Page 17: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (August 2024)

Money will always be a big attraction to employees, but added within the construction industry and are more specialized. bene? ts such as insurances and education opportunities can Which is why the brain-drain conundrum affects them more. really retain a workforce. Gone are the days of the “family line” workforce that con- stantly replenish shipyard workers.

These are just a few mitigation strategies that a company Even with all the mitigation efforts companies can take to can implement to stop the brain-drain conundrum. We as an retain talented workers, it will come down to a company re- industry owe it to ourselves as well as the workforces we cur- ally getting to know its workforce and understanding what rently employ, to seek out new ways and strategies to keep and makes them want to stay or want to leave. Companies that retain talent. If we don’t, the competitive advantage will shift recognize they are suffering from brain-drain can put mitiga- to Shipbuilders in other markets. Local smaller shipyards and tion plans in place and address retention problems. Until then companies will be left with little choice but to outsource or the “Brain-Drain Conundrum” could be with us for a while.

downsize. Which is just another way of saying “slowly dying off”. Over the years the attrition to shipbuilding has been seen

The Author top to bottom with companies absorbing smaller entities or smaller yards just shutting the doors.

Guillory

Although brain-drain is not limited to shipbuilding it may

Darren Guillory is the Technical Solutions

Specialist at SSI USA. Prior to joining the have a greater effect on this industry because of its inher-

SSI team he spent nearly two decades in ent history. Comparatively, the construction industry is not the commercial shipbuilding industry (LE- beholden to a speci? cally trained workforce and can easily

EVAC Shipyards).

retain a dedicated workforce. While shipbuilders are a niche

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