Cruise line employees have the opportunity to move relatively quickly through the ranks if they perform well, according to Othmar Hehli, senior director of human resources for the Apollo Group, managing hotel and culinary operations for 16 ships for Marella, Oceania and Regent Seven Seas.

“We hired an assistant chef de partie from South Africa about four years ago, and he is now an executive chef,” Hehli added.

“Provided they like the cruise industry and perform well, they can climb quickly, but working on a cruise ship is not for everyone.”

Training

“With some of our hiring partners, we have introduced so-called indoctrination programs about what life aboard a cruise ship is like,” explained Hehli. “These are two- to three-month programs focused on life aboard from working with people of other nationalities and religions to sanitary standards. They have to understand that cruise ship employment is not just a job, it is really a lifestyle. They live onboard, they work onboard, and it is obviously a strict disciplinary environment, ensuring that some 40 plus nationalities all get along.

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“On the culinary side we also teach correct food handling, storage procedures, time and temperature controls, blast chilling procedures, simple things like MARPOL garbage separation, and the three-bucket system that is widely used to clean work surfaces and equipment.”

The objective is to have new crew understand and comprehend the standards aboard a cruise ship, which will also reduce the stress factor and ease their transition into the shipboard environment.

Retention

“Once we have competent people aboard, then our focus is on retention,” Hehli continued. “Going forward, as an industry I believe we have to engage the families of the seafarers, maybe provide them with certain benefits, basic medical coverage, for instance, as an incentive to stay with the company.

“In the past it was mainly about the money, and crew still want to make good money, but they also want to be treated well. We have some plans as to what we can do; obviously there is a cost factor involved, but at the end of the day it may be more cost-effective to offer benefits to families and have a higher retention rate.”

HR Manager

As a company, Apollo has a corporate human resources manager who goes from ship to ship to make sure managers are equipped with the tools to be effective and manage their business, but also manage with passion, Hehli said, making sure the crew feels they are treated well and in an environment that is conducive to maximum productivity.

Department heads are responsible for spotting talent and making recommendations for promotions. Candidates go into a promotion pool where they have to go through certain steps to move to the next level.

Hehli cited an anecdote about a waiter who was promoted to headwaiter and the restaurant manager asked him what had been his main responsibility before and what was it now. The headwaiter answered: “Taking care of guests.” The restaurant manager corrected him, saying that in his new job his responsibility was to take care of guests and his employees.

“The story portrays what we need to accomplish,” he said, “equipping people with the tools they need to succeed and understanding what their responsibilities are.”

Source Markets

Hehli said that for culinary crew about 40 percent come from India, 30 percent from the Philippines, 20 percent from Indonesia, and the balance from the rest of the world.

“We are trying to develop new markets, but English-language capabilities can be an issue. Crew need a decent command of English for safety training and so forth. Myanmar has been promising and in Vietnam, high-school students graduate with a fairly good command of English. We are also looking at Mexico for culinary staff, as they have some excellent hospitality schools.”

Managing hotel and culinary operations aboard 16 ships presently, Hehli said he expects Apollo to continue to grow.

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