It’s no secret that maritime recruitment can be a struggle for many small to medium sized shipping companies.

We’ve discussed the issues around crew retention elsewhere in the Marine Startups blog and explored ways to help increase loyalty among seafarers (and shore based employees) so that shipping companies are not constantly scrambling to find suitable candidates to fill their jobs at sea. 

Being able to retain great seafarers means having a talent pool that is constantly filled with available and qualified seafarer candidates and it can make all the difference between stressing out about not meeting crew change over dates and..well..having a maritime recruitment process be all plain sailing!

However, in this article we’re going to look at seafarer sourcing from a slightly different perspective and explain how using Martide’s maritime recruitment and crew management Software as a Service solution can help companies with their seaman recruitment woes.

First of all, to attract top quality, qualified seafarer candidates to jobs at sea an employer, or recruitment agency, will need to make it easy for them to apply. Clunky application processes aren’t anyone’s idea of fun – least of all a seafarer who needs to apply for a succession of jobs / contracts on a regular basis. 

(One way of examining an recruitment process is to take a step back and put yourself in a candidate’s shoes and see how it works from the other point of view.)

Martide’s career pages and job ads

Users of Martide’s platform, however, instantly gain access to a streamlined application process that actually motivates seafarers to apply for their vacancies. 

Our career pages are simple and easy on the eye, whilst the job descriptions themselves are detailed and define the principal roles and responsibilities of each vacancy. They are also branded with the shipping company’s name and logo.

Not only that but our featured maritime resume listings and applications equip seafarers with the means to provide only the most relevant information. We have improved this process with a specific application that removes unnecessary information while still being in accordance with guidelines.

Seafarer candidates can also easily find the jobs they are looking for by using our built in keyword search feature.

Job advertising is crucial and we’ll help employers get their vacancies in front of more seafarers than ever before. That’s because through Martide they’re given direct access to a global network of manning agents who will advertise open positions directly from the Martide platform. 

They can use a branded careers page to showcase their available jobs and work closely with manning agents to reach a worldwide talent pool of seamen and women.

People Search with Martide

Companies can also utilize Martide’s user-friendly people search option to find seafarers who have the right skills for the jobs at sea they need to fill. Our customized keyword search functionality not only enables seafarers to search for relevant vacancies, it also allows employers and manning agents to find candidates based on their skills, experience and location, while the detailed search results make it easier to single out preferred candidates.

Users are able to create their own candidate talent pools of seafarers they are interested in hiring, and access it with just one click of the mouse. They can separate pools of seafarers based on their skills which will make it far easier to source the right people and to stay organized.

This also makes communicating with candidates easier as employers and manning agents can reach out to them directly through Martide’s easy to use messaging system which also includes message templates that can be pre-written to save time. We’ve also created a really handy time-saving mass messaging broadcast function for reaching out to more than one contact at a time.

And with everything taken care of from job adverts to job advertising to talent pools to candidate messaging, that’s pretty much the whole seafarer sourcing part of the maritime recruitment process taken care of. Quickly, easily and simply and all thanks to Martide!

How else can Martide help shipping companies?

We work with small to medium sized shipowners and managers who are looking for a better way to handle their recruitment needs and manage their crew. Our Software as a Service integrates seamlessly with existing crew management systems, and HR and recruitment platforms, bringing all different systems and processes together into one cohesive whole.

Once seafarers have been sourced, we also help employers run all the other aspects of maritime recruitment from setting up and managing interviews to negotiating contracts to managing minimum safe manning levels and salary budgets.

We know that working as a team is crucial in order to manage all the different facets of maritime recruitment and crew management so we’ve also made it simple to collaborate within teams by allowing users access to any area of the process. 

If you’re a small to mid-sized shipping company, you like what you’ve heard so far and you’re looking for an easier way to drive your recruitment and crew management processes, there’s really only one thing to do now: contact us! 

We’d love to tell you more about how we make our clients’ lives easier and we’d also be happy to arrange a no-strings attached demo so you can really see how we work.

Martide for Marine Startups