Customers are the core of what we do, and their satisfaction is paramount to us. Therefore, in keeping with our LRQA ISO standards and in order to identify areas for improvement in our services, we have recently conducted an extensive satisfaction survey, which we have sent to clients, candidates and management contacts. Initial responses have been extremely favourable and we look forward to reporting more on the results in our June News.
We have been establishing an interesting working partnership with a UK based company, who specialize in sourcing true Gurkhas. This company would work alongside wilsonhalligan in supplying dedicated security/deckhands to our Clients. After a number of meetings with them and subsequent Gurkha interviews, in our offices, we are extremely confident of their credibility and capability to supply.
Jim had a particularly busy month with commercial surveys and consultancy work, recently taking in visits and surveys in South Korea, Dubai, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia before heading back to sunny Hamble. He now needs to spend some time in the UK to catch up with his survey reports before taking on any more travelling!
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During April Jim was occupied providing technical services for his clients, he found himself in Italy, Norway and Sweden during the Month.
In Italy he conducted a general condition survey and trials on a large yacht; this was followed by a trip to Norway for supervising the commissioning of 2 x 4500kW Rolls Royce azimuth propulsor units and drives. A visit to Sweden was undertaken to report on the progress of 2 x gas turbine units currently undergoing assembly.
Jim remains available to provide technical support and survey services and welcomes enquiries/contact from potential clients. Jim can be contacted by e-mail:- jim@WHyachts.com or mobile phone 0044 (0)7703 531952.
All members of our team have now undergone training for working with our new database. This was a breeze for John and Ed, but an altogether different experience for Terry and Lin: being from the “BC” generation (Before Computers) and generally self taught to date, they certainly got their monies worth from the trainer, in almost personal tuition!
Continuing his familiarity in the ways of wilsonhalligan, John was despatched to Antibes to attend the recent Yacht Show. As all who attended will know, the weather wasn’t exactly conducive to the fun in the sun culture associated with the yachting lifestyle. Despite this he reported that the atmosphere was great, with a lot of meeting, greeting and smiling faces.
Terry attended a management conference in Monaco, hosted by The Yacht Report, on the subject of Manning. It turned out to be an excellent, thought-provoking conference generated by a panel of speakers and questions from the delegates. It seems that, despite his personal vow of silence, Terry found himself compelled to take the microphone on a number of occasions. This is no real surprise to the rest of us here who know how passionate he is about recruitment, selection and the issues/challenges involved. When the transcripts are published on Synfo.com later this month, we can only hope that he represented our philosophy well and made some sense at least!
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In March we reached the end of our operating year enabling us to reflect back on our achievements and progress, the year has been particularly busy as the company grows from strength to strength. We continue to value the support of our clients and candidates alike and for the many kind references received.
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In March a significant achievement was the award of a Certificate from Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance confirming our compliance with the ISO 9001:2000 Quality Management standard for “Large Yacht Recruitment Services” – perhaps the only specialist “large yacht recruitment” company to achieve and operate to this benchmark. Our thanks to Bruce Rees (our consultant) and Lin, for their part in making this happen.
During March we also took delivery of a new database and server that will enable us to better handle our enquiries and generally allow us to operate even more efficiently. Training days at the Database Administrators’ offices have been planned for all of the team to take place during April, enabling us to transfer data and operate the new system later in the month.
Terry has been travelling and spent some time in Europe catching up with a number of the large yachts currently undergoing build or refurbishment and meeting with Managers, Captains and Crew.
For those crew members located in the south of France you may have heard our latest advertising initiative with Riviera Radio being one of the most listened to radio stations by yacht crews in the area. We continue to seek CVs from candidates holding STCW 95 certificates and will be monitoring the effectiveness of the radio media as part of our future advertising campaign.
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Having been confined to our desks this month, we are now starting to see the new Mediterranean season about to start and can’t wait to get involved. Yachts are very much about (regulated) ‘fun in the sun’ and we don’t see much of the latter in Hamble, UK, in February!
This month, preparations have been made to enhance our office technology with investment in a new server and database, for delivery next month. With the growth of the business, this is essential for us to cope more easily with quantity of applications and job requests enabling us to more quickly identify qualified and available candidates. In short, this should improve our service to both Clients and Candidates. We would assure you all however, that to us, technology is never a substitute for personal service – so we continue to welcome phone calls and visits and value the individual discussions we have with many of you.
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After the Christmas festivities, January has been a quiet ‘news month’: the office soon settling back to operating in a familiar routine, with everyone remaining active in handling existing and new instructions, including requirements from new clients.
Lin accompanied Jim on a short visit to Monaco and while Jim was having his meetings, she had the opportunity to meet up with some past placements - who appeared happy with their positions and future prospects. Later both Lin and Jim spotted a yacht well known to us and were particularly welcomed by the Captain, whom they had both known for a number of years.
We are in our final phase of meeting the ISO 9001 Quality Management standard, following good feedback from an internal audit conducted by a third party assessor. We now look forward to welcoming Lloyds Register Quality Assurance to conduct their compliance audit during March 2008.
It has been pleasing that we have had an increasing number of personal visits to the office during this month – which is always pleasant and encouraging. It reminds us to say that we are always very happy to meet with candidates, clients, old friends and colleagues alike. There is always a ‘brew on the go’…
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At the year end, December is always a month for business consolidation and the opportunity for a bit of fun and some relaxation over the Christmas period.
Since we commenced operations, roughly 12 months ago, we can look back with some justifiable pride – and not a little relief – that, from an operation that started with no registered Clients or Candidates, we have come to our position of business stability today. As ever, we have the tremendous support of our Clients and Candidates to thank for this.
As far as festive frivolities are concerned, we had a great Christmas lunch with our informal partners Inserve Yachts Limited, who are ‘neighbours’ in the Hamble area. We also had a brilliant Christmas ‘bash’ for employees and their partners. Can’t wait until next year…
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November has been another busy month and in order to continue to be able to provide the level of service we like to offer to our clients we are delighted to welcome John Luckhurst to wilsonhalligan.
John joins us from another large recruitment company and will initially be taking responsibility for the recruitment of deck ratings and interior positions under Terry’s early guidance. As part of his induction John joined Terry on a recent trip to Antibes where he was introduced to some of our Clients and was able to board a number of large yachts and meet with the Captain’s and crew.
“I believe I have all the tools and support in place to succeed within wilsonhalligan; my intention is to maintain the company ethos of providing quality staff to the large yacht industry, by building strong people relationships and ensuring careful selection of candidates”
John Luckhurst
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Terry convinced us, and almost himself, that it was a networking exercise – he went to Palma for a game of golf! That was the reality of being involved in the annual Pinmar Golf Event. Terry felt privileged to be accommodated for 3 or 4 days on a lovely large yacht in Palma, the guest of the Captain, and at the Event by Darrell Bell of Ariadne Yacht Management.
In its 19th Year, the black tie dinner was supported by upwards of 700 of the yacht world’s finest…and then there was Darrell and Terry! Proceeds of the Event were donated to charity, but it is rumoured that comments about the standard of golf of the Ariadne/wilsonhalligan team were (not surprisingly) most uncharitable!! Terry says he really must go next year - to represent us better??
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During October we welcomed Ed Hamilton to wilsonhalligan providing Adminstrative support to the business; Ed’s family connections working on large yachts have enabled him to experience life on board and provide him with an appreciation of the work covered by the crew on board.
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September proved to be a busy month whereby we all took ourselves off to Monaco for the week for the Boat Show. Terry planned to take his family for a well-earned break, and apartments and flights were booked well in advance. So you would think there should not have been any problems?
The night before travel Angela (Terry's wife) was packing her passport only to find that it had expired!! (After the tears), she was appropriately ridiculed having, weeks earlier, insisted the family double-check their own. Angela managed to join the family a day later thanks to the London Passport office and an Easyjet flight from Gatwick!
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 The Monaco Boat Show proved to be a terrific venue for Terry and Lin enabling them to meet up with Clients and Candidates alike, while Jim’s engineering interests allowed him to visit the technical exhibitor’s displays enabling him to meet with familiar faces while keeping abreast of the latest equipment.
Later, Lin spotted Jim at the MTU engine Stand and during dinner that evening caught him totally off-guard by asking why he never looks at her in the same way as he was admiring the engine on display!
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In this our first year of operation, it is not intended that we take a 'stand' at this year's Monaco Yacht Show (Wednesday 19th to Saturday 22nd September) however arrangements are already in hand to have a wilsonhalligan stand ready for next year.
In the meantime, we will be attending this years boat show to 'walk the boards' and look forward to meeting as many of our Client and Candidate colleagues, as time and circumstances permit.
Terry will be attending throughout the show, should you wish to make an appointment to meet up, then please contact him on +44 7809 606 111, or to our office no. +44 2380 458 652 for the days preceding the show.
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During August, Bruce Rees from BPR Consultants attended our office to provide the necessary training for embarking on the development of our quality management system to meet with the ISO standards.
Amongst his questioning, he asked if we had any evidence of keeping contact with candidates we had assigned. Lin misunderstood the request and (with the innocence of youth??) stated that we often received jokes by e-mail from some placed candidates and proceeded to show him some mails of the most recent as examples - which to Lin's embarrassment when read were largely of an adult content!
Although not exactly what the Consultant was looking for - he seemed satisfied and enjoyed reading the Candidates jokes so much that he has requested to be put on a forwarding list!
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 On a social note, Terry is a bit of a 'motorhead' (minus the practical skills!). Hence he made his annual pilgrimage to the Goodwood motor circuit for the Revival Meeting Weekend. Many sad old car addicts attend in period dress, and the photo below shows Terry's contribution. (The land-army girl is his long suffering wife, Angela).
Some say it will have been a challenge for Terry to make himself look any older than he already is..
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| Jim had a yacht survey to undertake in Antibes, so Lin took the opportunity to join him on this trip to meet up with some of the crew placed by us, while also marketing our services to others. The visit coincided with the Showboats International rendezvous in Monaco, so naturally a slight diversion with a lunch in Monaco was deemed necessary. A number of large yachts were in port for this event dressed overall, making for some good photo opportunities for the cover of our new brochure. |
| ISO 9001-2000 - We are delighted to have appointed BPR consultants to assist the company towards developing a formal quality management system enabling wilsonhalligan to operate and meet with the ISO standards. BPR were selected due to their marine experience and understanding of our business as a crewing consultancy. |
| Terry set off for Nice and Monaco, full of praise for the ease of the Southampton/Nice Flybe service. He was decidedly unimpressed though with his return leg involving a 5 hour wait at Nice, an unplanned diversion to Birmingham and a coach trip to Southampton arriving 0430 hrs. Worst by far however, was the €7.50 miserly meal allowance from the airline which (for those who know Terry) wouldn't keep him in crisps and mars bars! |
| Terry made a recruiting and networking visit to Antibes. He undertook a number of local interviews while meeting with some of the Captains from the local yachts to discuss crewing issues - this continued into the evening as he found himself being led astray at the local yacht bars (you know who you are!). |
| June turned out to be a particularly busy month for making placements, and we were pleased to be able to serve our increasing Client base well in this respect. We appreciate the support and encouragement received from our Clients as we continue to strive to look after their interests. |
| The early part of the season is always a busy time with crewing requirements as yachts become fully manned to undertake the European cruising season. |
| A requirement for crew vetting was requested by one of our Clients, who was seeking to ensure compliance with legislation contained within ISPS (Ship Security Code) and the ISM Code. In co-operation with Inserve Yachts, procedures have been developed to meet with the flag requirements enabling us to progress this and future enquiries. |
| Wall of fame - during the early days of the office tenure we thought it would be a good idea to have a "wall of fame" for pictures of those yachts for whom we have recruited (given the appropriate permissions!). This was obviously not thought through too well, as we have already filled our main wall and could soon be running out of space! The decision now is whether to reduce the picture sizes or ring the changes from time to time by rotating the pictures on the wall - the latter carries some risk, in that when a Client visits, we must ensure the appropriate photographs of their yacht(s) are on display! |
| We start our first news bulletin from April 2007 when wilsonhalligan broke free of the parent company Offshore Maritime Ltd and formed a Limited Company in its own right - wilsonhalligan Ltd which has 3 Directors. |
| Terry Wilson states ... "on starting wilsonhalligan, it was always an early objective to achieve a financial footing whereby we could form a limited company and establish ourselves as a wholly independent and private recruitment company, able to maintain total impartiality in crew selection and placement. |
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