Assessment of candidates for promotion

The personnel onboard ships – including the bridge, deck and the machine room – makes judgments and decisions of risk and efficiency that impacts safety and the bottom line of the company. The performance of the personnel reflects their abilities, personalities and their training. In general, one can argue, that the sum of the contributions (the captain and the sub-ordinates) mirror whether a maritime company lives up to its standards and policies. A good captain will be able to coach and facilitate development of the people onboard yet remain able to be assertive and decisive when needed. The officer on watch is the right hand of the captain who contribute to the major goals, and so on. A fully functioning crew are dependent on each members contribution, and it is therefore important to know of each members ability, personality and training, in order to predict future performance.

At Simsea, we offer an assessment product that increases the likelihood of predicting future performance of sea farers. The assessment is administrated by our human factors specialist and our maritime director, and the product can be fitted for candidates who are either promoted or newly hired.

We tailor the assessment to our clients’ needs. However, we recommend an assessment that follow three stages: 1. Job analysis. 2. Ability and personality tests, 3. Simulator evaluation.

Assessment method

  1. We first conduct a job analysis together with our client and learn about the ship demands and success criteria for the job.
  2. Thereafter, we gather information about the candidate’s abilities and personality and assess fit with the job. We use research-based tests that are highly reliable and rigorously tested from the firm Human Content.
    1. First, the candidate conducts a general ability test that reflect the ability in analysing and solving complex tasks, ability to learn, and finding good solutions.
    2. Secondly, the candidate conducts a personality test which provide information on which type of work situations they are likely to thrive in, and which situations they are likely to feel challenged by. This information is vital, because we know that people are not perfect, and we know that performing well in challenging situations can be trained on.  
  3. In the last stage the candidate performs in the simulator and we have several different types of scenarios that fit different types of work-roles on a boat, including both bridge crew and engine crew. In the simulator, we get to see the candidate’s performance related to the specific job-role, and they are also evaluated on their social and cognitive skills with the 4 NOTECHS categories; decision making, situational awareness, cooperation and leadership.

The assessment can be conducted either exclusively for one or more candidates, or for candidates who already participate on several of our courses such as:

  • Bridge Resource Management in accordance with IMO Model Course 1.22 and 1.39.
  • Engine Room Resource Management in accordance with IMO Model Course 2.07.

The client and the candidate receive a final report that contains a conclusion, and evaluations on which strengths and developmental potential that we see in the candidate.

If you have questions about our assessment product you can contact our Human Factors specialist Felix Anker Klein at fak@simsea.no