The Mission to Seafarers launches Shorebased Happiness Index

The Mission to Seafarers has announced the launch of the Shorebased Happiness Index (ShoreHI),a new measure of wellbeing and job satisfaction for shore-based maritime professionals created with the aim of highlighting wellbeing gaps and support welfare policies.

The ShoreHI is based on the methodology of the internationally recognized Seafarers Happiness Index and will consist of a 10-question, 1-to-10-scale survey for those working ashore in maritime roles, including ship management, port operations, maritime law, insurance, logistics, finance, and technology.

The key objectives of ShoreHI are to create industry-wide insights to enable data-driven improvements in workplace culture, retention, and performance; and to provide robust comparative data to support better welfare policies. It has been designed to mirror the Seafarer Happiness Index in structure and purpose, and will provide comparable data to highlight shared challenges and systemic gaps across the shoreside and seafaring workforce.

For nearly a decade, the Seafarers Happiness Index has provided vital insights into the experiences of seafarers worldwide, becoming one of the maritime industry’s most trusted tools for measuring crew welfare and mental health. The new ShoreHI initiative builds on that foundation, capturing perspectives from shore-based personnel who play also play a crucial role in supporting global trade.

Together, the two indices will create the first-ever comprehensive view of happiness across the entire maritime ecosystem, enabling deep comparative insight between life at sea and life ashore.

Stevan Jones, Founder of the Seafarers Happiness Index (SHI) and Shorebased Happiness Index (ShoreHI) said: “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. The Shorebased Happiness Index is about understand the relationships across the full ecosystem. 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 Program, The Mission to Seafarers, said: "The Seafarers Happiness Index has given us a clear view of life at sea. What it also shows is that many of those pressures originate ashore. 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.”

Over time, results from the ShoreHI will be aggregated alongside Seafarers Happiness Index findings to build the most complete picture to date of how work, wellbeing, and organizational culture interact across global maritime operations.

The survey will maintain anonymity and use existing SHI infrastructure to ensure scalability with minimal additional resource requirements.