Scaling Ship Management Recruitment for a Rapidly Growing Business

Business Type: Ship Management and Marine Services Provider.

Location: UK, Singapore and US

RPO Type: RPO Modular

Key Stakeholders: Group Managing Director, Human Resources Director & Director of Ship Management

Positions Recruited For: Technical Superintendent, Marine Superintendent, Fleet Director, Assistant Technical Superintendent, Assistant Marine Superintendent, Crewing Manager, Crewing Officer, Project Manager, Energy Data officer, Vetting Coordinator, Maritime Instructor, Various Seagoing staff, Recruitment and Scheduling Manager and executive search services for several sensitive and commercially critical C-level roles

Faststream Consultants Involved: Mark Charman, Group CEO, Kelsey Purse, Director Shipping & Maritime, Sebastian Zuliani, Director Ship Management, and Nic Jones, Director Candidate Attraction.

Our client, a leading player in ship management, was undergoing rapid expansion and required a significant increase in skilled ship management professionals. However, they faced a highly competitive market with a short supply of specialist talent.

Having supported this client for many years, Faststream leveraged its expertise in specialist contingency recruitment and executive search to deliver a tailored hiring strategy. Our deep industry network and proactive approach helped the client secure top-tier talent to support their long-term growth plans.

The Challenge

Our client had a track record of winning new business and was committed to delivering top-tier ship management solutions, particularly in the specialist tanker and gas carrier segment.

To maintain their reputation for excellence, they needed to recruit the best talent in the market, setting rigorous selection criteria to ensure they hired only the most qualified professionals. However, their large-scale hiring needs were in one of the fastest-growing and most competitive areas of shipping, where demand for skilled professionals far outstripped supply.

Without securing these critical hires, the company risked struggling to meet client expectations and stalling its ambitious growth plans.

The RPO Solution

To deliver a recruitment strategy that truly aligned with our client’s needs, we conducted in-depth workshops to understand their short, medium, and long-term hiring plans, detailed requirements, and shared objectives.

Leveraging our expertise in recruiting for specialist, skill-short shipping sectors, we developed a fully customised Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) solution tailored to their unique demands.

Candidate Attraction & Employer Branding

Our candidate attraction team collaborated with the client to design a targeted marketing strategy aimed at:

Enhancing their Employer Value Proposition (EVP)
Boosting their visibility among both passive and active job seekers

To support this, we built a bespoke, client-branded careers website, serving as a hub for:

Promoting the client as an employer of choice
Sharing their EVP and company culture
Hosting job vacancies and attracting applications

To drive traffic, we implemented a comprehensive marketing plan, leveraging:

Social media campaigns
Targeted outreach strategies
Faststream’s high-traffic website (with over 37,000 monthly visitors)

Seamless Recruitment & Selection Process

Our dedicated recruitment team established an account management and delivery structure, led by the:

Client Account Director
Account Manager

Together, they worked closely with our candidate attraction specialists to implement a bespoke recruitment and selection process designed to:

Meet the client’s hiring criteria
Enhance the candidate experience

Continuous Improvement & Data-Driven Insights

To ensure transparency and ongoing success, we introduced a structured account review process, including:

Regular reporting on recruitment performance
Data-driven insights for continuous improvement
Feedback loops for real-time adjustments

This open communication framework enabled our client to make informed decisions, refine their hiring strategy, and stay ahead in a fiercely competitive talent market.

Implementation Process

Timeline

Our client needed to start recruiting immediately, so we designed and implemented a fully operational recruitment solution within just four weeks. This rapid deployment ensured minimal disruption and allowed for seamless hiring from day one.

Key Milestones & Success Factors

Seamless Collaboration with Internal Teams

A major driver of success was the strong partnership between our dedicated account team and the client’s HR function. By aligning closely with their internal processes, we ensured a smooth transition and an efficient recruitment workflow.

Early Buy-In from Hiring Managers

Hiring managers quickly saw positive recruitment outcomes, which led to early trust and engagement. Their confidence in our ability to deliver top talent meant they fully embraced the process, allowing us to scale hiring efforts effectively.

This collaborative approach laid the foundation for a successful long-term partnership, enabling the client to attract and retain the best talent in a highly competitive market.

The Results

Through our RPO solution, we transformed their hiring approach into a flexible, long-term talent acquisition model designed to:

Build a sustainable talent pipeline in a highly skill-short area of shipping
Appeal to both passive and active job seekers through targeted attraction strategies
Enhance their employer brand and Employee Value Proposition (EVP) to stand out in a competitive market
Leverage deep industry expertise to ensure we consistently sourced and placed the right talent

By aligning closely with the client, we developed a deep understanding of what ‘good’ looks like for their business, enabling us to deliver high-quality hires that drive long-term success.

A Long-Standing Partnership

We have been working with this client for over five years, providing a modular RPO solution that has evolved alongside their business. Over this time, we have:

Scaled recruitment efforts in response to hiring surges
Adapted to changing candidate behaviours and market conditions
Continuously optimised processes to improve hiring efficiency and candidate experience
Successfully placed over 150 individuals into the business

Our dedicated RPO account team sees itself as an extension of the client’s internal team, acting as a trusted advisor in all aspects of talent acquisition. Beyond recruitment, we have also introduced learning and development initiatives, including training hiring managers in advanced interview techniques, further strengthening their ability to attract and retain top talent.

We have also promoted and helped to supply an Assistant Superintendents Programme resulting in hiring promising individuals to be trained and developed into Technical Superintendents and Fleet Managers.

This strategic, partnership-driven approach has positioned our client as an employer of choice and ensured they remain ahead in the competitive maritime recruitment market.