BW’s employees are central to our mission and vision to be Best on Water. By creating a healthy and diverse workplace onshore and at sea, BW builds a culture of innovation, high performance, and Zero Harm.
BW Wellness Programme
The BW Wellness Programme is designed to promote the holistic well-being of seafarers, while fostering a sense of togetherness onboard and a culture of innovation, high performance, and safety.
Our seafarers are central to our mission and vision to be the Best on Water. We recognise a healthy and diverse work environment, onshore and at sea, is important for fostering a cultural shift throughout the organisation.
Holistic well-being means:
- Physical well-being (where your body is cared for to achieve optimum performance),
- Mental well-being (educating oneself and challenging the mind to learn more)
- Social well-being (connecting well with others)
The BW Wellness Programme offers a variety of activities that can be chosen based on individual preferences and schedules. A unique aspect about the programme are the Inter-Vessel Challenges, which allow seafarers from different vessels within BW to participate in friendly competitions for greater camaraderie.
The Programme also encourages seafarers to create their own challenges, with monthly recognition for top-performing vessels.
It also utilises the internet and mobile-enabled platforms to provide a personalized experience, based on individual health data, including meal plans, exercise reminders, and mindfulness exercises. Crew members can easily access areas of interest, including fitness, nutrition wellness and education.
In 2022, BW conducted online Ambassador Trainings for selected seafarers who serve as Wellness Ambassadors onboard. They play a vital role in engaging everyone onboard, and serve as a liaison point for feedback and support between the ship and shore-based wellness teams.
For example, the Programme may suggest meal plans for crew members, remind them to exercise to burn off excess calories, ask them to plan a game to bond with colleagues or encourage them to improve their mental health through mindfulness exercises.
In 2021, we amplified World Mental Health Awareness Month, and benefitted from a panel of internal and external speakers who explored how we can each help to break the stigma surrounding mental health.
We provided employees with resources such as access to Insight Timer, a website with guided meditation sessions, offered mindfulness sessions where colleagues explored the neuroscience of our brain, and we ran a mental health awareness pilot training for people managers. We know mental wellbeing matters all year round, and we look forward to further supporting employees with this.
Diversity and Inclusion
BW embraces differences that make our employees unique
BW is committed to diversity and inclusion. The collective sum of individual differences, life experiences, knowledge, capabilities, and talent constitutes our culture. BW embraces differences in age, ethnicity, family and relationships, and all other characteristics that make our employees unique.
Currently, over half of BW’s employees from over 60 nationalities are between 30-50 years old, with 16.4% below
30 and 22.6% above 50,
forming a multigenerational and international team. We support the development of our employees throughout their BW journey, and we’re proud that so many of our people choose to remain at BW for a long time.
Gender Diversity
According to the IMO, women represent just 2% of the 1.6 million seafarers globally, and 94% of these women have chosen to work in the cruise industry.They represent only 2% of the world’s seafarers, and 94% of that small number have chosen to work in the cruise industry. For onshore positions, the balance is better, and most of our offices an average of over 30% female employees.
Local recruitment and training
We are committed to developing employees, and we ensure our development programme shortlists are
representative of our diverse workforce. In 2022 we launched Voyager, a senior leadership development programme designed to equip colleagues with the awareness and capabilities they need to lead in an increasingly uncertain world. We are pleased to have delegates from multiple affiliates and anticipate delegates will enjoy broadening their internal network while on the programme.
Regardless of the country BW works in, training and integration is key to a sustainable pool of local seafarers. Having gathered significant experience over the years, we now have an extensive recruitment and training process for ratings (seafarers who support officers).
Familiarising seafarers with BW and shipping culture is also a priority. For example, in Nigeria, we set up the BW Crew Integration Program to bridge cultural and language differences and develop positive relationships across people of different ranks.
Beyond providing job opportunities for locals in the areas where we do business, BW has set up the BW Group Cadet program to develop our own in-house talent around the world. Having this talent pool ensures a steady supply of officers to all our managed vessels.
Cadets selected from ratings and maritime academies are fully sponsored by BW to pursue their maritime university studies. Over the years, BW has developed more than 1810 cadets from the Philippines, India, China, Nigeria, Russia, Romania and other countries. 663 of them currently sail as BW Officers today.
