Crew recruitment is set to be accelerated thanks to the introduction of a new recruitment platform which aims to streamline communication with seafarers, enabling ship owners to swiftly fill vacancies with competent crew at a time when shortages are beginning to bite.

Introduced by Danica Crewing Specialists, the recruitment platform – www.danica-crewing.com – utilises latest technology, including AI, to process applications and keep paperwork up to date, thereby supporting the firm’s experienced global recruitment team as they match candidates to available positions and fill vacancies for ship owners, even at short notice.

Danica has a large database in excess of 65K seafarer applicants spanning many nationalities and ranks, all actively seeking employment on various vessel types.
The company employs a strict screening process and robust recruitment procedures to verify the quality and competency of the crew it supplies.

Henrik Jensen, Danica Founder and CEO, outlined the thinking behind the new platform: “Danica has carefully listened to ship owners and operators to understand their needs and respond to their concerns in relation to recruitment. Our new recruitment platform, accessed by seafarers via our crewing website, aims to bring the latest technology and smart solutions to the process of finding genuinely competent crew without dropping standards.”

Mr Jensen explained: “When shipping companies have vacancies on their vessels they want to instantly be introduced to competent candidates. With Danica, each seafarer new to us goes through a rigorous application process which is time-consuming but necessary, particularly today when the instances of ‘polished’ CVs is on the rise.

“In the past we had to contact each potential seafarer applicant to discuss the vacancy, obtain up-to-date data, negotiate salary and conditions, and conduct our extensive screening services. The laborious process could be at odds with a shipping company’s need to be instantly presented with suitable candidates. To resolve this potential conflict and reduce the lead time for new crew, Danica has launched this new recruitment platform – www.danica-crewing.com. The technology we are using has the ability to learn from its interactions so it will get increasingly quicker and more efficient over time.”

Danica’s new platform automates job searches and initial negotiations with seafarer applicants, using machine learning technology and artificial intelligence (AI) to match candidates to vacancies, as well as answering applicant questions and assisting the company’s human recruitment teams in processing crew.

Mr Jensen stresses that the platform is no replacement for human knowledge. The tool is additional to Danica’s experienced and highly-skilled recruitment personnel, supporting them by swiftly and efficiently performing routine tasks and initial checks. Personal interviews, testing for competencies, senior officer assessments and briefings will still be conducted by Danica’s experienced recruitment staff.

A new feature is the ability of the platform to systematically collect and collate intelligence about why a candidate is not interested in a particular vacancy. Mr Jensen commented: “In an increasing difficult seafarer employment market with shortages of competent applicants, this platform will provide us with important data and enable us to advise shipping companies on seafarers’ preferences, allowing adjustments to job offers where necessary in order to attract more of the right candidates.”