The Key Feature Every Crewing System Should Have

If researching some new options for your small to medium-sized shipping company’s new maritime recruitment and crew planning system is something you’re in charge of, you might be wondering where to start - especially if you’re new when it comes to selecting a recruitment and crew management software solution.

But don’t panic just yet, because we’ve got some helpful pointers for you so that you can confidently select the best crewing system and maritime recruitment platform for your organization.

So to help you narrow down your choices, we’re going to take a look at an important function that every recruitment and crew planning platform in the maritime industry should have.

The key feature every crewing system should have

Before we get started, if you’re not completely sure what a crewing software tool and maritime recruitment platform are - and what they should do - here are a couple of blog posts to check out before you go any further:

Now let’s look at one of the main things you should be checking that a potential crewing system software solution should feature as standard. A seafarer database.

Why you need a global seafarer database

If you’re relying on a software solution to help with maritime recruitment, ideally you need it to contain seafarers! And not just any seafarers, but qualified and skilled professionals who are ready to board your vessel.

Your seafarer database is a crucial part of getting - and staying - organized. You want a system that will provide you with a secure, centralized location to store important data about your seafarers, such as their work history, education, the vessels they’ve worked on and their documents.

And that’s where Martide can help. Our vetted and trusted international manning agents will propose pre-screened candidates for your job vacancies and we also make it really easy for seafarers to apply directly to your jobs too.

This enables you to build your seafarer database consisting of potential candidates who you’ve yet to work with as well as the crew you know and hire for contract after contract. In fact, our seafarer database also has a feature within it called Seafarer Pools.

Seafarer Pools help crew managers (as well as manning agents) be more organized by creating groups that contain specific seafarers. These pools can be named and organized however you wish. For example, you might want a pool containing seafarers who work in the Deck Department.

Or you may wish a pool to contain only candidates who are suitable for the position of Chief Engineer. Or you might want to name your pool after a vessel type and add seafarers who have, for example, experience working on chemical tankers to it.

We also make it easy to assign ex-crew members who are already in the database to your vacancies without going through the entire recruitment process again.

In addition to all of the above features, strict maritime industry legislations and regulations dictate that personal information must be stored securely. The filing cabinet is (or should be!) a thing of the past and your shipping company needs to upgrade the way you operate if you’re still relying on physical folders and documents.

At Martide we take a great seal of care to ensure that our crewing system software is as secure as possible. Our Privacy Policy has been carefully mapped out to make sure that all users of our website and their data, are handled with the utmost attention to security.

How to make sure you choose the right seafarer database software

As we’ve seen, if you’re looking for a new crew planning system solution and maritime recruitment platform it should, ideally, contain a functional seafarer candidate database. Let’s break down some of the other features within that database that you should consider looking out for.

Here are some features within a seafarer database to look for:

Seafarer / candidate information including work history, special skills, education and specifications
A ways to organize seafarers and potential hires - i.e. a Seafarer Pools feature
A way to easily identify and rehire seafarers who you’ve worked with previously
A fuss-free interface that allows seafarers to easily add their own details to the database
First rate security such as that found in a cloud-based database

What type of crewing software solution should you choose?

As well as the seafarer and candidate database feature, we also recommend selecting a crewing system that operates on a Software as a Service model. But what does that actually mean?

Software as a Service (SaaS) allows you, the user, to access a software solution on a subscription basis, instead of you having to buy the software outright. The recruitment and crewing software is hosted on external servers and is not installed on your individual laptop or PC.

You, and your company’s users, access the crew planning software over the internet by logging into the website.

The big advantage of this is that it’s much easier for you, and all of your shipping company or manning agency’s employees, to access the system whenever and wherever you all are without being tied to a specific computer that has the software installed.

In addition to this, the owner of the crew planning and recruitment software (for example, Martide) is responsible for maintaining the system so you don’t have to worry about fixing issues or installing updates.

Ready to talk to us about your new crew planning system?

If you know that it’s time to upgrade the way you run your shipping company’s recruitment and crew planning departments, Martide is here to help.

Our crewing software is packed full of innovative features that will help you grow your candidate database, run your crew planning and management operations more smoothly, increase your crew retention rates, and make it easier and faster to find seafarers in good time for your change over dates.

Want to find out more? Request your free no-strings attached demo today and take the first step to making your maritime recruitment and crew planning teams - and your company - more efficient and cost-effective.