-trust regulations, meaning salary data is only reported where there are at least five companies providing data for any given role in any given location. This enables employers to share their data with confidence and ensures the findings reflect a meaningful sample. The results can be used to support annual pay and bonus decisions, as well as for recruitment purposes or in response to ad hoc requests.
If you are interested in finding out whether you pay your shore-based or seagoing staff too much (or not enough) please email us for more information.
Feedback, both positive and constructive, is vital to the ongoing development of the people within your business. But, it’s only worthwhile if people share their honest views and opinions. Otherwise, what’s the point?
Of course, we aren’t always comfortable saying what we really think. Even if delivered with positive intent, we sometimes worry about how feedback we give will be received and whether it will impact our working relationship with that person.
It’s not just constructive feedback that people can find daunting either. Giving praise can sometimes feel equally uncomfortable. Will I come across as patronising or insincere? Is it appropriate to praise my manager or colleagues more senior than me?
The shield of anonymity
For decades, organisations have believed that the most effective way to encourage honest feedback is by giving people a safe and secure shield of anonymity to hide behind. With traditional 360-degree feedback methods, people can share their honest views without fear of anything negative they’ve said coming back to them.
But actually, is an anonymous feedback approach stopping people from being able to say what they really think?
And does the very fact that feedback is given in secret, suggest that being honest with our colleagues is bad or dangerous?
Are people truly honest?
The trouble is, anonymous 360-degree feedback tools can actually reduce overall honesty within the workplace. If your organisation bases itself on the values of openness and honesty, then an anonymous approach contradicts those very values. People won’t feel that they are able to step up and share their opinion, whether what they want to say is unfavourable or not.
Then there’s the issue of bias. The relationships we have with our colleagues, for instance, may impact how we rate them. We may rate the colleagues we value as friends in higher esteem than perhaps they deserve, forgetting about that one thing they always do that has a detrimental impact on the whole team. We may be less likely to ‘see’ their weaknesses than we are the weaknesses of a colleague we tend to clash with.
What’s more, how honest are people when giving feedback to their managers, or to other more senior colleagues? Can we really say that bias doesn’t influence people here?
In a previous post, John Higgins, Research Director of The Right Conversation, raised this very point. John argues that feedback and truth are never neutral, and that who says what to who is actually a function of power. Whether an individual finds reviewing their manager uncomfortable or not, both conscious and unconscious bias may affect how truly honest they are when evaluating their performance. Unfortunately, this can mean that the feedback managers and leaders receive is not always helpful.
Encouraging an honest approach
There is no better way to value your colleagues than by telling them the truth. Honest feedback is the only way to empower people to be the best they can be, whether that’s by giving them praise to help build their confidence or by noticing when they could do something in a better way so that they can improve and be better.
Feedback needs to become a part of normal daily processes so that people get used to giving it and accept being open and honest with each other. And ultimately, if people trust and respect each other, they should feel comfortable giving honest feedback.
But, building a safe environment for sharing honest feedback openly doesn’t just happen overnight. Managers and leaders need to show their teams that their honesty won’t be met with negative repercussions. The more open people are to receiving feedback, the less difficult it becomes to be truly honest with them.
Honesty, trust, and respect are three key ingredients of a happy workplace. An open and honest feedback culture isn’t easy or quick to implement – but is well worth it.
