Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding is looking for new ways to attract future employees. Now that the market for career fairs and job events has collapsed due to coronavirus restrictions, the company is now mainly recruiting new staff online. Our own employees can help with this – and this is something that will be rewarded.

Among other things, Esther van Oorschot and Jeroen van Mierlo, both Senior HR Advisors at DSNS, work on the subject of recruitment: the process of finding and hiring new employees. Between the beginning of the year and September, about 70 new colleagues have joined the team. At this moment, there are around 60 job vacancies open.

Esther and Jeroen explain that eighty per cent of the vacancies are for engineering positions. These are primarily needed for the MKS180 project, which is currently in the start-up phase.

It is a challenge to find new people, especially now that DSNS can no longer recruit by visiting universities, colleges, job fairs and career events due to coronavirus restrictions. “Covid-19 has brought all those activities to a standstill,” says Jeroen.

"Every employee is an ambassador for our organisation.”

However, colleagues on the work floor can also contribute to the required expansion of the workforce; they will receive a referral bonus if they successfully introduce a new employee to the company. This is how it works: a DSNS employee will receive €1,000 (gross) if an applicant who receives a contract has indicated in his/her letter of application that the DSNS employee concerned had referred him/her to the vacancy.

Incidentally, the two Senior HR Advisors emphasise that new employees are not only required for the MKS180 project. “We are also looking for specialists for the CSS project, the follow-up of the M-frigates, a project that is still in the proposal phase. And it’s also logical that we need people to replace employees reaching retirement.”

Because of Covid-19, DSNS is now utilising different methods to attract qualified new employees. As usual, Esther and Jeroen compile a profile in advance, considering which requirements candidates must meet, what kind of professional image they must have, and for which projects they are needed. In these times, the actual search process takes place mainly online via Damen’s career page, employment agencies, social media, colleges/universities and job platforms such as the Zeeuwse Vacaturebank.

Such digital recruitment also means that many candidates are interviewed online during their application.

Esther: “This calls for a totally different way of communicating with the employment market.” Her colleague Jeroen adds: “Recruitment is currently a challenging job in challenging times, but our own employees can help with that. That is why the bonus scheme has been introduced. Colleagues can help us by sharing vacancies from the career page with their own network and on their own social media channels. That way, every employee is an ambassador for our organisation.”

For an up-to-date look at all vacancies, visit career.damen.com

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