The third meeting of the British Ports Association’s (BPA) Human Resources and Employment Network took place last week in London. HR specialists from a wide range of UK ports met to discuss common challenges facing the industry.
The third meeting of the British Ports Association’s (BPA) Human Resources and Employment Network took place last week in London.
HR specialists from a wide range of UK ports met to discuss common challenges facing the industry, network and hear from a number of guest speakers.
Members were joined by Pete Jenkins, founder of Gamification+ Ltd and researcher in gamification in HR at the Centre for Research on Management & Employment. The foundations of game design can be successfully applied to businesses outside of the scope of traditional gaming, such as recruitment, retention and boosting productivity. Pete spoke on a number of innovative opportunities available to the sector, he said:
“It was great to be invited to speak to the BPA Network and to introduce ideas for how gamification could be incorporated into Ports.
With creative and strategic thinking games can be utilised to increase staff engagement and it was excellent that the ideas explored were met with such enthusiasm by the BPA Network.”
Additionally, and with the sharing of best practice at the core of the Human Resources and Employment Network, Head of Human Resources at Ports of Jersey and member of the network Hannah Gleave, provided an overview of the Ports of Jersey’s “Reward project”.
The presentation was very well received and valuable for other members of the network to be able to learn from the outcomes of this project.
Future challenges for the network were also discussed and a number of subject specific seminars over the coming months will be held on issues of particular interest.
Nicky Goldsbrough, chair of the network, said:
“The ports industry supports over 344,000 thousand jobs across the UK and so it is vital that we stay on top of evolving employment law, as well as longer-term cultural and demographic changes.
With so many challenges facing ports of all sizes, it was fantastic to have colleagues from across the industry meet and share best practice.
The network and the wider industry is committed to working together to remain a forward-thinking industry and a provider of high-quality jobs.”