Last year Niclas Silanterä, now graduated master mariner, took a closer look at the job satisfaction of Rederi Ab Nathalie crews. As his Bachelor’s thesis, he conducted a survey with the goal to get feedback and ideas for developing RABN’s operations. Out of all 50 employees 42 % participated and answered, and the results were overwhelmingly positive. The answers provided valuable information and views from the most valuable perspective – the deck.
There were a few assumptions that turned out to be somewhat false. One of those was that the owners and managers expected that crew members would hold strong outside communication capabilities, i.e. internet connectivity, in high regard. Instead, the survey showed that what really is appreciated is the in-ship communities. The people around you, the group as a whole. The results spoke for themselves, people make the workplace, and in a great atmosphere everything gets a positive boost.
“It’s extremely rewarding to hear that our employees are satisfied with the working conditions and colleagues and don’t feel like they are like cramped herrings in a jar, like we Finns tend to say”, RABN’s CEO Antti Partanen notes with a wide smile on his face.
Another aspect of the job which was held in high regard was the food onboard. It is of course challenging to maintain a diverse selection of food, while at the same time catering to everyone’s taste. Nothing is however impossible, and identifying areas of improvement is the first step of development.
Co-developing coexistence
RABN’s methods of continuous improvement are simple: involve everyone involved. Development shouldn’t be mere orders from above, it should always include the perspective from all who are a part of the process. The people on board the vessels are the ones who see everything first-hand, and their insights are often on point.
At RABN we operate on trust. This means that we give proper room for both respect and responsibility. Our crews are highly motivated, educated and talented, and as they can identify development opportunities in their daily work, this is a strong driver of our operations development. For us, it is important that everyone has a say in matters, and that they feel that they have been listened to and understood.
We understand that when we listen to each other and plan together, we work better as a coherent team, and can offer higher quality solutions for our clients and partners.
With our crew we share real responsibility and also expect independent decision making. Responsibility goes both ways, meaning that we also support our crews in the best way possible.
With the help of the entire RABN community we will continue to sustain an open dialog with our crew so that we can enable valuable development of ideas at any time. This way we strongly follow our values of being open-minded thinkers and transparent in our operations. This applies when working with both crew and client. “We are motivated and always setting our course to the future”, Antti declares.
