Attracting and retaining the right personnel is a tough nut to crack – METSTRADE and the Boat Builder Awards are looking to change that

One of the major challenges the marine industry faces – attracting and retaining the right personnel from boardroom to manufacturing floor – is proving one of the toughest to crack.

Sunseeker Skills Academy 1

Sunseeker Skills Academy in action

Sunseeker’s Skills Academy has made the BBA shortlist for 2023

The reasons are manyfold. We often focus on pay gaps between marine industry rates and more lucratively paid, higher profile sectors such as automotive. However, sometimes the issue is as simple as the many career opportunities within marine sector not being understood or even visible to job seekers. Post pandemic changing attitudes to work, particularly amongst the younger generations, are also informing the decisions of those who have careers choices to make.

As a hub for innovation, networking, and collaboration, METSTRADE, in collaboration with Marine Resources, is launching the METSTRADE Career Zone, a dedicated area within METSTRADE’s popular and well-established Young Professionals Club where both exhibitors and visitors can connect and explore exciting opportunities for personal and professional growth within the marine sector. The initiative is not only about finding jobs but also about building meaningful careers within a thriving industry.

A recent study by McKinsey & Company – Gen what? Debunking age-based myths about worker preferences* – suggests that generational differences in attitude to work might not be as different as one might think. Employees of all ages are looking for many of the same things at work and largely quit their jobs or start somewhere new for similar reasons.

The study highlights one notable difference however – that once employees are in a job, the retention factors that motivate Gen Zers (18- to 24-year-olds) to stay aren’t the same as those for other age groups. Remuneration and career development are important across all age groups, but for Gen Zers, meaningful work and workplace flexibility rank equally highly as reasons for taking a new job – ahead of compensation.

To improve the employee value proposition, the study urges businesses to ditch the generational stereotypes and act on the factors that matter most to all workers:

  • compensation;
  • career development;
  • caring leadership;
  • flexibility;
  • meaningful work.

It is also crucial to understand the nuances of how individual workers want to prioritise this list, based on their stage in life, personal circumstances, and individual preferences. This more nuanced, 360-degree approach to recruitment and fostering talent should play into the hands of a marine business that has global ambitions and the scale to offer genuine career advancement.

Raising profiles

Raising the profile of training and skills development is the reason IBI and METSTRADE introduced two specific personnel-focused award categories to our annual Boat Builder Awards for Business Achievement.

This year’s Rising Star award, sponsored by Lumishore, once again attests to the fact that genuine young talent is emerging through the ranks; while our People and Skills Development award spotlights three finalists that impressed judges by creating initiatives and formal schemes to improve the skills, knowledge, and retention of the boat building workforce.

Making a difference

In Australia, the collaboration between Marine Industries Association (MIA), Australia International Marine Export (AIMEX) and Superyacht Australia (SYA) and the Boating Industry Association Ltd (BIA) to develop an effective Australian Marine Jobs Initiative. It has taken a multifaceted approach by both raising the profile of marine industry vacancies outside of the sector and improving the training opportunities within it.

It’s a similar story for British Marine’s People & Skills programme which features several ongoing initiatives to recruit, retain and encourage investment in talent. Among its activities is to ensure that the scope of marine job opportunities is better understood by schools’ careers advisors as well as the youngsters that they are advising. The marine industry association has also become an approved national independent assessor of marine apprentices schemes in order to guarantee that specialist marine apprenticeships remain sustainable.

Rounding out the shortlist is Sunseeker International whose Skills Academy has provided it with a new intensive fast track training initiative to push other grades of workers through into marine careers where they can work alongside time-served skilled colleagues. This scheme is attracting 100 applicants for every recruitment cycle from which 30 are selected for the rolling three-month duration programme.

Don’t miss out on being in the audience when the winner is revealed at the Boat Builder Awards gala dinner at the Maritime Museum in Amsterdam in two weeks’ time.

The 2023 Boat Builder Awards is running on Thursday 16 November this year for the first time – the second night of METSTRADE. Individual tickets are priced at just €300 plus VAT with tables of ten at €3000 plus VAT. You can purchase tickets online here or for further information please visit www.ibinews.com/bba2023/tickets

*Gen what? Debunking age-based myths about worker preferences. By Aaron De Smet, Marino Mugayar-Baldocchi, Angelika Reich, and Bill Schaninger. McKinsey & Company. April 2023.