Employers must sell themselves

What can ports do to attract the personnel they need? Pay more? “Paying more always helps, but when you start paying people more money, then the rest of the organisation wants the same amount. And that can be a problem,” says Steve Cameron, principal of Cameron Maritime Resources (CMR).

But CMR recently did a market study into remuneration and incentives in the ports industry, and the findings were that it isn’t just a question of money. “It is also a question of recognition, training, being involved in what you do,” says Mr Cameron. “We did about 60 interviews around the world. There were people being paid a lot of money who were unhappy. And there were people not being paid so much but who were happy because of the recognition and training they were getting.”

Ports need to take that message on board as they compete not just with each other for the right skills and experience, but also, increasingly with other industries.

Spinnaker Consulting has a dedicated port recruitment desk – and it is very busy, says chairman Phil Parry. “There is no shortage of vacancies. What we are looking for are good, saleable employers that can offer career progression and good training. There is much more focus on that, not just how much they are paying. The potential employee is asking ‘why should I choose them because there are ten other vacancies like them?’ Employers are having to spend a lot more time and effort on their ‘brand’ and on their own interview techniques; recruitment has almost become part of marketing.”

Without a doubt, there is a global skills shortage both inside and outside shipping, says Mr Parry. In particular, the ports industry is suffering from insufficient numbers of engineering graduates.

“That means supply is tight, so competition for these engineering graduates increases. You end up with industries competing with each other and often it is the supposedly more glamorous industries, or those which can offer higher salaries, that win. Shipping and ports are fighting in that kind of environment.”

In reaction to the shortfalls, many employers are doing much more in terms of graduate trainee schemes. Classification societies have always been strong in this, he says – but those companies that do take responsibility for training also run the risk of losing their trained personnel to others.

In any case, he says, the real need is not just for new people to form the “next generation” but, because everybody is so busy, the need is for experienced people.

“Of course, experienced people are not created overnight by definition, so the competition for existing experienced people is hot as well. And if demand increases and there are only a finite number of experienced people, then again by definition supply doesn’t meet demand – so salaries rise and poaching arises.”

Spinnaker says that employers that offer benefits such as final salary pension are in a strong position. They tend to hold on to long-serving members of staff because of those benefits. “But otherwise, it is a lot of churning in the market as people move on and take advantage of the pay rises they can get – and who can blame them?”

And things are not about to get any better. With the London 2012 Olympic Games on the horizon, the UK’s construction industry is ready to eat up any available civil, environmental and mechanical engineers.

But this is not a purely southeast UK issue, Mr Parry emphasises. Even China is facing problems, despite the general perception that there is an unlimited supply of labour there.

“There are a huge number of port projects and expansions in China and labour is drying up. That is because demand is not just for bodies, but for experience – and you can’t create experience overnight. In addition, the country’s growing shipbuilding sector is competing with the ports.”

Steve Cameron warns that as port privatisation continues around the globe and more concessions are offered, those in the public sector don’t have the right mindset or experience to operate in the private sector.

“Every time a concession is won, you need a new group of people. You can train up dockers for new ways of working – but not the executive so easily.

“There is clearly a shortage, more concessions are coming, and all the major players are saying that in the next few years they are looking to double the number of terminals they have at the moment.”

He suggests ports need to pay a little bit more and increase their training programmes. And, in some cases, there are geographical solutions – recruiting people in India, for example, and relocating them to locations such as the Middle East.