TY - CHAP
T1 - Recommendations for Human Resources Development in Danube Inland Ports
AU - Pfoser, Sarah
AU - Putz, Lisa-Maria
AU - Jung, Eva
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgment. This research is part of the research field ‘sustainable transport systems,’ which was funded by the State of Upper Austria as part of the research program ‘FTI Struktur Land Oberösterreich’. The results presented are part of the project DAPhNE, funded by Interreg Danube Transnational Programme (DTP1-196-3.1). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the cooperating partners.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020.
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - Triggered by the growing and fluctuating freight volumes arriving in European seaports, peaks and bottlenecks are caused in hinterland terminals such as inland ports. Measures to increase the performance of inland ports previously focused on technological advancements such as infrastructure and ICT. However, recent developments show an increased awareness of human resources. Inland ports constitute a ‘socio-technical’ system since port performance is equally dependent on technological equipment as on skilled employees. However, the importance of human resources is not yet fully recognized in the inland port sector. The aim of this paper is to present recommendations for human resources development in inland ports. The Danube region is the geographic scope of the study including Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bulgaria and Romania. A survey completed by eleven inland port authorities (employing 1,487 staff members in total) is presented. Additionally, three transnational expert rounds are held to develop so-called “personas”. These personas describe requirements and challenges for different types of future port employees. Results of the survey and the transnational expert rounds are used to better assess the current and future needs concerning human resources development in inland ports and to derive recommendations. Results suggest that the main challenge for Danube inland ports is the risk of staff shortages due to the high number of old employees. In addition, the inland port sector lacks training offers for port employees.
AB - Triggered by the growing and fluctuating freight volumes arriving in European seaports, peaks and bottlenecks are caused in hinterland terminals such as inland ports. Measures to increase the performance of inland ports previously focused on technological advancements such as infrastructure and ICT. However, recent developments show an increased awareness of human resources. Inland ports constitute a ‘socio-technical’ system since port performance is equally dependent on technological equipment as on skilled employees. However, the importance of human resources is not yet fully recognized in the inland port sector. The aim of this paper is to present recommendations for human resources development in inland ports. The Danube region is the geographic scope of the study including Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bulgaria and Romania. A survey completed by eleven inland port authorities (employing 1,487 staff members in total) is presented. Additionally, three transnational expert rounds are held to develop so-called “personas”. These personas describe requirements and challenges for different types of future port employees. Results of the survey and the transnational expert rounds are used to better assess the current and future needs concerning human resources development in inland ports and to derive recommendations. Results suggest that the main challenge for Danube inland ports is the risk of staff shortages due to the high number of old employees. In addition, the inland port sector lacks training offers for port employees.
KW - Danube region
KW - Human resources development
KW - Inland ports
KW - Sustainability
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85101989881&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/978-3-030-44783-0_1
DO - 10.1007/978-3-030-44783-0_1
M3 - Chapter
SN - 2194-8917
T3 - Lecture Notes in Logistics
SP - 3
EP - 20
BT - Dynamics in Logistics
PB - Springer
ER -