At Carnival UK we want to create an always listening culture where our people feel free to voice their opinions and ideas. By having clear avenues to share their views this will help us drive positive change in the employee experience.
Our employee experience groups are just one of the ways we’re trying to be an inclusive organisation; giving everyone an opportunity to contribute and improve the employee experience. This page contains guidance and direction to ensure these groups are set up for success. There is also information on the different roles and responsibilities that will help the group run smoothly.
The purpose of employee experience groups
The employee experience group will support leaders in their business area to deliver a great employee experience. Alongside the Pulse survey results, they will help to identify potential improvement actions through talking to their colleagues to understand their views and provide feedback to the SLT on how it feels to work here.
Becoming an employee experience group representative
Any person in a business area can put themselves forward to be an employee experience group representative. You can find out more about becoming a group representative.
Roles and responsibilities
There are a number of different roles that touch the employee experience group. Some of these will attend every meeting, others play a supporting role and will attend on more of an ad hoc basis. Below are a breakdown of each position.
- Employee experience group representative
- Employee experience group representatives are the people who have put themselves forward to represent the views of their colleagues in their business area. They are able to communicate confidently and clearly, respect and express the views of others and are proactive in providing a clear link between colleague opinion and influencing local decision-making. As part of their role in gathering feedback they should take an active role in the promotion, and encouragement of completion, of Pulse survey within their area. They should also be a role model for our values and behaviours.
Where a colleague raises an issue, a representative will consider how it can best be addressed. That might be by sharing it with the SLT at an Employee Experience group or by prompting their colleague to see that the answer lies with themselves, with the representative acting as the catalyst for discussion and action. For more information see the role profile.
- Chair
- The chair is a colleague chosen by the Employee Experience group representatives to take responsibility for running the Employee Experience group meetings. The chair is not an Employee Experience group representative.
The chair will make sure everyone at the meeting is participating and gets an opportunity to have their say, keep the meeting running to time and act as a neutral voice in discussions.
They will be an active listener, a confident facilitator and have a passion for ensuring our people’s voice is heard. They also set the agenda to ensure the relevant topics are being included, while guiding Employee Experience group representatives if it is more appropriate for a topic to be dealt with outside of a full meeting.The chair is appointed to the role for the term of the Employee Experience group (one year). For more information see the role profile.
- Co-ordinator
- The SLT will select the most appropriate colleague in the business area to coordinate the smooth running of Employee Experience group meetings, including room bookings, administration and diary management.
- Notetaker
- A notetaker will be appointed to produce a short bullet point summary from the meeting making sure all points raised, responses provided and next steps agreed are included. The notetaker should make good use of technology, and type directly in to the meeting summary template to help make the communication process faster so that the summary and next steps can be shared promptly. It should be shared with colleagues, and the Employee Experience team no later than three working days after the meeting.
The notetaker needs to be an active listener who is efficient in their role and highly effective in their planning and communication. There is no term of office for a notetaker, but continuity will help with the efficiency of the Employee Experience group.
- Responsible manager
- The responsible manager is the senior manager who has the greatest influence and authority over the working lives of the people in the business area, and is most likely the ELT member for that area.
The responsible manager should attend meetings and work with the Employee Experience group members to listen and respond to the insight and opinion shared and help to identify solutions to make improvements to the Employee Experience
They should be encouraging and supportive of all people in the business area to engage with the Employee Experience group, including the sharing of information to aid this.
- SLT
- The business area SLT are responsible for promoting and agreeing the nominations for the Employee Experience group in their area, ensuring coverage across the business area in line with principles laid out in ‘Becoming an Employee Experience group representative’ on page 5.
At least 1 SLT member should attend every Employee Experience group to listen to feedback and insight and agree and review actions identified to improve the employee experience within their business area. They have a responsibility to discuss actions agreed at the Employee Experience group with their direct reports to ensure buy in and engagement with initiatives identified by the group.
- Leaders and line managers
- Leaders and line managers will most likely own the majority of actions identified by the Employee Experience group to improve the employee experience in their business area. This is largely due to the fact that most of the areas that the Employee Experience group will gain feedback in will require action from an influential and strategic position if change is to stick.
Leaders and line managers also have an important role to play in encouraging and supporting our people to have open and honest conversations with their colleagues and managers. They should be supporting their representatives to ensure they have enough time to fulfil their roles.
Line managers of Employee Experience group representatives should consider what support they need to carry out their responsibilities effectively. After considering the reasonable needs of the business, a line manager will ensure an Employee Experience group representative can:
• Attend Employee Experience group meetings
• Understand and listen to opinion ahead of meetings
• Share their feedback from the meetings with their colleagues in their business area
• Where appropriate, access relevant information to increase their knowledge of the business and issues that will affect Partners.
- Employee Experience team
- Employee Experience will support Employee Experience groups to be effective in their roles by providing governance and toolkits to enable the group to run smoothly. They will attend meetings on an ad hoc basis and will be available to provide guidance, support and coaching to all members so that the group reaches its full potential.
They will also provide insight promptly following an eNPS survey and help the group to understand what their results are telling them and identify areas of focus.
The Employee Experience team will use the meeting summaries and action plans from the Employee Experience groups to collate themes, identify business priorities and to share best practice across Carnival House.
- HR Business Partner
- The HR Business Partner for the business area should support the Employee Experience group, attending meetings and ensuring the culture of the group is one of collaboration, adopting a mentoring and coaching style in their interactions with members of the group.
Their role in the meeting is purely that of observation, rather than action. They represent the People team and are able to advise the group of initiatives and actions that may be covered by our People Plan. As a member of the business area SLT they are also able to coach and guide members of the group on their ways of working together, understanding leadership styles and business context. This enables them to act, where needed, as a conduit to bring the group to a shared agreements for action.