Modernizing Maritime Crew Welfare Through Community Management
[The following blog contains excerpts from my own speech delivered in June 2022 for Crew Welfare Week]
Community Management is known as the process of building an authentic community among groups through various types of interaction. This means that it is not limited to seminars, trainings, inspections, or routine lectures. Instead, it is the art of crafting engaging activities to create a network in which people can connect, share, and grow. With the health-related digital revolution in its infancy, the reality of launching pure digital solutions to tackle health may still be missing elements to drive sustainable behavior change.
With countless apps, webinars, trainings, and PDF guides dominating the crew well-being sphere, few are able to quantify these efforts with little to no engagement. Driving sustainable behavior change therefore happens by strengthening the system around the individual that promotes change and designs strategic activities to measure its effects on the community. This is the power of community management.
1. Community Management Enhances Crew Support
Community management enhances Crew support by accompanying the seafarer through his journey on board. By establishing an online community the industry can look into trending concerns, topics, and motivations. The focus becomes preventive rather than reactive.
Through regular communication with the crew, health programs delivered with community management becomes a living breathing experience – wherein seafarers know that they can reach out to share their ideas and move the promotion of health forward within the larger organization.
Community management allows us to hear the seafarer, relate to each group, and handhold leaders in the implementation of well-being initiatives.
2. Community Management Translates in Engagement
Community management translates in concrete engagements. My work with WellAtSea has taught me that USER GENERATED CONTENT contributes to the sustainability of programs such as this – because sustainability is no longer something that looks good on a fact sheet. It is driven by the bottom line. Through community engagement we can build trust with our crew by listening to the real issues, allowing for diverse views, and learning more about cultural preferences. By knowing our crew, we can break stereotypes around cultures and preconceived ideas around leaders and the like. And the best part is – we can quantify all of our efforts and strategize in our next steps. Which brings me to my last point….
3. Community Management Contributes to Informed Decision Making
Community management contributes to informed decision making. By taking a look at the trends in relation to ship operations and varying trade routes, we have a clear picture of what is transpiring and where we can contribute. In the last 6 years that we have moved crew wellbeing on board ships, I have seen the power of community management shape the way crew wellbeing becomes deeply embedded into company culture through time.
From the data, my team and I have been able to develop:
Communication strategies for launch and implementation
Content relevant to global situations
Ambassador programs to widen the scope of responsibility within teams – instead of relying on just one senior officer for everything.
Initiatives for HSEQ, CSR, and Marine HR
Strategic roadmaps for app development