Page 11: of Marine News Magazine (June 2024)

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Insights

SAFE Boats and just about every other shipbuilder across the United States have struggled to recruit, hire and retain the skilled workers they need to thrive. Making matters worse, the manufacturing workforce—at SAFE Boats and elsewhere—has been graying, and aluminum welders, in particular, have been hard to come by. “[Workforce] is a con- stant topic. It’s front of mind for us every day,” Schwarz said.

“We’re ? nding a lot of excitement, enthusiasm and in- terest from younger workers. They just don’t have the level of skill and experience that probably SAFE Boats and most companies in our industry have been able to enjoy over the past few decades,” Schwarz said. “The real challenge now is not necessarily to ? nd enough people that want to go into manufacturing, that want to go into maritime, but it’s really how do you take that population that has an interest and an enthusiasm for it and develop the skills and give them the training that they need to really be effective?

“Our focus is shifting from just recruiting people that have all of those skills to recruiting people who have an interest, who want to do something meaningful, who look at what we do and who we do it for and like that sense of purpose, and then being able to bring them into the company and give them the training, education and de- velop their skills to get them to the level that we need. We do that both internally, and then also work with outside partners, from high schools to technical schools, looking

All images courtesy SAFE Boats International at ways to engage the community and support a lot of pro- expects production on the remaining vessels will wrap up grams that are trying to help develop that next generation in 2026. The contract from U.S. Naval Sea Systems Com- of manufacturing workers. It’s forcing us to be much more mand (NAVSEA) is noteworthy for a number of reasons: engaged than we had to be in the past.” one being Ukraine’s need for naval assets amid its ongoing con? ict with Russia, and another is the impact for SAFE Employee ownership

Boats. Notably, the deal enabled the builder to reopen its SAFE Boats International is 100% owned by its employ-

Tacoma facility, which had shut at the conclusion of the ees. “It’s my favorite topic to talk about,” Schwarz said.

previous Mark VI program for the U.S. Navy in early 2018. Up until about a year ago, the builder was primarily

According to Schwarz, the reopening of SAFE’s second owned and controlled by a private equity group, and when build site unlocks several bene? ts, such as added build ca- that group sought an exit, SAFE began plotting its path pacity. “As the Mark VI program matures and we’re really forward, ultimately settling on an Employee Stock Own- up to full consistent production and are looking to ad- ership Plan (ESOP). “We got really lucky. We had sup- ditional capacity, the plan is to be able to leverage both port from our founders and folks that were willing to really locations,” he said. stand behind and support this idea of selling the company

Perhaps more importantly, the second site helps to ex- to its employees,” Schwarz said.

pand the talent pool from which SAFE Boats can hire. SAFE Boats completed the transaction transferring full

Asked about the company’s top challenge, Schwarz re- ownership to its employees in 2023, concluding a jour- sponded, “100% workforce. That’s an easy one.” ney that started in late 2022. “Every active SAFE Boats www.marinelink.com MN 11|