Safmarine has been honoured by leading shipping publication Containerisation International (CI) after it presented the South Africa-based shipping line with the 'Investment in People of the Year award.
John Fossey, editor of CI, said that it was the aim of the publication to recognise those in the shipping industry for their innovative ideas and new services in the container shipping environment.
A judging panel met in July to review entries received for the event and draw up a shortlist, with the winners announced this week.
The Investment in People category was well supported with the judges reportedly impressed by the high standard of the submissions, which demonstrated how important staff are, and what can be achieved in terms of performance and branding by putting in place the right motivational and training programmes, according to panellist James Tweed, managing director at Coracle online.
Receiving the award on behalf of the company, Safmarine's global human resources director Con De Ruig commented: 'We rolled out classroom training on our new CRM system for over 600 sales staff; we conducted face-to-face change management coaching to all directors worldwide; we had 72 teams of six people from 80 Safmarine countries in Belgium in June to enjoy teambuilding activities with customers and colleagues and we have annual Safmarine Way and Customer Care awards with an online voting system where customers and staff can vote for Safmariners.
“These are just some examples of what we have done to secure the high level of engagement scores we have achieved with Safmariners in the previous year,' he added. 'With the recently announced changes to its organisational structure, Safmarine faces its greatest ever test and will, through its people, continue to serve customers in the Safmarine Way.'
