ISWAN devises plan to tackle recruitment crisis

The plan calls for action in three key areas if the maritime sector is to recruit and retain seafarers more effectively. The section on Fair Work focuses on practical steps that the maritime sector can take to bridge the gap between current working conditions and seafarers’ aspirations. What does fair work mean for seafarers of today and how can companies reinvent their offer to current and prospective crew? ISWAN highlights that the maritime sector must be willing to invest more in seafarers’ working conditions and wellbeing in order to make the sector sustainable in the long term.

Taking steps to build more diverse, equitable and inclusive cultures at sea is often seen as key to addressing the recruitment gap. The Inclusive Culture section of ISWAN’s action plan calls on the maritime sector to commit to going further than minimum regulatory standards in order to address the barriers that prevent it from benefiting from a more diverse range of talents and backgrounds.

Making technology work for seafarers is a further pillar of the action plan. The maritime sector is undergoing technological transformation as a result of onboard connectivity, automation and the journey towards decarbonisation.

Action points under the theme of Changing technologies – Impact on wellbeing reflect the challenges to seafarers’ wellbeing of such a rapid pace of change, as well as the scope for technology to help to reinvent seafaring and restore its attractiveness in the digital age.

Amplifying the voices of seafarers

We will continue to place providing a platform for seafarers’ voices at the heart of our work. We will use what seafarers tell us through our helplines to identify and draw attention to the key challenges that they are facing. We will also make seafarers’ central to our projects, communications and advocacy work.

… said ISWAN

The overriding theme and action point that emerged from ISWAN’s seminar is that the maritime sector must listen much more closely to what seafarers have to say about the challenges of living and working at sea and, crucially, to turn their insights into practical actions.

Seafaring can be a unique and rewarding vocation, but concerted, collaborative action is needed to make maritime careers genuinely safe, sustainable and inclusive. Before increasing efforts to raise the profile of the varied career paths it offers, the maritime sector must take committed action to ensure that it can provide fair working conditions and psychologically safe environments for the seafarers that it seeks to attract. 

… said Simon Grainge, Chief Executive of ISWAN

Moving forward

The report concludes that there is currently a real opportunity for the sector to reinvent its offer to current and prospective crew and to identify what it would take for modern, much more technically-sophisticated seafaring to recapture the vocational appeal that it held for earlier generations.

In that regard, ISWAN outlines the following considerations to tackle recruitment challenges :

• Investing in seafarers is a commercial as well as ethical imperative
• Terms and conditions matter
• Seafarers are not commodities
• The sector must listen more to seafarers
• It’s important not to generalise
• Work and life at sea is unique and there is still much to love about the profession
• The maritime sector must be ready to compete for skills and human resources
• The sector must rethink how it attracts seafarers

With that in mind, ISWAN highlights that first and foremost, action is needed to make maritime careers genuinely safe, sustainable and inclusive.

Before redoubling efforts to raise the profile of the varied career paths it offers, the maritime sector must take committed action to ensure that it can provide fair working conditions and psychologically safe environments for the seafarers that it seeks to attract

DOWNLOAD THE REPORT HERE