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.
- Workshops and feedback
- They each hosted workshops for their teams very soon after the Pulse Survey to gather feedback and discuss the ‘future ways of working’ framework. They’ve continued to gather feedback through surveys, conversations, email, informal chats, etc. As a result of this, they’re now part of the Carnival UK ‘future ways of working’ working group, representing all their P&O Cruises colleagues.
- EEG Calendar
- They’ve put together an EEG calendar, highlighting key events for P&O Cruises colleagues including the ELT updates, Pulse Survey, events, etc. They’re also working with Internal Comms to make sure they’re signposting anything that may be important to their team, and to showcase the great work they’re doing as an EEG through articles like this!
- EEG Monthly updates
- They’ve re-established their monthly update emails to keep colleagues up to date with all things P&O Cruises, from events to opportunities to engage with other members of the team.
- Coffee sessions
- Hearing that colleagues wanted more regular and informal communication with Paul Ludlow, P&O Cruises president, and the Senior Leadership Team (SLT), alongside the existing business updates, virtual coffee sessions were introduced.
- EEG activities
- To replicate the Atrium events we’re all missing as a result of remote working, the EEG put together ’10 days of Christmas’ with a variety of fun to suit all diaries. Including a live nativity, films, guess the SLT tree, Food Hero recipes, cupcake decorating, Spotify playlist and Christmas quiz it was a festive favourite for colleagues. They also shared a Valentine’s Day Food Hero menu and have something special planned for Easter…
- Lunch & Learns
- The EEG received a lot of feedback around development and the need for more opportunities to learn from people around the business. They fed this back to their SLT and as a result have seen Lunch and Learns being established in all P&O Cruises departments.
- Zoom etiquette
- Through conversations with colleagues, the EEG heard a lot about Zoom etiquette – people feeling overwhelmed with the volume of Zoom meetings, being invited to unnecessary meetings and the impact this was having on wellbeing. They discussed Zoom-free Fridays with the SLT which are now a reality! And they shared their top tips for Zoom etiquette with colleagues, including information from Occupational Health.
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.