When it comes to maritime recruitment, shipping companies need to be proactive. Unless they’re really lucky, qualified candidates won’t just drop in their laps, at least not with the kind of consistency that they need.
And even when a recruiter has found a great seafarer that fits the vacancy perfectly, there’s also the issue of candidate ghosting to contend with. i.e. when an applicant has been going through the recruitment process then suddenly disappears into thin air with no prior warning.
Ghosting is a direct result of a candidate not feeling engaged with, or kept in the loop, during the maritime recruitment process.
So how do companies engage with skilled seafarers and get candidates to stay the course?
Technology helps companies create a great impression
If a recruiter is reaching out to job seekers in the maritime industry, they need to make sure they create a good impression from the get-go to increase the likelihood of applicants replying to express interest in their vacancies.
Working in maritime recruitment is about finding and targeting qualified candidates, not using a scattergun approach and wasting time by sending emails out to just anyone who happens to be in a candidate database.
The search for the right people needs to be focused on candidates who are in the right location, have the right amount of experience, and who hold the relevant qualifications for the job.
And that’s where technology can be a real help.
For example, at Martide our online recruitment platform allows employers to filter candidates using keywords so they will only be shown the seafarers who are suitable for their jobs. They’ll be able to see at a glance who has the right documents, qualifications, experience, location, and even visas.
This eliminates the headache that is sorting through hundreds of resumes and entering into back and forth email conversations only to find out that someone is unsuitable for the position while change-over dates loom ever closer!
And of course it also increases the chance of a seafarer engaging with the recruiter because they’ve reached out to someone who is highly likely to be interested in the position. And that makes them more likely to a) respond and b) see the hiring process through.
After all, most of us know what it’s like to receive unsolicited messages from recruiters on LinkedIn who are hiring for jobs in industries we have little to no interest in!
Technology helps employers talk the talk
Being able to proactively reach out to suitable candidates is great but what does a recruiter do when faced with an inbox full of resumes from seafarers?
Sorting seafarers into yes and no piles is all very well but when it comes to reaching out to the ‘yeses’ the language used when contacting candidates (especially the younger generations) can make all the difference between engaging with them…and not.
(By the way, Martide’s software solution allows employers to add their ‘yes pile seafarers’ to Talent Pools so they can easily find them again)
There are different ways of reaching out:
- Using templated emails.
- Using templated emails that have been personalized.
- Writing individual, unique emails.
No prizes for guessing which is the more efficient route to take!
The benefit of templates is that these are a lot faster to write and send – something any busy HR manager or recruitment officer will find it hard to say no to. However effort needs to be put into templates to make sure they don’t come across as boring and unappealing. So that they are engaging.
Or in other words, so that they don’t sound like a template!
The good news is that Martide has made this really easy with our Message Templates feature.
Martide’s Message Templates function allows employers to pre-write the emails they send the most by creating standard templates. Once written, all they need to do is select the template they want to send in their Martide inbox when emailing a contact.
This means they don’t have to go through the tedious and time wasting effort of typing out the same old messages over and over again!
And, more to the point, it means that truly engaging emails can be consistently and quickly sent, no matter who on the team is sending them.
It’s just another example of how utilizing technology can help streamline systems and create an all-round better experience for candidates, therefore reducing the likelihood of them ghosting.
How Martide’s SaaS can help with maritime recruitment
Using a specialist maritime recruitment agency such as Martide can also make a world of difference to recruiting efforts.
Our software as a service has been developed to make life much easier for shipowners and managers who are looking for a way to efficiently recruit seafarers, advertise vacancies, track applicants and manage interviews.
Get in touch and we’d be delighted to tell you more about how we can help your small to medium sized shipping company source and recruit seafarers and manage your crew change over dates.
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