We want to share with you the fantastic news that Cunard, in partnership with Dragonfish, won a UK Employee Experience Award for ‘Delivering customer experience through transformation’! Not only did we win the award but we also received a bronze in the ‘Business transformation and managing change’ category.
On 15 May a team of people from across ship and shore, who represented the diversity of departments involved in the programme, presented at the Park Plaza Riverbank Hotel in London before an expert panel of independent judges followed by a question and answer session. The awards ceremony was later that day. Presenting and collecting the awards were:
- Anna Thomas, HR Manager Queen Mary 2
- Captain Wells, Master Queen Mary 2
- Christopher Lodge, Director Learning and Development
- Katy Bateson, People Director (Cunard)
- Peter Van De Pas, People Operations Director (Cunard)
We were nominated for our work that we’ve done over the past two years with our internal brand engagement programme, which was focussed on meeting the needs of new and more diverse Guests. The aim was to embed the new brand values and service behaviours into the every day, making sure they were practical, actionable and real through a revitalised White Star Service programme. We also wanted to grow belief, pride and emotion in the brand, improve our employees understanding of and connection with our Guests, as well as helping to build knowledge of the luxury market.
Simon Palethorpe, Cunard President, said “Everyone involved should be hugely proud of these awards which are testimony to terrific cross functional collaboration between the Training, Brand, HR, Internal Comms, Guest Experience and onboard teams.”
So, how did we do it?
This was all kick started with the launch of ‘Our next Chapter’ in January 2018 which reached around 3,500 of ship’s company and 415 employees ashore, creating a real moment in time to signal the change and celebrate and reinforce pride in the brand.
Since the launch, there has been a programme of activity which followed to keep up the momentum which has included the White Star Service training refresh, as well as the launch of a new White Star Service identity signalled by the new lapel pin. Furthermore the very popular White Star Performer modules (Imperia 1 and 2) and recently the launch of the Cunard values competition. The remainder of this year will also see an ‘Understanding our Guests-master class’ roll out which will further increase appreciation of our Guests and a new White Star Service Academy module about the changing landscape of luxury and how we can deliver this new luxury through our brand values. It won’t stop there though! We have a strategic narrative which will continue to be worked against over the next few years in the lead up to the new ship joining our fleet and beyond.
Our Cunard employees across the fleet and in our offices on four continents have all contributed to the great results of ‘Our Next Chapter’. Thank you and Congratulations to every one of you!
Above All, We are Cunard!