Talking superyacht industry recruitment and best practice with YPI Crew

Laurence Lewis, director at leading crew agency, YPI Crew, recently published an article in the Crew Report looking at yacht crew recruitment protocols within the superyacht industry. Analysing the processes that crew agencies tend to go through when recruiting, Laurence argued that the route to employment should command a fair outlook by all parties involved.

Laurence explained how, after spending hours working on an assignment to build a shortlist of interested, suitable, reference-checked, available and basically ‘on brief’ candidates, it’s all too common to hear, “I received that CV from someone else this morning”, or “A friend of mine has recommended this candidate, so I am already familiar with them.”

The article goes on to state how good practice is to reward the recruiter who gives added value to the client, explaining how they sometimes think naively that, by putting several agencies in competition they will get a better service. However in reality, it’s the complete opposite taking place as speed becomes more important than quality, as the first agency to supply the candidates to the recruiter will ultimately be the one who takes credit.

That’s when, according to Laurence, the client gets bombarded with a lot of CVs, as recruiters race to send candidates regardless of whether they are suitable, available or even interested; the aim to get the candidate to the client before the other agency does.

The article explains, “Of course, the recruiter who focuses on quality and does a search, trying to match skills and personalities to present the five most suitable candidates for any given position, will come last as this work is often time-consuming. Should the recruiter not be awarded a placement because of that? Of course not, as therein lies the recruiter’s true added value and raison d’etre.

“A client is paying a fee for an intelligent selection of candidates that will result in a placement, not for a mountain of CVs under which the successful candidate’s CV is lost and buried.”

Laurence finishes by clarifying that recruitment protocol can be disarmingly simple, and it’s just a matter of being fair. The Crew Report article concludes, “Sometimes being fair is acknowledging that perhaps two good recruiters from competing agencies have each tried their very best to assist in representing and championing the same candidate. If this happens, you’ll find that both agencies will probably agree with you that a split fee is the best way forward.”

View the full article here, or for more information on YPI Crew, visit www.ypicrew.com.