Crew Fund

Mark,

Many SS customers welcome the opportunity of thanking SS crew for the great experience they work hard to provide. Although tipping is neither requested or required, many still like to show their appreciation. You will agree that the customer facing people are the “tip of the ice-berg” and that it is a team effort where the people behind the scenes offten receive insufficient appreciation from customers. Some feel however that the Crew Fund lacks a degree of clarity and is opaque and I'd like to suggest an enhancement.

Currently SS presumes that all customers are content to contribute to a charity unless they opt out. This post isn't about discussing the merits or demerits of that, but it does indicate that SS is open to accepting customer contributions to good causes direct from on-baord accounts, and many feel that the crew is a more attractive home for contributions. I'd like to suggest a replacement to the Crew Fund that is both clear, good for SS in providing better pay and conditions to staff, and will give SS's customer's a better way of saying thanks to all SS staff. It is after all teamwork.

The proposal is a note in passengers suites a couple of says before the end of the cruise from the captain that after all the “niceties” reminds customers that tips are neither required or expected, but they may if they wish contribute to the Crew Excellence Bonus Scheme. The scheme in essence is a contribution to a "tronc" fund (you basically ask the passengers how much they would like to contribute making clear it is both anonymous and completely optional) but that the fund is distributed a bit like the tronc system. To be clear the communication will be finessed to ensure it is being done to reflect customers' desire to contribute ... and is not "expected". I visualise the distribution for this as being in very simple terms, that if the amount collected at the end of a 7 days cruise represents say 5% of that ships weekly non-management wage bill then all non-management staff have their wages uplifted by 5% for that week in other words distributed in the ratio of their earnings.

I have suggested that management levels are excluded from the scheme because I simply believe that is the way it should be. I also believe it would be easy to administer and becomes an incentive for all staff to do better and is an indication to them of genuine and more tangible customer appreciation.

This suggestion does have upsides and downsides and I offer it by way of starting the discussion about what is best for SS, it's staff and customers.

I'd appreciate your views on this idea.

Thanks.

Hello UKCruiseJeff,

Great message. The backbone of the company is its employees. Properly compensating our team is a win-win, they benefit personally and are more motivated, which ultimately leads to success for Silversea.

We compensate our staff well, above the industry standard in fact. In doing so, it is our objective to ensure our guests receive above-par service across the board, not correlated to the value of the tip provided.

In addition, we have a Crew Welfare Fund which guests are invited to contribute. This fund allows our staff the opportunity to experience a variety of activities and actions. For example, the fund could contribute to a special dinner for all, shore excursions, sports equipment and support of language courses.

With that being said, we don't discourage guests from extending gratuity and/or praise as a sign of gratitude to our team or a particular team member who has gone above and beyond.

All the best,

Mark

Thanks for the response Mark.

Would you consider loosening the current restriction on the use of OBC for customers' wishing to use some of it for crew fund contributions?

I realise that there would be a profit opportunity cost, but I believe that the benefit to staff and therefore consequently Silversea and it's customers in the longer term would compensate.

Thanks.

You make an interesting proposal which I will share with the operations, HR and finance teams.

You make an interesting proposal which I will share with the operations, HR and finance teams.

Thanks Mark, appreciated.

This restriction is regularly mentioned on this board as being an irritant. As the crew fund isn't widely known, it wouldn't I believe be an unmanageable additional profit burden, but would make SS customers feel they had more ownership over their OBC something more challenging for them on an all inclusive line. If there was a fear of an unexpected surge you could of course place an initial temporary limit of say $10 per suite per day or something.

I hope you will share SS's decision with us here so we can share what I believe many would think as really good news from a "listening" and responsive SS. :)