Reviews Improve Performance
In our 20+ years of working with shipping organisations around the globe, we have seen the striving for safety excellence, an embedded value for many shipping companies. But, to excel in safety and achieve a strong, proactive safety culture, we need to look at our ways of thinking, reviewing, and evaluating our safety performance. Key Performance Indicators are used to show an aspect of safety performance, but when we talk to people—both on board and ashore—we see another, more underrepresented picture.
What makes a performance review reliable?
Guiding principles for performance reviews and proactive safety culture
Continuous Reviews
If we don’t review performance on a continuous basis, we cannot identify improvements or monitor changes. Reviews benefit individuals and teams with the opportunity to reflect, discuss, and learn. Unless this is done several times in a long-term time frame, people will forget.
Openness
Our Safety Delta survey statistics indicate that senior officers generally perceive safety performance on board to be better than junior officers and ratings do. Having an open dialogue that involves all crew members and the leaders is crucial. The dialogue must be free from prejudice, fear, or blame for weaknesses. This open approach is essential for the crew to collaboratively decide on the improvements to be implemented.
Firsthand Insights
The ones to initiate the evaluation of the current safety performance must always be the seafarers themselves. On far too many occasions, we see that the office tries to control everything that happens on board from their desks ashore. We must build an open and trusting working environment that lets the seafarers express their honest opinions about the present safety performance on board.
Capacity to Adapt
Finally, the basic condition for achieving a strong, proactive safety culture is to always think of and breathe for safety. Seafarers must be able to make the right judgements when performing their work, and so must the office staff. Even for routine tasks, every work situation is unique. Whenever a task is performed, the current situation largely determines how it can be done best—placing demands on the way we think.
Review Formats for Different Purposes
Well-designed performance reviews
Crew Engagement Survey
The Crew Engagement Survey determines the crew’s level of engagement, identifies strengths, and pinpoints areas that may need attention or enhancement. The survey results can be used to make strategic decisions to improve overall crew satisfaction and performance.
Safety Maturity Assessments
Safety Maturity Assessments may include surveys, interviews, and observations. The goal is to gauge the organisation’s commitment to safety, understand the organisation’s safety culture maturity, identify areas for improvement, and develop strategies to enhance overall safety performance.
Safety Delta
Safety Delta creates a clear link between human factors and safety performance, starting from reflection to open dialogue and team development. The focus is to enhance the understanding of how human factors are managed on board.
Performance Evaluations and Appraisals
These aim to provide feedback to employees and from employees to top management, recognise achievements, set performance expectations, and identify areas for development. They also play a crucial role in decisions related to promotions and professional development plans.
The Delta Method – Designed for the Maritime Industry
Bridging the gap with performance reviews
Following years of data from more than 37,000 seafarers, we have peer-reviewed this data against LTIF records, as well as internal and external audits. Based on our findings, we dare say we have developed a workable, practical, and hands-on review methodology for the maritime industry—we call it The Delta Method.
The review questions focus on both the quality and the frequency of performance actions, behaviours, and perceptions. The review outcome then enables crews and teams to discuss and focus on relevant improvement areas—where to make changes—and take steps to do so.
Reviews Across 3 Levels
Our data indicates that reviews focusing only on the individual level have limited effect, so you have to focus on three levels:
Individual
- Informal individual feedback
- Well-defined performance appraisal process
- Behavioural observation, review, and feedback
Crew/Department
- Informal individual feedback
- Performance debriefing
- Engagement polls and surveys
- Team safety performance reviews
- Vessel inspections and audits
Corporate
- Informal individual feedback
- Performance debriefing (part of the Safety Delta process)
- Review of safety-critical processes
- Engagement surveys
- Team performance reviews across departments
- Vessel inspections and audits