Mission to Seafarers launches shore-based wellbeing index

The Mission to Seafarers is extending its welfare measurement work beyond the ship’s rail, launching a new Shorebased Happiness Index to capture the wellbeing of maritime professionals working on land for the first time.

The new index mirrors the methodology of the charity’s established Seafarers Happiness Index – which has tracked crew welfare for nearly a decade – and will use a 10-question, 1-to-10-scale survey targeting those working in shipmanagement, port operations, maritime law, insurance, logistics, finance and technology.

The goal is to create the first comprehensive picture of wellbeing across the entire maritime ecosystem, enabling direct comparisons between life at sea and life ashore, and providing data to drive improvements in workplace culture, retention and welfare policy.

Steven Jones, founder of both indices, said the expansion reflects a long-held belief that seafarer welfare cannot be understood in isolation. “We have spent years measuring happiness at sea. Now it is time to measure the wellbeing of the people ashore whose decisions shape life onboard,” he said. “If we want happier, safer, and more supported seafarers, we need to understand the pressures and realities on both sides of the ship-shore divide.”

Ben Bailey, director of programme at the Mission to Seafarers, said: “ShoreHI is the next step, connecting both sides of the sector so we can move from anecdote to evidence, and target the changes that will have the greatest impact on wellbeing across the maritime workforce.”

The survey will be anonymous and built on existing index infrastructure to keep additional resource requirements to a minimum. Results will over time be aggregated alongside seafarer findings to build the most complete picture yet of how work and organisational culture interact across global maritime operations.

source : splash247