Why Does Officers Shortage Hit Shipping Industry - Essay Example

Human resource management & industrial relations Probable causes for marine officers’ shortage and actions the fleet owners and managers need to review to avoid future manning issues Workers only form the crucial ‘cog’ of any organisation and if these crucial workers are recruited and trained optimally through an effective process, the organisation can achieve optimum success. It is necessary that the management including management of shipping companies must ensure a constant availability of sufficient number of efficient employees from managers, technical persons to labourers, for the efficient functioning of the enterprise. However, the overall functioning could be impeded, when there is shortage of employees or when the organisation could not recruit apt employees. The shortage in employee recruitment is quite evident in the shipping sector, with shortage in marine officers negatively impacting the functioning of the shipping companies. This detrimental trend is predicted to continue in the future as well, with global studies by reputed agencies predicting that by 2015, the shortage of marine officers is likely to nearly treble at 27,000 from 10,000 now. (Rajasimhan 2006). The shortage in marine officers is due to personal as well as macro-environmental reasons. One of the main causes is the age-old phenomenon of differences or gap in the demand and supply function. “Some of the main supply increases are due to one-off factors, such as better data reporting following the implementation of STCW 95”. (Rajasimhan 2006). That is, with globalisation impacting maximum countries and international trade being liberalised, opened up and maximised, the role of shipping industry was also maximised. With international trade between countries and corporations increasing day by day, and with wide range of products being imported and exported maximally, shipping companies are introducing more ships to handle this increased trade. This introduction of more ships in tune with the current scenario necessitates recruitment of more employees to man them. “During the past decade, the number of commercial fleet vessels increased at the rate of 1 per cent per annum. Overall demand for both officers and ratings has increased partly due to new larger ships.” (Rajasimhan 2006). In addition, there is minimal scope for further manning reductions in other or current ships and diverting those employees to the newer ships. This is because the current work hour regulations as part of the ISPS Code, along with commercial expectations of the shipping companies have increased the workload on board, in most of the currently functioning ships. It said seven to 10 years would be needed for a university student to take a degree and acquire sufficient seafaring experience before being considered suitable for a shore-based position. Apart from this inability to divert current workforce, one of the main reason why there is not enough employees to cater to the new ships is because there is not enough marine institutes. With only minimal marine institutes functioning all over the world, when compared to other academic institutions, only minimal sea-equipped employees pass out each year. “The Marine Institute typically graduates about 108 students from two ships’ officer training programs called nautical science and marine engineering. “That’s not enough,” said Catherine Dutton, head of MI’s school of marine studies.” (Baird 2007). Even worse, the number of students entering those institutes is also declining. Apart from above macro-environmental perspective, when viewed from the personal perspective, the over-workload is also shying away prospective employees from the sea-faring jobs. Industry experts say over-regulation of the industry, owing to which people on board have to carry on lots of job responsibility in a very short time was another probable reason, why prospective employees avoid sea-faring jobs, leading to shortage. (Mitra 2008). Another reason from personal perspective is the drop in the number of people manning a shipping vessel. There is less of socialising on board — as against an average of 30-50 people on-board in the past, many vessels today are run with just 18 people, making the prospective employees choose closer to home jobs. (Mitra 2008). Also, the increase in global outsourcing of various jobs in the ship has made ships to carry a wide mix of people from different countries, who follow different cultures, languages and only minimal things in common. This gives them little opportunities to socialize and live together, thus making them homesick and leading to attrition causing employee shortage. In the earlier times, one of the major motivations for young people to choose a sea-faring job is that they could travel all over the world and see various countries. However, that is not true any more now as due to automation, many vessels stay at ports for a few hours only, as against number of days in the past. Also, many ports accommodate tankers at SBM (single-buoy mooring) facilities, which mean the vessel is miles away from shore. (Mitra 2008). Another issue, which is causing shortages, is the early retirement of senior personnel in some countries. Many marine officers want to be closer to home and family, and so they retire quickly and find other jobs, leading to sizable shortages The issue of marine officers’ shortage is causing major problems for the shipping companies and negatively impacting their ship manning plans. Unless certain constructive and positive actions are not taken by the shipping companies and managers, it will be a downhill path. One of the constructive actions that can be taken by the fleet owners is to open up marine institutes on their own or even develop a more direct liaison with the marine institutes. This opening up or association with marine institutes to recruit maximum prospective employees can be mainly focused in the Asian region, particularly in the Indian sub-continent. This is because, the centre of gravity of the labour market for seafarers has continued to shift from the traditional maritime countries of Western Europe, Japan and North America to the Far East, the Indian sub-continent and Eastern Europe. (Rajasimhan 2006). With these regions providing surplus as well as cheap labour, shipping companies can recruit maximum number of employees, thereby nullifying the shortage. This route has already been taken by various major shipping companies and it is providing good results. For example, taking on a proactive role Maersk, the Danish ship major were the first to India by entering into an agreement with a pre-sea training institute, AMET in Chennai, for training a massive 220 cadets in October 2003. (Fonseca 2010). In 2010, Anglo Eastern Group, one of the largest third parties’ ship management companies of the world, inaugurated its own Anglo Eastern Maritime Academy at Karjat, India, to meet their entire requirement of additional marine officers required for their rapidly growing fleet which today boasts of 330 ships. (Fonseca 2010). Apart from taking steps to build the ‘supply lines’ through marine institutes, fleet owners and managers need to review personnel or human resource strategies to avoid future manning issues. One of the actions that can be taken to make the prospective employees sea-ready very quickly, is to give them apt training. After the employees are recruited, a sizable portion of them will not be confident and equipped to undertake the tasks. In those scenarios, training is very crucial. However, concerns are being raised about companies cutting back on training to mitigate costs. If they do, the manning problem is likely to return to bite them, particularly given the length of time it takes to bring a seafarer up to officer class. (maritimecareer.com 2009). So, training needs to be incorporated aptly. Issues related to socialisation and motivation can be taken care by the companies and manager, by trying out various socialising practices including cultural events, games, bonding exercises, etc. In addition, motivation and thereby retention can be optimised by providing enticing pay packages. Good pay packages have always been one of the main motivating factors to entice prospective employees and that can reduce shortages effectively. “One of the report highlights addresses the question of remuneration, speculating that beefing up compensation packages with more than cash is becoming essential and that this is being tried across the shipping industry.” (maritimecareer.com 2009). 2. Managers with international experience, certain competence factors and different management cultures Organisations are physical or even floating structures, with a group of humans doing their allocated work under the supervision of a leader, for the benefit of the organisation as well as them. In those structures, workers will be like the five different fingers in one’s hand; different from one another, having different characters, attitudes, education, background and also ethnicity. The unison of these different humans under a single organisation or structure to reach a target or accomplish the set tasks is, and will always be a difficult process. As these different humans will have separate identity, they could create only a different working culture, resulting in minimum success. If a common, feasible and workable culture and thereby shared identity is ‘operationalised’, through out the organisation, the organisation can achieve optimum success. The ‘script’ for this ‘success story’ can only be scripted, by an effective manager. The common culture creation can start with the manager ‘imposing’ his/hers’ perfect, feasible and effective assumptions, ideals, ideas about various management cultures, as a form of common organisational culture within the vessels or inside the shipping companies. If all the employees follow or imbue that culture, it would become a common organisational culture. This imposition of founder’s assumptions, as a form of good culture is one of the good leadership traits. The workers mind will always be receptive to the leaders’ or managers’ views, orders, suggestions, etc because of the superiority and also because of the respect some managers will gain due to their past achievements or action. So, the HR manager can impose his/hers assumptions on its employees and form a single working culture. But, the challenge will come in the form of experienced workers who will be slugging out in the same job in the same environment, importantly in the same mindset for years and changing them to accept the new effective assumptions and work culture will be difficult. But, the leader is only responsible for making them fall in line through influence or authority. There are many leaders who have successfully imposed their ideas, assumptions and practices in their organisation. Each of these practices later became a set working culture for the whole organisation like Japanese major Sony’s, “Sony’s Way”, created by Akiro Morita. So, this process of great working culture should always be ‘seeded’ by the leader and HR manager to unify all the workers and control the problems that will erupt due to diversity in an organisation. “She unifies all people, and creates a shared vision.” (Sonnenschein). So, an important competence factor of the manager is to create a working culture, embed the working culture in the working group and environment, sustain it and also rectify it, when faults occur. Once a common culture is imposed on the employees, they will have a common thing to hold on to. That is, with common culture and the resultant shared identity actualized by the manager, they will have to follow all the rules and regulations, work schedule, manner of working, etc, etc, like all the other employees, with no escape route. “He had to seduce the employees into a situation in which they had no choice but to rethink their identity” (Schein, 2004, p.306). Importantly, if many employees adopt this shared identity, they will surely form into a team and will also work as team, with the common identity and culture acting as the binding element. In an organisation especially in the shipping industry, there will be no circumstances in which people’s shared identity and purpose could limit an organisation’s agility. That is, when an organisation by merging different humans is going after a fixed target, the shared identity will only provide them clear vision and importantly agility. Because as any organisation will be a hotbed of human activity, it could give rise to groups and subgroups or different identities, which will eventually share enough experience to create subcultures based on occupational, national, and uniquely historic experiences. This will be surely possible in the shipping industry, because of its trans-national nature. Once such differentiation has taken place, the manager’s task is to find ways of coordinating, aligning, or integrating the different identities. So, building an effective organisation and running it with agility is a matter of meshing the different identities and the leader should do this job, by encouraging the evolution of common goals, common language, and common procedures for solving problems. References Baird, M 2007, Ahoy there, matey: Merchant mariner shortage creates job opportunities, viewed on September 21, 2010 http://www.thetelegram.com/Freight-industry/2007-12-13/article-1437907/Ahoy-there-matey/1 Fonseca, J 2010, Proactive Anglo Eastern group sets up pre- sea academy, viewed on September 21, 2010 http://www.maritimeprofessional.com/Blogs/Proactive-Anglo-Eastern-group-sets-up-pre--sea-aca/February-2010/Proactive-Anglo-Eastern-group-sets-up-pre--sea-aca.aspx maritimecareer.com 2009, Marine officer shortage major problem for Ocean fleet companies, viewed on September 21, 2010 http://www.maritimecareer.com/news/157/Marine_officer_shortage_major_problem_for_ocean_fleet_companies Mitra, A 2008, Officers shortage hits shipping industry, viewed on September 22, 2010 http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2008/04/05/stories/2008040550040700.htm Rajasimhan, TE 2006, Marine officers shortage to rise, viewed on September 21, 2010 http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/02/20/stories/2006022000670600.htm Schein, EH 2004, Organizational Culture and Leadership, 3rd. ed, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco. Sonnenschein, W 2009, The Diversity Toolkit: How You Can Build and Benefit from a Diverse Workforce, McGraw-Hill Professional, London. Read More