Crew Retention Chapter One, (part 2/4)

???Link to Chapter 1 parts 1, 2, 3, 4, and Chapter 2

https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/crew-retention-chapter-one-part-14-iain-flockhart/

https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/crew-retention-chapter-one-part-24-iain-flockhart/

https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/crew-retention-chapter-one-part-34-iain-flockhart/

https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/crew-retention-chapter-one-part-44-iain-flockhart/

https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/crew-retention-part-2-iain-flockhart/

https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/crew-retention-chapter-3-part-1-once-new-onboard-iain-flockhart/?

Following on from the first instalment of this series. First of all a big thank you for all the very positive feedback I have had regarding part one of the article.

A point to note here is that this article does not serve to criticise any particular type or group of persons mentioned herein. It only serves to comment on observations I have made through many years of experience as to factors that contribute to the movement of crew away from or to a vessel.

Difficult Owners:

For now I will keep this short as different types of owners are discussed in more detail in a subsequent instalment. Please see the note above.

The objective is to establish what causes crew to move on and to offer food for thought on how retention can be improved. Owners can certainly contribute to the desire for crew to stay onboard or leave in various and sometimes very significant ways.

Here are some of them:

General attitude / philosophy towards crew:

Organisation / information / or lack of:

Behaviour onboard:

General attitude / philosophy towards crew

I have split these into three rough groups based on their general philosophy towards crew.

A.    Those who genuinely see benefit (even if only for themselves) in looking after their crew and treating them well to keep them onboard for the long term.

B.    Those that are somewhat more ambivalent about crew, and pay no real attention to trying to retrain them.

C.   Those who view crew as mere disposable entities to be replaced on a whim.

I have worked for all three of these owners so have seen the best and the worst of it.

If your owner falls into Cat A. then you are much more likely to have a better chance of retaining good crew.

This owner clearly sees some advantage to him whether it be for his own enjoyment and peace of mind with the stability and consistency that a long term crew can bring to the whole experience. Or, it could simply be that he does not want the constant expense of crew changing regularly and he may empower his Captain and or manager to take measures to keep the crew more consistent form a purely financial perspective. Either way this owner has recognised the benefits financial or in the broader sense and the task of retentions should be easier with your owner behind you at least to some extent.

Your Cat B owner is going to be somewhat more difficult in that they may feel little or no inclination to facilitate anything that will help you to retain crew in terms of incentives that they may empower you to offer. Your strategy will largely depend on your own ability to build a solid team and their respect of you as Captain and to hold it all together singlehandedly with no help form above.

Your Cat C type owner is pretty much a lost cause. They will simply see turnover as a cost of doing business and if they have no interest in the crew nor have any desire to retain a solid crew in place you really are on your own.

Organisation / information, or lack there of:

It is of course the prerogative of any owner to be, or appear to be as disorganised as he/she chooses. It is equally their prerogative to give as much or as little information to Managers, Captains, Heads of Department, crew in general etc. as they choose. That is their privilege. However, the impact of a lack of adequate pertinent information or the presence of inaccurate information can, and does have a substantial and detrimental effect on a yacht. This does not just stop at the top and it very quickly filters down to every crew member onboard.

The philosophy of the Seven Ps. For those of you that re not aware of this timeless adage, here it is. Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance. I learned this at a very early age and it has stayed with me ever since. It goes hand in hand with another well known adage that to fail to plan is to plan to fail. Sure we can all wing it to varying degrees of effect when we need to, but we can look after our principles and their guests so much better when properly informed.

The more (relevant and accurate) information you have about your owners likes, dislikes, travel arrangements, daily schedule once onboard, where they want to go and what they want to do etc. the easier it is for all involved to deliver the best possible experience to them.

I have been left astonished at times seeing just how absolutely chaotic some owners and their entourages’ appear to be. It is perplexing that they were ever able to build business empires that are able to fund large yachts when such (perceived) chaos so often prevails.

There is a tendency that is worse with owners from certain geographical regions to give as little information as humanly possible to the vessel, thus making it much harder and in many people’s eyes so unnecessarily difficult for the yacht to be properly organised to give our owners more of what they want in a more efficient manner.

It is of course their prerogative to be as vague as they wish to be, but it comes at a very high cost. That being that many crew get extremely frustrated by what they see as their own jobs being made considerably and unnecessarily harder by the simple lack of information that is very important to them to do their jobs efficiently and properly.

I have witnessed this as the single largest influencing factor on a particular yacht in terms of what caused the most frustration and discontent among the crew, and there were other factors as well so it illustrates just how important this lack of information can be.

Owners may consider the advantage of giving their Captain and crew a bit more information if they are able to do so, of course paying attention not to compromise their security, privacy etc. This will facilitate them executing their duties much more efficiently. It will undoubtedly result in them and their guests having a better experience onboard as well as reducing the perennial frustration of this issue for Captains and senior crew. It may well also contribute to better retention of crew with the associated savings.

Information is so critical to the success of most operations as I am sure most owners know all too well from running their own business empires.

Behaviour

This a delicate issue, so I will tread (relatively) lightly.

Fact: Some large yacht owners are simply not very nice people, by most people’s definition of the term. There is a certain arrogance that often comes with extraordinary wealth that can manifest itself in ways many would consider to be from merely impolite to a level way beyond. This is of course not exclusive to the super rich, and just as in any other group you want to collectively put people into, there is always good and bad. It just comes with the territory sometimes and it is what it is, and is unlikely to change any time soon.

We’re not here to discuss the merits of well behaved vs badly behaved owners and guests just to analyse the effects it may have on crew turnover.

Generally bad and or otherwise inappropriate behaviour is however not an easy subject to address with the persons involved as the relationship between employer and employee onboard large yachts differs considerably from that in most if not all other working environments. It is a unique situation / relationship, that is undeniable.

The boundaries of shall we say, boisterous, rude, impolite behaviour are a little less clear to define, or rather can more difficult to deal with, than they may be in most other more normal shore based workplaces. There are many tales of boundaries that have been crossed that would have had farther reaching consequences had the incidents not happened aboard a large yacht. Rightly or wrongly this is how it seems to be.

Some people are just not as nice and polite as others.. If you happen to work on a vessel that is owned by or hosts this kind of individual, then you may well find that you have a large turnover of crew based on this factor alone. The crew may be leaving of their own accord, or as is quite common with this type of owner, they may be leaving because the owner wants rid of them.

Such owners or guests can be a major driving force for crew departures, it can effect female (as they tend to dominate the interior) crew more so, as they often bear the brunt of behavioural traits as they have so much face to face contact with owners.

Funding, or lack of:

Lack of adequate funding can cause a great deal of problems onboard. Well funded boats tend to run much more efficiently, and with less stressful crews. Everything form lack of critical maintenance, to the quality of crew food, or lacking equipment can have a lasting effect on the way crew think about an owner and his yacht.

A little anecdotal example, which remarkably is entirely true. On a recently launched yacht which had white carpets throughout, when the interior vacuum cleaner broke beyond repair, the Captain could / did not buy another one due to a perceived lack of funds and the stews went through the remainder of the season doing the interior with the less then clean wet and dry vac out of the engine room.

It is very difficult to retain crew on boats where everything is always a struggle due to lack of funding and they talk to crew from other yachts where it is not. This will often contribute to the grass is greener syndrome.

These are indirect influences, which can in themselves cause much frustration onboard but when the factors become more direct, for example the crew are not paid on time, or other contractual obligations that may exist such as a bonus do not materialise on time, or at all. Most crew well have a very simplistic view of it: “If they can afford to have a big yacht, why can he not pay us on time ?”  It’s a fair point, most would argue.

It is reasonable to expect to have your basic contractual terms met by an owner, but failing to do so appears to be a common problem in the industry.

Bad “Managers”:

Just to be clear, I’m not predominantly talking about proper professional, yacht managers. This is not to say that there are not organisations or individuals that bill themselves as professional managers that are not up to scratch because they do exist.

I have seen numerous instances where the people that act as “managers” (and I use the term very loosely), that are wholly unqualified and utterly incompetent have been single-handedly responsible for high crew turnover, not to mention many other negative consequences. Unfortunately as they are most often appointed directly by and, tend to be very close to, the owners, there is usually little or nothing that can be done about it.

Possibly the worst part of bad management, though there are many, is unwarranted interference and micro management. The tendency to micro manage (especially people that are actually good at doing their jobs), will always cause tension and it’s a very common trait of many of these directly appointed “managers”. Mostly because they are trying to cover up their own failings and inadequacies all the time.

Interference, and micro management from such people is commonplace, and I have experienced it on an unprecedented scale. I have it all documented and even if I were to share it which I am not going to, no one would actually believe that it was real. It was that bad. See section below covering Captains that are not empowered to have the required level of control.

Other prominent issues are bad financial management and deliberately withholding information or allowing inaccurate information to get in the way of progress.

Bad management and the consequences of it are a commonplace topic of conversation and discontent. The general feeling being that they simply get in the way of the crew doing their job and for what gain other than to fulfil their own agenda.

If you can not trust your Captain to do his job properly, then it is him that you should be looking to replace. If on the other hand he can be trusted, then let him do his job. Let him develop and nurture his team.

If you want or feel you need management, then get a proper professional management company that will deploy a manager that knows how to actually work with / for a Captain and crew for the overall good of the vessel.

Inexperienced Captains:

Being a good Captain requires an extensive, well developed skillset. Many new Captains do not have it all when they take command, sadly many still do not possess the multitude of required skills in adequate measure years later.

When you go off and do your RYA Yachtmaster, then go off to Warsash or wherever to do your OOW and then progress to Master 500, 3,000 etc. it is not within the remit of such institutions (nor should it be), to teach you how to recruit or manage crew. It is not in their remit to teach you how to be a good financial manager, how to prepare extensive budgets and deliver transparent and accurate financial reporting. How to use a computer efficiently, to be skilled in using Excel, page layout software, and creating reams of procedural documents, or a Planned Maintenance Schedule, crew records, presentations, build a media library, populate it and create a database of it all onboard.

You will however be expected to do many or all these things and more as you climb the Captain’s ladder and these are all skills that you have to go off and learn on your own or with the help of other institutions. Many Captains in the early stages of their careers do not have many of these essential additional skills.

Those responsible for hiring the Captains should perhaps be more focused on these additional but critically important skills as at the end of the day good overall management is probably the single most important part of the job, (assuming you have met the requirements of the governing bodies by showing the required aptitude for safe navigation of the ship, etc.)

It’s all very well being able to get the yacht from A to B safely but in most circumstances that’s the easiest part of the job. The day to day management is much harder especially that of managing the crew well. Like most things in life you very much reap what you sew. It requires a good deal of effort, but if you are good at it you will be rewarded with a team of loyal crew. That is something very worth having. It does not always work out as I know to my own detriment when someone that you have invested a great deal in over a long period of time lets you down is a monumental way. Low ethical standards, lack of trust. Life goes on…

There are Captain’s that do not even have a firm grasp of the fundamental basics of how to manoeuvre a boat. You just need to look around the marinas on a windy day to see that. There are those that do not write safety and operational procedures. Every single vessel that I have ever jointed without fail had no proper or any safety procedures in place. I usually spend the first couple of weeks onboard any vessel I take over writing detailed safety and operational procedures. It never ceases to amaze me that when I do the first series of drill onboard the number of crew that are almost in awe of the process because they have never done a single drill before.

On smaller boats Captains are often required to prepare contracts for the crew. How often do you still to this day hear of crew that have never had a contract or at least one boat or other they were on never gave them a contract ? Even if the Captain does not have the knowledge to write a proper legally binding contract he should at least be getting the employer to do it so the crew have a formal document to refer to.

When enough or in some cases even a single one of these examples above is missing, experienced and even the more savvy inexperienced crew will start to hear alarm bells ringing. They may be concerned about their employment status, no contract are they insured ? What happens if they have an accident ? What it they are dismissed and do not have a contract, repatriation ? Worse still they do not feel safe onboard due to lack of safety procedures and drills and an obviously inexperienced Captain, they will be considering their options to move on.

Having an extensive, well developed skill set will not only help you in your day to day role but it will help to inspire confidence in the crew when they see that you really are a good all round manager and not just the guy that manoeuvres the boat around.

Captains who are not empowered to have the required level of control:

There are plenty of yachts out there that have otherwise good Captains onboard that simply are not allowed the level of control that they ought to have to do their jobs properly. This is a big subject in it’s own right but not one that will be going into too much detail here.

You may have a troublesome crew member that one of the owners especially likes and despite the fact that this crew member may have a detrimental influence on the rest of the crew, or even the safety of the vessel, the Captain may not be allowed to do anything about it. I have been in this position more than once, and it can be tricky. You stand to lose good crew for the sake of a bad crew member who is liked by an owner or manager because you are not given enough autonomy to do your job properly.

It is imperative for a good working environment onboard that a crew trust their Captain. They will also have a better relationship with them if they respect the Captain as well. When the Captain’s authority is undermined by someone higher up but with (generally less competence or experience and knowledge of running a ship) this has a very negative effect on the crew’s perception of the Captain. Not to mention the Captain himself.

When it is obvious to the crew that the Captain is not if full control of the way his ship is run, (as he should be), the crew will see this as a failing on his part with trust and respect consequently diminishing. They may see it as not necessarily being his fault, but it seems that crew tend to be very unforgiving in such circumstances.

They see the guy earning the big bucks and seem to think that it is a simple matter for him to just do his job as it ought to be done. In reality this type of issue is one that generally requires a great deal of diplomacy and a level of compromise to work around.

Digressing a little: Regarding the Captain who suffers inappropriate interference from others. It is worth pointing out that it is the Captain that will be expected to take the lion’s share if not all of the responsibility / blame in the event that an incident occurs, it therefore stands to reason that he should full control otherwise he may well end up carrying the blame for failings higher up the food chain. Captains compromising their own professional integrity to placate “managers” or owners for that matter, for fear or of losing their own jobs is a very big problem in yachting. (I feel a whole new article coming on !!!)

All of the above undermines that very important confidence that the crew ought to have in their Captain.

The Chief Stew (or anyone other than the appointed Captain) is the person who really runs the boat:

20 years ago I attended an interview for a first officer’s position on a large yacht. I had met the Captain’s wife (Chief Stew), on the way to his office. The Captain pretty much opened with the following line. “My wife pretty much runs the boat, that’s who you will report to.” I politely explained that there was no point in going any further, and left. It happens, and I am sure many crew have stories to tell of how the Captain is not really in charge when his wife or girlfriend also works onboard.

Our industry is sadly lacking in female officers and I fully support any wishing to attain their goals, and have done so. However if you want to be in charge of a vessel, then become a properly qualified Master and formally take command. I’m sure you have all heard stories of yachts that are in reality run by the Captain’s wife or girlfriend. This is never going to be a healthy environment and most crew will have lots of issues with any crew member that is not the Captain behaving like they are and having the Captain tolerate, or even worse encourage it.

There has been an astonishing number of Captain’s positions advertised this year that are for couples. According to my research, most crew do not like the idea. Having spoken to many crew about the subject the overriding opinion is that it is not a good idea as the dynamics of the relationship will no matter how hard the couple try to cover them up will always show.

The issues can be seemingly minor but rest assured they will not go unnoticed by other crew onboard who are seemingly ever attentive in finding such fault, and they may soon start to really wonder who’s in charge and there goes the much needed confidence in the Captain and his ability to run the ship properly.

What I consider to be a worrying trend has manifested this year in that very unusually it’s been a bumper year for Captain / Couple positions. Perhaps owners are exploiting the over saturation of the Captain’s market by offering a lower combined salary for a couple than they would have to for two individuals that are unconnected, just a thought. Either way it has been very prevalent this year. Owners would do well to consider the potential effects and consequences of having a Captain / Couple onboard in relation to how it may effect crew turnover.

The next instalment will look at the last list of common reasons that may cause crew to consider moving on.

To be continued:??? ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ??

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