Workforce Planning News

The Coast Guard has struggled for years to recruit and retain a sufficient workforce. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), the non-partisan, fact-based arm of the Congress, has published multiple reports related to the Coast Guard’s workforce including recruitment and retention challenges. Three of these reports published in 2022 and 2023 have resulted in 17 GAO recommendations to address these issues, but as of today, 16 remain open and need to be addressed. Implementing…

Quintiq, a Dassault Systèmes company, announced that Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. has selected its software solution to optimize the assignment of more than 80,000 crew members across its various brands and ships globally. As a global company, Royal Caribbean required a solution that could handle increasingly complex workforce planning conditions unique to the cruise business, and its manual approach to crew planning and scheduling was time-consuming and left no room for optimization. Quintiq is able to incorporate all the rules, regulations and requirements of its planning environment. Royal Caribbean crew planners will no longer need to spend vast amounts of time manually incorporating these complex rules and requirements into plans.

With the energy market swoon in full blossom, Maritime Reporter checked in with Mark Charman, chief executive of global recruiting leader Faststream, for his insights on the breadth and depth of the impact to the offshore employment market. Uncertainty. If there is one word that summarizes current global energy market conditions, it is uncertainty. The sudden downturn in oil pricing – which started nine months ago and collectively caught much of the global market by surprise…

The implementation of WINDS (Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) Ferries Division (WSF) Integrated Dispatch System) is now underway. WINDS is a Quintiq workforce planning solution configured to provide core business functions that comprise the dispatch and staffing of up to 1,800 employees at WSF. These functions include planning, scheduling, dispatch and tracking of deck crews, engine room crews and terminal employees. WSF is the largest ferry system in the United States and the largest ferry system in the world based on vehicles carried, transporting 23 million passengers and 11 million vehicles annually. The ferry system operates 22 vessels, providing 450 daily sailings on its ten routes. WSF operates and maintains 20 terminals offering service from Pt.

As vice president of marine personnel, Cosgrove is responsible for the employment life cycle of the company's more than 2000 vessel personnel. This effort includes hiring and crewing, as well as workforce planning, back office administration and systems management. Cosgrove joined in January of 1987 as a port captain in the ship operations group overseeing 's and foreign-flag vessels and crews. Since that time, he has served the company in positions of increasing responsibility including senior port captain, manager of chartering operations and director of contract operations. In 2005, Cosgrove was named a general manager and formed the ship management group to oversee third party vessel operations. In 2001, Cosgrove was awarded the Thomas Crowley Trophy, 's highest honor.

Manpower Software plc (MSW) today announces the award of two contracts for the sale of its Maritime Crew Administration product to Royal Caribbean Cruises Limited (RCCL) and Sun Cruises Limited (SCL), the subsidiary of Airtours plc. These contract awards follow on from the recent sales of MSW's Crew Task Scheduling product to RCCL and the Access Control product, "Souls on Board," to SCL. MSW was also granted two contracts for the sale of its Workforce Planning product to Guinness UDV Limited (part of the Diageo group of companies) and BP Shipping Limited (a division of BP plc). The initial value of the four contracts is in excess of $2.2 million. RCCL has purchased MSW's Maritime Crew Administration product as part of an enterprise-wide program of improvement.