I have spent the past six years working in crew recruitment and have made hundreds of placements in this time, but it still strikes me how very few people know how to effectively communicate with yacht crew agencies.
This is true not just with yacht crew candidates, but also clients, and this blog highlights what we need from you in order to maximise success in both your job and candidate search.
Yacht crew candidates
Pre-placement
Effective communication with yacht crew agencies is first and foremost about honesty.
Be completely transparent about what you are looking for in your next role as well as letting your agent know if your expectations or requirements have changed during the process. Understanding your goals from the outset will help us to place you onto the right yacht where you will flourish and be happy!
During the job search
Regular check-ins during the yacht job search process are also crucial.
If your circumstances or availability has changed, let us know. If you have accepted a role, let us know. If you have been contacted directly by a yacht for interview, let us know. Likewise, if you’re having second thoughts prior to the interview, we need to know too.
We can provide advice and guidance on how to put your best foot forward in the interview, but also, if something is not for you, we can pull you from the running and communicate with the yacht. Telling white lies to let a boat down gently is not a good look for you or for us, especially if we’ve told the yacht it’s exactly what you are looking for.
Once onboard
If you have recently joined a yacht and are having doubts or issues, speak to your yacht crew agent. In many situations, we can help to resolve any problems.
Talking things through gives you and us the opportunity to explore potential solutions and speak to the yacht on your behalf.
But rest assured, we only work with the best yachts and try and follow a recruitment process based on two-way communication so we can place the best candidates on their ideal yachts, so this is a rare occurrence.
This brings me on to my last point here – two-way communication is a clear indicator that you are working with one of the best yacht crew agencies.
It’s just as much our responsibility to respond to you, regularly check-in with you and prompt you for updates when needed.
If you’re not hearing back from agents after knowing you’ve been put forward, that’s a red flag.
Client communication
Pre-placement
The first step in building a successful recruitment process with yacht crew agencies is to provide a detailed job brief.
A short email may be used to save time initially but will drag the process out in the long run by receiving potentially inadequate and unsuitable CVs – and probably more than you need which takes longer to work through.
Rather than you trying to find the time to type this out, we can help you put this together in on a short call, drawing out exactly what it is you are looking for and what is on offer to the prospective candidate.
We love to know what is good about working onboard, crew cultures and any additional skills you might be looking to bring to the team.
During the candidate search
Timely and specific feedback on CVs and cover letters provided is paramount. If we aren’t quite hitting the mark, or you’ve realised you require an additional skill or two, this will enable us to hone our search.
Be as honest as possible, blunt even. It will make further shortlisting much easier and will give us tangible feedback to pass on to the candidates.
Let us know as soon as possible if you plan to reach out to candidates for interviews too. I often hear from candidates that they have interviewed for a position we submitted them for after the event, but not heard from the yacht.
We can not only help facilitate the interview date and time, but ensure any communication doesn’t get lost, such as falling into a junk folder.
Once onboard
Yacht crew agencies should be there to support you post-placement as well so get in touch if there is an issue with a candidate early doors.
If you’ve recently had a candidate join you but things don’t seem to be working out for various reasons, reach out. We can offer guidance on how best to manage the situation and if needed, speak to the candidate.
We’d also love to hear from you if you’ve recruited a candidate yourself and they aren’t a good fit. We always have some great yacht crew candidates on the books and might be able to provide you with a suitable replacement in a timely manner!
