Human Capital
JL’s human resources are a vital precondition for our value creation, and the personal and professional qualifications of staff are critical for the ongoing development of JL’s business activities and our endeavours to become a world class shipping company.
Globalisation, changes in the competitive environment, increasing complexity and demands for business acumen, technology, finance, IT and compliance with increasing national and international regulatory requirements constantly impose new, tougher demands on our employees.
Hence, it is imperative for JL to attract, develop, retain and further develop staff who by virtue of their professional, personal and leadership qualifications can support JL’s business strategies.
In 2005, JL recruited the greatest number of new staff for many years and it was also the year in which JL invested most in Competence development.
Recruitment and retention of well qualified staff
JL is constantly aware of ever increasing competition at sea and ashore in attracting the best suited employees. Especially at JL’s head office in Copenhagen, we have seen that competition for the most qualified staff has increased as a result of the upturn in the Danish shipping industry. But our overseas offices, too, have reported a rise in demand for skilled staff with international experience.
More than ever, JL’s trainee programme and the development of staff competencies thus play a very important role in JL’s human resource strategy.
The shipping trainee programme serves as a platform for coming professional shipping staff in operations and chartering – with the potential to become part of key management. Over the past couple of years, the Danish shipping industry has improved the standards of the theoretical education for shipping trainess. As an important employer, JL also contributes to the education of trainees within other fields such as finance, purchasing and logistics. As a result of increasing commercial and managerial complexity, JL is also recruiting an ever rising number of staff who have graduated from business schools and/or universities.
Competence development
In 2005, JL invested the largest amount for many years in Competence development. JL employees enjoy continuous training and education, the purpose of which is to qualify them for the challenges in a globalised world. In 2005, JL held in-house seminars, offered language courses and continued with the internal leadership programme that was initiated in 2004. Some staff are also attending executive programmes, including MBA studies at leading international business schools.
JL uses various assessment tools when determining the need for competence development. All employees including management have annual appraisals. In 2005, JL continued the development of competence profiles and 2006 will see competence profiles set up for all job categories.
In addition, JL’s annual Company Performance Driver (CPD) survey provides an overall assessment of our ability to perform not only within selected areas of business but also in terms of human relations. In 2005, the CPD gave a result of 3.99 on a scale of 5, which was a significant improvement on the 3.65 recorded for the previous year.
Maritime personnel
JL has decided as part of its overarching strategy to retain marine engineering and operational skills in-house. JL tonnage will also to a certain extent remain under the DIS registry and will be manned by Danish officers. In so doing, JL is contributing to the expansion of the Danish shipping sector in general and to ensuring access to well qualified, well trained personnel.
JL also endeavours to make a difference at sea, partly by way of special incentive schemes for good officership, such as the TEAMSHIP and Zero Remarks schemes.
Terms of employment
JL offers attractive terms of employment not just by way of competitive employment packages (salary, pension, bonus schemes, health insurance and other benefits), but also by way of challenging careers at head office and/or the overseas offices, competence development, and job rotation.
HR Profile
At year-end, the total number of employees was 907, an increase of 57 compared to year-end 2004. The increase relates to the South American activities (up 211 primarily at terminals) off-set by a decrease from the partial sale of LauritzenCool (total 158)
Excluding terminal and trucking activities in South America and activities sold as of 1 January 2005, total number of employees was 638 (634 in 2004) of whom 143 were working at head office in Copenhagen (133 in 2004; 31 at overseas offices (24 in 2004); and 464 serving in the fleet (477 in 2004).
Staff turnover in 2005 was 1% at head office; average length of service was 9.4 years and the average age was 43.3. The decline in years of service and average age compared to 2004, when it was 10.8 and 44.4 respectively, was due to a number of younger staff taken during 2005. A good working environment and challenging tasking means that JL has a low level of sick leave.
