NAVEX > Case Studies > Bernhard Schulte Ship Management: NAVEX Customer Success Story

Bernhard Schulte Ship Management: NAVEX Customer Success Story

Customer Company Size

Large Corporate

Region

Asia
Europe
Africa
America

Product

NAVEX EthicsPoint

Implementation Scale

Enterprise-wide Deployment

Impact Metrics

Customer Satisfaction
Employee Satisfaction

Technology Category

Functional Applications - Remote Monitoring & Control Systems

Applicable Industries

Marine & Shipping

Applicable Functions

Human Resources
Quality Assurance

Use Cases

Remote Asset Management

About The Customer

Bernhard Schulte Ship Management (BSM) is a ship management provider that transports assets worldwide. Contracted employees cover nearly one hundred different nationalities working across vessels operating internationally. Though BSM has offices across the globe, the organization’s focus is in Europe and Asia. They have a growing office in West Africa and some operations out of Latin America. The organization has continued to use NAVEX EthicsPoint Hotline & Incident Management after NAVEX acquired its original platform provider.

The Challenge

Bernhard Schulte Ship Management (BSM) faced the challenge of managing a diverse, non-permanent workforce that changes with contract timelines. This was particularly difficult on operating ships where resources, consistent online access and dedicated HR and whistleblowing management personnel are limited. The company needed a way to govern how these different backgrounds interacted and worked with each other, allowing people to voice concerns, raise safety issues and report misconduct easily. Additionally, regional requirements, including varied language support and contact information, had to be managed effectively.

The Solution

BSM adopted NAVEX EthicsPoint to address its challenges. As BSM’s workforce rotates with set contract periods, an essential step for EthicsPoint’s successful use is materials for promoting awareness. On signing contracts, new employees receive physical resources with scannable barcodes and regular updates on speak-up. Accessibility information is announced quarterly through an ethics bulletin, and BSM also uses posters promoting the use of the system to raise any issues. EthicsPoint’s anonymous reporting intake provides BSM with a straightforward way of assessing potential ethical, compliance risks, and safety concerns raised onboard its ships. A feature handy to the organization is its ability to create reports based on reporting data; this allows them to stay atop of safety concerns reported by employees before they become a more significant risk to the business.

Operational Impact

EthicsPoint helps support the company’s diversity policy by allowing BSM to look into reports quickly and with sensitivity.
EthicsPoint’s reporting features enable them to identify trends, meaning any issues or incidents identified can be addressed with training and briefings to help prevent future miscommunications and mitigate friction between crewmates.
The feedback from anonymous reporters whose cases have been cleared is positive, with the majority stating that they would recommend using the system to their colleagues.
Though promoting the use of EthicsPoint among a regularly changing crew is a work in progress, BSM has been able to resolve the majority of reports received internally.