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roundtable shipyards “The most signi? cant thing – and I’ve been here for four years – is that we operate as one company internally and to the outside world – and we offer internal opportunities to develop talent locally.” – Arold de Vries,

HR Director, Damen Shipyards

Sue Haley / Executive Vice President / Vigor Human Re- efforts stem from a number of different points of interest. First sources & Administration: At Vigor, it is all about under- is our commitment to safety, offering a job with one of the standing what our business needs are today and anticipating safest shipbuilders in the industry. Coupled with our commit- what it will need as we evolve. And these needs are constantly ment to safety is a long-term reliable backlog of work that is shifting with 12 locations and multiple business units that fo- primarily completed indoors. Employees have years of secure cus on everything from complex fabrication of nuclear con- work and do not struggle with lost work days due to weather. tainment and structures, to our more traditional work building Career growth and access to skills training is another prior- and repairing marine vessels. ity for some of our people. Across the board, Austal provides competitive compensation and bene? ts reducing an employ-

Don Keeler, Vice President of Human Resources, Austal ee’s motivation to leave for better pay or bene? ts. We are also

USA: For those positions requiring technical skills, we had a company that cares about its people and offers opportunities to approach recruiting with a focus on selecting individuals for employees to be involved in work design and planning. well-suited for technical training and relied heavily on our Based on these metrics, it would be hard for someone to ? nd partnerships with the state training programs, area technical a better place to work. Austal provides craft training through schools and our own internal skills training competency. Our a variety of education programs to include apprenticeship, on- hires are almost a 50/50 mix of experienced persons and train- the-job training, speci? c task training, upgrade training, and ees. For a more in-depth understanding of our business, we continuing education. Austal’s Department of Labor-certi? ed also rely on a robust apprenticeship program for skilled craft apprenticeship program is completed over a four-year period, positions. As we look beyond our region for talent we use a with a goal to train the worker on the complete craft. On-the- sourcing tool that locates communities or areas with pockets job training is on-going and task and upgrade training occur of desired skills and we recruit in those communities by spon- over a shorter period of time and typically focus on a narrow soring job fairs and offering relocation bene? ts. Our retention competency or process within the craft. 36 Maritime Professional 3Q 2015I I 34-49 Q3 MP2015.indd 36 9/18/2015 10:00:17 AM