Finalizing and onboarding quality seafaring personnel have never been more critical to the global shipping economy. Competition, economic uncertainty, higher costs and officer shortages mean that shipowners and managers have to recruit the right people for their vessels, and get it right every time. Since new recruitment involves substantial cost, higher crew turnout needs to be limited through effective selection and recruitment strategies.

Intelligent sourcing is an important component of our manning solutions for clients. Every time a new onboard position needs to be filled, there is time and cost involved that must be factored into the operational cycle. This is as relevant when a new position is being filled for the first time as when an existing position is refilled due to turnover. Much of the cost of acquiring talent is on crew sourcing, including crewing agency fees and travel and embarkation costs for new recruits.

These costs typically add up to agency fees and agency handling fees as also payroll expenses, and may not be readily visible to an organization’s account books. Using intelligent sourcing strategies, Stargate Crewing not only offers faster recruitment from a wide pool of qualified candidates, build stronger relationships with active and passive job seekers, but also provide vessel operators of all sizes with the same talent recruitment advantages.

Crew manning is increasingly about sustained communication with qualified people who possess better seafaring skills. Managing relationships with candidates takes time, and it is important to engage meaningfully or risk losing them in the process. Establishing a candidate communications process makes it easier for candidates and employers to engage in a constructive way. This communication can also be a powerful tool to further the brand objectives of a ship management operation. At Stargate, we put considerable stress on managing candidate relationships and candidate communications to develop and sustain long-term relationships with the talent pool.

We use a smart selection procedure to identify the right candidate for a job by prescreening candidates and applicants against a set of criteria and asking targeted questions. We value the need to cut down on recruitment time and quickly narrow down the most-promising candidates for each opening.