P&O Cruises EEG – flying the flag for colleagues

At Carnival UK we celebrate the diversity of colleagues, encouraging everyone to bring their
whole selves to work. Being free to be yourself means being free to use your voice. That’s why we’re building a network of Employee Experience Groups (EEG) across Carnival UK to give our people an informal voice to share opinions and experiences.

The Employee Experience Groups support leaders within their business area to deliver a great employee experience. Alongside the Pulse Survey results, they help to identify potential improvement actions by talking to colleagues to understand their views, and provide feedback to their Senior Leaders on how it feels to work locally in their department, as well as be a part of Carnival UK. With the support of their Senior Leaders and HR Business Partner they also seek colleague feedback on proposed Carnival UK changes and new ideas.

Beth Joy is lead for P&O Cruises EEG and she shared her thoughts on being part of an EEG; 

I joined the EEG in September 2020 as it’s an incredible opportunity to meet new people. Our EEG has representatives from across the whole of P&O Cruises and we support each other, utilising all the individual skills within the team which has proved so helpful; it’s amazing having contacts in other areas and really makes me feel part of the bigger P&O Cruises team. 

The most enjoyable part of being in the EEG is being able to be the voice of our P&O Cruises colleagues. As a group we meet bi-weekly to discuss our ongoing tasks and each month we meet with the SLT to feedback what we’re doing and how people are feeling. This has culminated in some changes being made to communication, engagement activities and development opportunities being made available.

We rotate the tasks within the EEG and I became Chair in January. From a personal development perspective, I have gained more confidence in speaking with different people across the business. In December I led the Q&A discussion in the POC meeting – this took me out of my comfort zone speaking in front of over 100 people, most of whom I never knew! Being part of the EEG gave me this opportunity and definitely helped build my confidence.

Over the next few weeks we’ll be spotlighting your EEGs and sharing updates on activity and actions that have been happening locally within each business area. Today, we spotlight Beth’s EEG – P&O Cruises.

The P&O Cruises EEG team is Lauren Hammerton, Kirsty Everett, Steven Taylor, Jessica Paull, Hannah Matthews, Abi Ladner and Cecilia Evison, along with their EEG lead, Beth Joy. Following the Pulse Survey in September, they held remote working workshops and since then, they’ve been working on four main areas of focus:

• ELT and Communication
• Lacking buzz of office based events
• Zoom etiquette
• Remote working

To drive positive change in the areas above, the EEG has a number of different forums, activities and communications to support P&O Cruises colleagues and improve their employee experience. 

Tell us what it’s like working at Carnival UK

On Wednesday 10 March our Pulse Survey opens. for Carnival UK shoreside colleagues. This is your opportunity to tell us what it really feels like working at Carnival UK, and to share your thoughts on how we can improve the employee experience for everyone. It’s really important to take part as what you tell us influences our colleague-focused business decisions. Look out for the email invite from Simon.