During the 2025 SAFETY4SEA Hamburg Forum, Henrik Jensen, CEO, Danica Crewing Specialists, focused on crew recruitment and retention, emphasizing how shipping companies and the broader maritime industry are contributing to the ongoing crew shortage.
The global shortage of skilled workers has significantly impacted the maritime industry, where changes over the past decade have shifted the seafaring labor market. Qualified candidates now often have multiple job offers, altering how seafarers approach career decisions.
With rising turnover driven by personal priorities and generational shifts, the industry faces challenges in recruitment and retention. To adapt, companies must rethink strategies, standardize operations as well as leverage technology for streamlined hiring and improved workforce management.
The seafarer market
Over the past 10 to 15 years, the seafaring market has undergone significant changes, yet many shipping companies still behave as if there are three applicants for every vacancy. In reality, it is the opposite, as each qualified candidate often has three job offers.
Today, crew managers list vacancies openly on company websites, making it easier for seafarers to gauge their market value. As a result, employee behavior has shifted. Seafarers are now more aware of their options and personal preferences play a larger role in career decisions.
A generational shift
The older generation of seafarers valued stability, steady income and low risk. In contrast, younger seafarers, particularly those under 30, prioritize opportunities and are willing to take risks. For them, personal freedom outweighs loyalty to a single employer. They know jobs are available, so if one doesn’t meet their preferences, another will.
This generational change is reflected in crew planning challenges. Seafarers may reject a job simply because the joining date conflicts with personal events like a birthday. Even small details can now affect retention.
Rethinking retention and fluctuation rates
As life at sea increasingly comes in conflict with personal goals, this leads to high turnover, a trend that is only expected to grow. According to Danica Crewing surveys, from 2019 and 2023–2024, 98% of seafarers reported scanning the job market while at home, actively looking for new opportunities.
To manage retention, many companies believe that offering higher salaries or shorter contracts is the solution. While these factors do attract crew, they are short-term fixes. Career prospects matter, but long-term success requires rethinking our approach. Turnover will happen and low retention is an operational risk.
One key strategy is to standardize operations, making it easier for new hires to integrate. Fluctuation in crew staffing is inevitable, and it’s important to acknowledge that not all staff will stay long-term, some may leave and later return.
Furthermore, at company level, this includes standardizing operations across both industry and internal systems to create consistency, while simplifying procedures to ease onboarding and daily tasks. Leveraging extensive decision support systems can also reduce the impact of staff changes.
When screening new personnel, companies should adopt a more holistic approach, assessing not only qualifications and experience, but also cognitive abilities and problem-solving skills. Employing individuals who can think critically and manage effectively, rather than just following procedures, is essential to building a resilient and adaptable crew.
Gaps in crew strategy
In a recent survey, only 60% of shipping companies reported having a crew strategy that covers recruitment, screening and retention. Moreover, it can take up to 12 months for a new superintendent or captain to become fully productive, which makes having a strategy essential.
To secure competent staff, companies typically have three options:
- Train in-house
- Hire from the market
- Simplify systems onboard
However, ISM systems tend to grow over time, often with additional procedures added after incidents. This raises a question. Are all these procedures necessary and are they easy for new crew to understand?
Tools, technology and planning
The industry is also flooded with new apps, for emissions tracking, food quality and more but overloading crews with too many tools can be counterproductive. Having the right tools, not just more tools, is key.
Another internal cause of crew shortages is poor planning. For instance, extending a captain’s contract for personal reasons may create gaps in future scheduling. Danica Crewing data shows that 22% of crew leave simply because there’s no available slot for them.
As the workforce landscape continues to shift, traditional retention methods such as increased pay and reduced contract durations are proving insufficient. Instead, a focus on standardized operations, strategic crew planning, as well as developing adaptable, problem-solving personnel is essential.
Aligning operational requirements with the evolving expectations of seafarers will be key to ensuring a stable and capable maritime workforce in the long term.
Above article has been edited from Henrik Jensen’s presentation during the 2025 SAFETY4SEA Hamburg Forum.
Explore more by watching his video presentation here below
The views presented are only those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of SAFETY4SEA and are for information sharing and discussion purposes only.
