Since January, the escalating COVID-19 outbreak has had significant disruptive impact for businesses and individuals. While some sectors of Maritime Singapore have been holding up so far, some segments (e.g. harbour craft) have been more adversely affected because of the enhanced social distancing measures.

The role of CHROs has never been more important as CHROs are now charged with the responsibility to make difficult decisions that would affect the livelihoods of their employees and the broader community that the company serves. Some of these decisions include: ensuring public health while keeping business afloat, changing benefits and compensation policies (temporary or permanent), looking after mental well-being, procuring and implementing remote working tools across the entire company, furloughs and retrenchments.

In this webinar hosted by Maritime Port Authority (MPA), Eng Hup Shipping is proud to be invited as one of the panel speakers, sharing our experience in managing the challenges posed by the pandemic.

When COVID-19 was first announced a couple of months ago, our team came together to formulate strategies to navigate through the outbreak, and we came up with a 3R approach – Ready, Responsive and Resilient.

Ready

Firstly, being Ready. This meant taking on the mindset that it is not a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when’ the crisis will hit us. We need to position ourselves to be ever-ready to manage any issues which might arise. Coming up with a COVID Business Continuity Plan (BCP) was then all very new to us. We realised the importance of communication, to ensure that everyone in the company is constantly being updated and is fully aware of their roles and responsibilities in ensuring proper execution of the BCP. Besides the basic measures of masks, sanitisers and safe distancing markers, we also came up with drills and conducted dry-runs in our shipyard and vessels in the event that any of our employees were to be diagnosed with COVID-19.

Responsive

Secondly, being Responsive. The situation is rapidly evolving, and we need to be able to react quickly to any change. In fact, we have reached the 9^th revised version of our BCP and are still constantly adapting along the way. Recalling the Malaysia lock-down announcement, we had less than a day to arrange for return trips for our Malaysian employees and find accommodation for them in Singapore. Right down to the last minute before midnight, our team was anxiously waiting to ensure all our Malaysian colleagues made it across the causeway. When the outbreak first began, our team made the decision to shift our workers out of the dormitories as a precautionary measure which helped us to sustain our operations.

Resilient

Thirdly, being Resilient. We took the opportunity to re-group and strengthen. At this moment, our vessels are back at base due to various project suspension. Instead of passively waiting for projects to resume, we’re leveraging this down-time to maintain, upgrade our vessels and upskill our crew so that we are poised for a strong recovery once the situation recovers.

“This pandemic is going to be a long-haul battle and many of the measures that we have implemented will stay at least for the near future. What is important is to keep a positive attitude to overcome challenges along the way.”

Tommy Phun, Director (Business Development), Eng Hup Shipping

A key takeaway for our team is to not focus on what we have lost but to instead focus on what we have gained. This experience has been painful for many but just by shifting our perspective, we are able to see the situation in a better light.

For Eng Hup Shipping, this meant making use of the down-time to ready our fleet and to identify new growth opportunities. It is very heartening to see how employees standby the company during this period. This experience has taught us the value of being resilient, and we believe Eng Hup Shipping will be equipped and ready to take on other adversities that may come.