Mission to Seafarers Launches Shore Happiness Index

The Mission to Seafarers is expanding its focus on welfare by introducing a new Shorebased Happiness Index, designed to assess the wellbeing of maritime professionals working ashore for the first time.

This new initiative follows the same approach as the charity’s long-running Seafarers Happiness IndexLCTS), which has monitored crew welfare for nearly ten years. The survey will consist of 10 questions, each rated on a scale from one to ten, and will target individuals working in areas such as ship management, port operations, maritime law, insurance, logistics, finance, and technology.

The aim is to build a clearer understanding of wellbeing across the entire maritime sector. By comparing life at sea with experiences ashore, the index is expected to provide valuable insights that can help improve workplace culture, employee retention, and welfare policies.

Steven Jones, founder of both indices, said the expansion reflects the need to look at the wider picture. “We have spent years measuring happiness at sea. Now it is time to measure the wellbeing of the people ashore whose decisions shape life onboard,” he said. “If we want happier, safer, and more supported seafarers, we need to understand the pressures and realities on both sides of the ship-shore divide.”

Ben Bailey, director of programme at the Mission to Seafarers, added: “ShoreHI is the next step, connecting both sides of the sector so we can move from anecdote to evidence, and target the changes that will have the greatest impact on wellbeing across the maritime workforce.”

The survey will be conducted anonymously and will build on the existing infrastructure used for the Seafarers Happiness Index, minimizing additional resource requirements. Over time, the results will be combined with data from seafarers to create a more complete view of how working conditions and organizational culture influence the global maritime workforce.