A decision making human resource information management system for ship management

Human Resource Management (HRM) is a complex process in the shipping industry due to a variety of constraints: national, international rules and regulations such as International Maritime Organization's (IMO) International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watch keeping for Seafarers (STCW). flag state rules, International Labour Organization (ILO) rules. Besides that, each employee (seafarer) has individual records including personal information, qualifications, travel arrangements and certificates. These records hold lots of information which can become complex for crewing/personnel departments to follow all necessary issues. According to this view point, information technology (IT) becomes more important for reliable and effective HRM applications. Employed seafarer's quality and qualification to work on board are other important issues for a safe ship management process and also for shore based personnel. Labour cost is another issue which makes HRM valuable and it is getting to be a large factor in overall operational costs in this global financial crisis. The world merchant fleet is increasing in size and deadweight; however, suitable/appropriate seafarers are becoming difficult to find and crewing departments in shipping companies and ship managers put much effort into handling available seafarers. In this paper, seafarer recruitment process and assessment factors are outlined and a work flow for suitable assessment and recruitment of seafarers is examined. As a resu lt of this study, appropriate functional web based Human Resource Information Management (HRIM) applications are developed for crewing departments in ship management companies as a decision support for eligible seafarer selection. With these applications for decision making support, a seafarer can be assessed and selected according to important factors such as nationality, international rules & regulations and company policy and, in the end, an eligible seafarer can be chosen for a suitable/ appropriate position on board. This web based application can be modified for other important topics which aim to improve the quality of the recruitment process or other process steps following the recruitment process such as seafarer training, trial period, performance measurement and career upgrading opportunities. These can be future studies which analyse and modify new structures and flows in web based application.