All Aboard Alliance

Background

The All Aboard Alliance was created by a group of senior maritime leaders who agreed that action had to be taken to make the industry more diverse, inclusive, and attractive and ensure equitable opportunities for everyone. The Global Maritime Forum worked closely with these senior leaders to design the All Aboard Alliance, which was launched in May 2022 with 25 member companies. Since then, the Alliance has grown by approximately five new member companies per year.

Members

The All Aboard Alliance brings together senior leaders, HR personnel, subject matter experts, and relevant employees to identify global diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) challenges and work on possible solutions. Member companies include leading shipping firms and other organisations involved in global supply chains. Each company commits to appointing a C-suite leader as a business sponsor who will meet twice a year with other business sponsors to align on collective challenges and solutions. The Alliance is supported by founding knowledge partners the Global Maritime Forum, Diversity Study Group, and Swiss Re.

Activities

The Alliance has two workstreams—‘Diversity@Sea’ and ‘Diversifying Maritime Leadership’—in which member companies and experts collaborate to drive more practical progress. When joining the Alliance, members commit to implementing the five All Aboard Principles on accountability, learning and development, organisational culture, data, and communications into their internal practices and procedures and to report on their progress each year. Their self-reporting is the basis of the annual Aboard Alliance Insights report, which highlights key tendencies, shares best practices, and recommends steps to progress. The Alliance also publishes member newsletters and hosts webinars about DEI-related topics.

Impact

The All Aboard Alliance seeks to drive collaboration that will make the maritime industry more diverse, equitable, and inclusive. It does this by addressing three structural long-term challenges: a global talent shortage both at sea and on shore, stakeholder expectations to do better on DEI, and the need for increased innovation.

As part of this, the Alliance developed a Maturity Analysis Framework combining in-depth knowledge of the maritime sector with learnings from other industries. This identified four key stages of DEI maturity for each of the All Aboard Principles: Starting out, Developing, Advancing, and Leading. This framework was created to assist member companies in assessing their DEI maturity, provide guidance on important strategic considerations, and identify next steps.