The benefits of competency management for crewing departments, maritime recruitment  and HR  

A Competency Management System (CMS) enables organisations to perform a skills audit and get a snapshot of the current competence levels in the business. Such an audit will show areas of strength and potentially highlight problem areas. For some, the risk of such a system shining a light on deficiencies they would prefer to keep hidden has been a barrier to implementation; for others, the work involved to implement a CMS has put them off. Businesses have now decided that any effort needed to ensure their people are competent is far outweighed by the cost of the person not being able to do their job safely or effectively; either in lost time or the costs associated with an incident.

By its nature, competency management is centred around the work that seafarers are already performing. By collecting a record of competency in a single place, a CMS shines a light on all of the great work that seafarers do every day. The value this level of visibility and recognition should not be underestimated.

As CMS is designed around the skills, knowledge and behaviours that are essential to the role a seafarer is employed to perform, it is a way of capturing and highlighting excellence rather than an additional burden.

Having a view of the competency level of the mariners within an organisation, paired with a plan of your current and future requirements, provides a starting point from which crewing and training teams can make effective training and recruitment decisions.

In addition to technical skills, an effective seafarer possesses a broad range of traits that fall under the umbrella of “soft skills”. The ability to assess situations, problem solve, make good decisions and communicate effectively are extremely valuable and sought after.

Competency Management Systems, utilising a framework such as BCAV, can be used to assess ‘soft skills’, or behavioural competencies. As a CMS is designed to support a culture of continuous on-the-job assessment, behavioural assessments can be made when situations present themselves naturally.

The consistency that CMS brings to evaluations is beneficial on multiple fronts. Firstly, it gives shore-side teams confidence that the results they are seeing from each vessel or assessor are comparable. Additionally, the consistency and clearly defined criteria used for assessments is seen as a big positive by those being assessed. By removing room for interpretation, as well as possible favouritism or discrimination, competency management systems are viewed as fair by seafarers.

As a competency management system highlights both where people are competent already, and the areas where proficiencies are lacking, training programmes can be applied in a much more targeted and cost-effective way. By freeing people up from studying in areas they are already proficient, they have more time to focus on their role, and can reduce the amount spent on training by eliminating time and money spent on superfluous courses, studying and testing.

As a competency management system contains a clear set of competencies for a given role or rank, a seafarer can clearly see in which areas they need to be competent in order to be considered for promotion. This visibility gives seafarers the confidence that they are in the driving seat of their career progression – they know what they need to do to be ready to advance. Employers that offer a clear path for advancement are always considered more favourably, leading to better retention and lower acquisition costs.