Publication:Sea Talk Winter 2005/Flexi-crewing trial ... how it should work

By LCDR Anne Faulconbridge SO Sea Change Implementation Team

Flexi-crewing is one of the higher profile Sea Change initiatives and addresses several of the key areas that Navy is trying to improve for its people. In fact, the Sea Change Implementation Team (SCIT) has worked hard to ensure that people do not think that flexi-crewing is Sea Change .

Flexi-crewing has been widely discussed, but to recap briefly, flexi-crewing proposes significant changes to the crewing of Major Fleet Units (MFUs). In very simple terms, flexi-crewing enhances the crew requirement for MFUs by adding extra people to the crew, to ensure that no junior sailor needs to be required for duty for more than an average of 225 days in any one year.

Flexi-crewing aims to achieve significant improvements in junior sailor satisfaction with their ship postings, by:

Improving geographic stability, thereby reducing attrition (with more junior sailors re-engaging for a second period of service);

• Improving home/work life balance;
• Changing workloads both in ships and ashore by eliminating non-productive activity;
• Improving opportunities for junior sailors (initially) to access education and training for their personal development; and
• Examining schemes of complement to ensure a better cross-category balance of work, especially for critically short categories (as a longer-term initiative).

The Autumn edition of SeaTalk , said that the flexi-crewing trial would begin in July this year and Sea Change is on track to meet this target date.

The flexi-crewing trial involves the two west-based ANZAC Class frigates, HMAS Arunta (from July 1) and HMAS Warramunga (from September). Progress towards the flexi-crewing trial includes:

• A total 32 additional junior sailors have been posted to Arunta and others are being posted to Warramunga ;
• Negotiations are taking place with shore establishments to allow the offset positions to be 'frozen' for the period of the trial. This will ensure that the additional people required for flexi-crewing can be posted to the ships, without adversely affecting category sizes or recruiting targets, and with minimal impact on the 'losing' shore establishments.
• The Crewing Administration Cell (to work with the Ships' Warrant Officers) came on line last month to support the crewing processes mandated by flexi- crewing. The flexi-crewing process includes:

• • Managing rotation on and off the ship to achieve leave and training when required;
  • Ensuring that not more than 225 'required-for-duty' days are worked each year - or if it is operationally necessary to exceed that amount in any one year, that such sailors get reduced 'required-for- duty' days in the next year to compensate, so that they do not work more than 450 days in two years;
  • Ensuring that people landed for various reasons (including medical, compassionate and disciplinary) are looked after while ashore;
  • Monitoring each junior sailor to ensure they enjoy the benefits of flexi-crewing as planned; and
  • Providing a continuous link between the ship and shore authorities in relation to training, health services, management of ineffectives, ship crew planning, movements and postings.

The outcomes of the flexi-crewing trial will be measured carefully by an independent evaluation team.

Baseline measures for the trial have established the current experience of the ships. This baseline will be used to monitor and evaluate the performance of the trial. Some of the indicators that will be used to monitor performance include untaken leave balances, training backlogs, and'provisional protection on promotion'. Ultimately, the evaluation process will determine whether junior sailors are getting a better deal with flexi-crewing.

Two other parts of the evaluation are monitoring changes in ship capability by the Sea Training Group and a series of opinion surveys to measure people's perceptions and views about flexi-crewing.

In the coming weeks, the flexi-crewing concept will become reality - another step towards a better future for Navy. Further detail on flexi-crewing is available at http://intranet.defence.gov.au/NavyWeb/sites/SeaChange.