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KVH’s TracVision satellite tracking application as shown on Apple Computer’s iPhone and iPad.

Credit: KVH data that is coming out not just from the humans around them,

HR Wake Up Call but increasingly the ship [systems] and even the cargo itself,” “This should serve as a wake-up call to crewing and HR de- adds the market researcher. partments,” says Futurenautics. “It’s known as one of the ‘Trin-

The resulting demand for connectivity is so great that Fu- ity’ – pay, rotation and internet connectivity. We are recruiting turenautics saw crew usage patterns of most comms service for the oil majors and major shipping companies, and we simply rocket from once a week in 2014 to daily access in 2015, with wouldn’t be able to attract the top talent without offering new 60% speci? cally using the internet daily. Ships with limited or ships with good communications on board,” points out Mark no services are considered dinosaurs, which doesn’t bode well

Charman, Chief Executive Of? cer of recruiter Faststream.

for recruiting or retention efforts.

Charman adds that not only will already hard-to-source “Connectivity is extremely important,” says Elizabeth of? cers jump ship to better equipped vessels, “the industry

Ledet, administrative supervisor of the Systems & Advanced will not be able to attract talent from developing countries,

Technology Department, Seacor Marine LLC., which uses where people are being given a choice of shore-based careers

KVH’s V7 VSATs, bandwidth, Static IP addresses, and mo- in industries where they can return home to their family every dems on 13 of their Gulf of Mexico vessels and 23 interna- night, unless improved connectivity becomes standard across tional vessels. the shipping industry.”

So much so that, according to Futurenautics, 73% of re- spondents to its survey, “The Crew Connectivity 2015,” said

Good Spend in a Down Economy the level of connectivity provided onboard affects their em-

The ability to positively impact crew morale with online ployment decisions (See ? gure 17). That’s up from 69% last connectivity is especially important today given the after- year. “Of that 73%, 78% said it was a strong or very strong shocks of falling oil and gas prices roiling the maritime sec- in? uence on which contract they decided to take,” according tor. For example, Crewtoo’s survey reports that seafarer wages to the report. It is especially crucial to those with higher IT have fallen by as much as 40% – the worst some mariners skills, “precisely the kind of employees ship operators should have ever seen. But recruiters and users alike don’t expect to be looking for.” see organizations cutting existing services.

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