High Crew Retention Helps Grow MMSI Workforce 25%

Mumbai-based ship management company MMS Maritime India (MMSI) announced that its crew workforce has grown by a quarter in the last year. MMSI said its total crew staff is now 300 with at least 50 new officers and 26 ratings, joining the team which primarily supplies seafarers for the global tanker market.

 

MMSI CEO Dr. Sanjay Bhavnani said the company is growing thanks to having a 90 percent crew retention rate, one of the highest in the industry.

 

“We are expanding because our seafarers are motivated and tanker owners have confidence that MMSI will supply a highly committed, skilled and experienced crew to look after their ship,” he said. “MMSI carefully supports each of our seafarers monitoring their welfare as well as giving them clear defined steps to advance their career in the long term. I, and many of our senior team, are former seafarers. We therefore fundamentally understand the desires, dreams and concerns of our seafarers. We know they need to be truly understood and appreciated for what they do. By ensuring we listen to, and look after, our crew we are generating real job satisfaction in one of the industry’s most challenging careers. We are actively looking to work with more tanker and dry cargo owners and operators offering them all the benefits of having a well-managed and trained crew.”

 

Dr.  Bhavnani, a former oil tanker chief engineer, said the last year has seen MMSI launch the  bespoke training program designed by the Swedish P & I Club and implemented effectively by its own staff thereby focusing on to be addressed specific operational issues.

 

“Our Maritime Resource Management course has been meticulously built by seafarers for seafarers,” he said. “It is founded on understanding what it is actually like to live and work at sea. We understand it can be like a goldfish bowl living in close quarters for extended periods of time in the utterly unique environment of the sea. The reality is that most incidents at sea come as a result of incorrect human interaction. So our course looks at key areas such as communication between different nationalities to ensure the crew properly understand each other’s instructions. In addition, we look at understanding emotions and the mental state someone may be in when giving instructions. The course arms our seafarers with the tools to do their job and to take them to the next level. We look at areas of performance and provide extra training where gaps in competence have been identified.”

 

Dr. Bhavnani said MMSI is also seeing increased demand from its parent company the Japanese ship owner Meiji Shipping Group, which is expanding its tanker fleet by seven new ships which are expected to come online by 2017-2018. These include four new 28,000 DWT medium range (MR) vessels tankers to be delivered to Meiji in the first half of 2016 for charter to oil majors and other  oil companies.

 

“MMSI is looking to recruit a further 80-90 seafarers from India to help man these new ships,” he said. “The positions we are seeking to fill will be across the full spectrum of roles from officers and masters to chief engineers. A number of senior positions will be filled from our existing workforce to ensure the ships have the right levels of experience and expertise. MMSI has built its reputation on having some of the best trained crew in the shipping industry. We will therefore be carefully selecting candidates to ensure they are of the highest caliber to maintain our rigorous standards.”