Shuffling the pack

Compare the ports sector with other industries, and its approach to talent management struggles to compete in terms of structure and development, says Andrew Feakins. “In other industries, they have a more robust and comprehensive talent management system in place to support and help individuals in the marketplace,” he says. “Of course, it could be said that it is easier to move people around within a group such as Procter & Gamble or Unilever, compared with the extremes of moving people across continents, but the ports sector does need to develop a more coherent strategy to help ease the issues.”

As managing director of the global recruitment specialist Impact People Strategies, focusing entirely on port, shipping and intermodal related clients, Mr Feakins has a first-hand view of the challenges on both sides of the story. Overall, he says: “The market may have slowed a little in the crisis, but there is still what we would describe as a war for talent.

“You have an ageing population of talented senior managers who are coming to their latter years and not enough sustained volume of talent coming through the systems in terms of general management experience to start filling these gaps. So what we are seeing in the marketplace, despite the economy being challenging particularly on the shipping side, is that on the port side it is actually quite busy, because of the proliferation of ports being built and new acquisitions being negotiated.

“For example, there are concessions for 50 terminals in Brazil, and many more in Mexico, Costa Rica and also across Asia, as well as the new state-of-the-art terminals in Rotterdam and London Gateway in Europe. The potential issue is that there is a shortage of senior managers who can go and run or operate these ports. Port operators either have to upskill their existing junior or mid managers on their existing ports, or take them from the competition.”

IPS’ clients are looking for managers especially in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia Pacific. “We are placing people in Europe too, but fewer are required because many of the companies can bring their own employees back from remote locations – they tend to use us to source talent for the more challenging locations,” says Mr Feakins.

Moving on

So what are the challenges? Rotation, expectations, aspirations and many more. There appears to be a challenge in terms of most people being on a three to five-year rotation in given regions, he says. They would then be expected to move to a different region to take on a new challenge. “But some end up on the bench, they can’t be found the right opportunity and are let go; they can then get picked up by a competitor, which is a loss to their current employer, or, worse, they can actually leave the industry completely if they can’t find the position they want.”

A quirk in the industry is the mindset for most individuals to ultimately return to HQ – a job at headquarters offers more solidity and stability from a family perspective, for example. However, individuals who have spent many years running ports around the world can find the reality of an HQ job frustrating.

“It can be more challenging to impact on the bottom line than they were used to; they are not hands-on anymore; you do find them stepping back into port management jobs because they prefer the guts and grime of running a port.”

Many people have aspirations to move to HQ but when they get there it isn’t what they wanted, says Mr Feakins; rather like a professional footballer who comes to the point when he has to move into management, but he misses running around on the football field.

Obviously people do get tired of a specific location within a certain amount of time and there isn’t always an easy way to move them to the next big challenge, he says. “They often have to wait for the right position to materialise.”

Talking point

There are certainly some port operators that don’t have a formalised career management or career progression framework – but how can any port group keep all of its talent happy all of the time?

Mr Feakins emphasises that it’s ultimately about good communication. “It is about agreeing that an individual is going to be at a certain location for a designated number of years; and, at a year or so before this time, the company needs to attempt to identify what the next step could be. The concept of literally shuffling people around can be the best solution to keep staff motivated.”

How the ports sector is going to make up the skills gap is up for debate. “I don’t see any easy answer, except to put contingency plans in place now, recruit people early from universities or develop a strong training programme, funded by the company, to put people through port operations management; several companies have already identified this issue and are doing it well.

“Companies need to put a really effective succession plan in place. They need a CEO in place and a good number two under his wing, developing their knowledge and experience, tutored and mentored carefully so the current incumbent can take a step onwards leaving the project in safe hands.”

This is a highly fluid, mobile, global environment where people will literally move from one side of the world to another – picking up their roots and putting them down again. That’s not for everyone, of course, and it’s certainly very tough on partners and families. “It is not unusual for an individual to work in three continents in ten years. Yes, there are tremendous opportunities, but they demand a very special set of skills to deal with cultural sensitivities, language issues, communication and regional or local union and workforce issues. Added to that is the individual’s ability to work within the mindset of the organisation itself.”

Threefold

According to Cobus du Plessis, chief operations officer at South Africa-based specialist Red Sky Consulting, there are three main human resource issues for ports: how you attract and recruit talent, how you develop and performance manage that talent, and how you retain that talent.

He believes an international trend is that companies tend to spend the most on training, then on retention, but focus the least on selection and recruitment. “That is one of our focal points – how to select the people that have the potential to develop into the role that is required,” he says.

“People are the heart of your organisation. No matter what industry you are in, people run your business. Organisations fall into the ‘Talent Trap’, when they prioritise operational efficiencies at the expense of the development of a sustainable workforce. Agile organisations have adopted a dual focus, whereby operational efficiency is supported by a strategy to develop talent ahead of demand – i.e. develop the right person, for the right job, for the desired time. Neglecting to do so results in a lack of skilled labour and unwanted vacancies in critical roles and scarce skills.”