The maritime industry has faced its fair share of challenges over a period of time, but the difficulties brought about in the past few years have been unprecedented, especially for seafarers, argue Capt. Kostas Karavasilis, Regional Loss Prevention Director (Greece) and Akshat Arora, Senior Risk Assessor, UK P&I Club.
The uncertainties caused by the pandemic, combined with factors such as port restrictions, limited shore leave, workforce shortages, prolonged periods away from home, increased workloads, insufficient connectivity, rising inflation, and geopolitical tensions, have had an adverse impact on overall crew well-being.
The results from the recent surveys (Seafarers Happiness Index Q3-2023 and the 2023 SEAFiT Crew Survey) indicate a consistent decline in crew happiness and satisfaction levels. This decline persists despite efforts that have been implemented to address underlying issues and offer support aimed at improving crews’ physical health and mental well-being.
As safety systems are dependent on the premise that the individuals handling tasks are fit, both physically and mentally, it is logical to state that there is a direct correlation between safety and well-being. If seafarers are suffering from a combination of conditions, they will have a reduced capacity to respond to emergencies and disruptive events. Therefore, prioritising seafarers’ well-being is crucial to ensuring their resilience and preparedness for unforeseen eventualities.
When discussing a comprehensive approach to seafarers’ well-being and workplace safety, we also need to consider the ‘Human Element’. Essentially, we need to recognise that humans have capabilities and limitations; they cannot be perfect, so we need to build an environment that influences them to do their best to achieve goals.
This is even more relevant now, as the maritime industry is undergoing a transformation, with digitalisation and decarbonisation as key drivers of the future. New technologies, alternate fuels, and advanced digital systems are poised to revolutionise the industry and cause significant change in the upcoming years. While these innovative solutions hold the promise of making shipping more efficient and sustainable, they also present a unique set of challenges and risks that would need to be addressed.
Instead of imposing these challenges and placing further stress on seafarers, we need to understand human factors better and recognise effective team leaders. To keep our seafarers motivated, productive, and engaged, soft skills such as emotional intelligence, empathy, communication, decision-making, and conflict resolution are required. It is up to us, the shore-side personnel, to train and provide our seafarers with the right tools to cope with the evolving landscape.
The STCW Code is currently undergoing a comprehensive review to provide a standard that is better adapted to technological, regulatory, operational, and other related industry developments; however, this is not enough and certainly not timely. Ultimately, it is for us, the senior leaders ashore, to cultivate those new skills; it is up to the senior leaders to speed up the process, and why not create new ones? After all, a safety culture that promotes continuous learning is willing to adapt and implement necessary reforms based on lessons learned. Such a culture encourages employees to proactively report issues and concerns, and it uses such feedback as opportunities to learn.
Steps have been taken, but the road to success is still ahead of us. In order to effectively address the ‘Human Element’, we need to become part of it, embrace it, and give it proper attention. This can be achieved by ensuring a human-centric approach to workplace safety, demonstrating strong leadership and prioritising human needs through better connectivity, improved living conditions, fostering mentorship programmes, and promoting diversity and inclusivity.
The UK P&I Club has long championed these principles, and as part of our commitment to safety and loss prevention, we have undertaken multiple projects and initiatives. These include:
- Collaborating with maritime charities and crew health partners to address the physical health and mental well-being of the crew.
- Partnering with CAE, the leading civil aviation trainers, to offer Club Members human behaviour and decision-making training based on CAE’s extensive experience in the aviation industry.
- Working with Lloyd’s Register to develop an innovative and unique checklist app to help the crew ensure compliance with regulatory requirements and minimise the risk of port state control (PSC) detentions.
- Exploring simple and cost-effective approaches to enhancing safety through initiatives such as ‘Learning from Normal Work’ and ‘Together in Safety’.
- Investing in collaborative technology acceleration programmes such as the Cargo Fire and Loss Innovation Initiative (CFLII) from SafetyTech Accelerator.
- Engaging with members through bespoke workshops and seminars to address their specific needs, identify best practices, and highlight areas for possible improvement in their fleet.
We firmly believe in the power of this collective approach to safety, and by playing an active role in these shared efforts, we continue to promote and support enhancements in safety standards within the maritime community.
The views presented hereabove are only those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of SAFETY4SEA and are for information sharing and discussion purposes only.
