ABSTRACT
Life at sea is particularly difficult. Just finding someone willing to accept the assignment is one challenge. They are constantly assaulted by the sun and sea. A seafarer must be knowledgeable about the ship, its operations, and their own particular job. Besides individual traits, a shipping employer must also consider how the employee interacts as part of the crew. Then there are also the issues of mixing nationalities and ethnicities. For all of these reasons, most shipping companies find it easier to outsource the assessment and hiring tasks to an agency that specializes in such, leaving the owners and managers to deal with asset play, trading policies, questions of scope vs. scale, and the swells of the market. Some third-party providers have aggregated services to act on behalf of their clients. The third-party ship management organizations have developed key performance indicators for their clients, stay abreast of the latest developments, present at international conferences, arrange financing, and so much more.
