Building the company culture

Creating a good company culture goes beyond compliance with regulations. It goes well beyond looking for the last dollar in profits. It requires a company vision of keeping the goals of each individual at a higher priority than the sole pursuit of profits.

The employee’s hearts must be won over to achieve excellence. This can only be achieved by taking a holistic approach of the employer and employee relationship and creating a work environment that the employees enjoy working in.

We, in Anglo-Eastern, embarked on our ‘Journey of Understanding’ some time ago, soon after investing in a Quality Certificate. The certification was only the beginning of a major cultural change in the company. The commitment to ‘improve’ had been made but more work was needed to build up the desired company culture.

An extensive survey was carried out seeking the opinion of the seafarers on improvements that could be done. The suggestions were mainly in areas of social issues - inter-personal relationships, sharing knowledge between ship and office, job security, desire for knowledge, and recognition of their efforts.

The initial fears were that no single solution would work for the diverse number of crew nationalities employed, and the different clients around the world. We soon discovered though that employees from all nationalities had the same needs and desires.

If we were to summarize our experiences the following areas of focus have helped us to grow as a company, and create a family of seafarers that we are proud of.

• Good Living Conditions Onboard
• Sufficient Manning Onboard
• Prioritizing Safety
• Retention Policy
• Investing in Training
• Sharing Knowledge
• Career Planning
• Participation in Industry Forums
• Recognizing Individuals

We believe that as a company we have a social responsibility towards the well- being of our employees and their growth as individuals. We strongly believe that our faith in our employees results in direct benefit to the organization.