Crewtoo Publishes Its Second Seafarers Happiness Index Report
The second Seafarers Happiness Index report has been published by Crewtoo, the online social network for seafarers and a part of KVH Industries, Inc., (Nasdaq: KVHI). Ten important questions were designed to examine the seafarer satisfaction levels. The second quarterly report based on the survey reveals that a seafarer satisfaction level is 6.44 on a scale of 1 to 10.
The objective of the Crewtoo Seafarers Happiness Index is to voice the seafarers concerns so that the maritime industry can review and the address the issues that are being raised.
Some highlights from the report:
- Seafarers sometimes dread port calls because of the increase in workload caused by the main audits and inspections when a ship is in the dock.
- A drop in satisfaction levels towards shore leave, as the increased amount of work eats into the time available for relaxation.
- Getting ashore costs the seafarers at least $ 100 USD, which is a major barrier to taking shore leave.
- Availability of very few opportunities to relax and unwind away from the vessels due to the increased stress during port visits and reduced or non-existent shore leave.
- Satisfaction has improved in several areas in the second report as compared to the first report.
- For instance, there was an improvement in crew’s satisfaction level in areas such as salary, standard of food and exercising available onboard.
- The highest score in the survey went to crew’s interaction and team building features which increased from 6.96 to 7.16.
“The Happiness Index is an important barometer of seafarer satisfaction with life at sea,” says Anneley Pickles, head of Crewtoo business development. “Happy people are loyal, motivated, and embrace challenges. If the industry really acts on the responses to these regularly updated surveys, it will not only reap the rewards with a more motivated, loyal, and hardworking workforce, but it will attract new talent to the industry, something which is sadly lacking at the moment.”
Background of the participants who took part in the survey:
- The responds were from all ranks and nationalities including seafarers.
- The age of survey respondents ranged from 16 to the late 60s.
- Masters made up the largest proportion of responses by rank;
- Some 11% of respondents stated that they were currently serving in the role of captain.
- The majority of responses were from seafarers working on bulk carriers and container vessels.
Source: NASDAQ
