Over the past year you’ve been nominating colleagues for living and breathing our Culture Essentials; helping us to achieve our ideal culture, be the great company we aspire to be, and of course to create unforgettable holiday happiness for our guests.
Now it’s time to vote for your winning individual and winning team of the year!
Not only will the winners be recognised as our 2023 Culture Essentials Award Winners of the Year, they’ll also receive amazing prizes! The winning individual will enjoy their own piece of holiday happiness – a cruise for up to 14 nights for themselves and a guest, and the winning team will enjoy a special team event worth up to £5,000.
So who gets your vote?
Our quarterly Culture Essentials Awards winners are our nominees – see below for a reminder of the reasons they were nominated. When casting your vote, think about the nomination that reflects how you’d like to see us going about our work here at Carnival UK.
Ready to vote?
After reading the nominations below, VOTE HERE.
You can only vote for one individual and one team, so make sure you place your vote carefully.
What happens next?
The vote will close at 17:00 on Tuesday 5 December and the winners will be announced in the Atrium on 12 December. Good luck to all our nominees!
Our individual nominees…
Q1 – Kim Thomas – Team Leader, Contact Centre
Nominated for…
Kim joined CUK last year and her energy and enthusiasm has boosted everyone that she comes into contact with. She is guaranteed to have a smile on her face and greet you with infectious enthusiasm. Kim has driven a number of initiatives in the team to improve performance and engagement, and ultimately revenue. She has built strong relationships with stakeholders across the business and shares what she learns with the Sales team in an engaging way so they feel confident talking to our guests about the latest on board activities. She is a real cheerleader of her team and motivates them to succeed and overachieve their targets. If a colleague is struggling, she supports them to get back on track and builds their confidence. She is all about positive vibes and a huge asset for our business.
Q2 – Tom Taylor – HR Consultant
Nominated for…
Tom kindly offered to support following an unplanned HR Manager gap on Azura. He joined the ship to support the busy crew office operation and ensure People team support continued to be available. While onboard, Tom got really stuck in and went above and beyond to support the Ship’s Company. He supported the Captain in delivering a People update to all 1,200 crew members in the Theatre, and worked with line managers to advise on a number of ER cases. While talking with a crew member, Tom became aware that the individual was suffering from some poor mental health – and through his continued conversations, it became apparent that the individual had been experiencing suicidal thoughts. Tom made sure that the medical team were informed and able to offer support, and then worked hard to ensure that the crew member was disembarked to a mental health facility for suitable onward care. His compassion and care allowed this crew member to open up and share his concerns, and Tom’s actions potentially saved a life. Well done Tom!
Q3 – Helen Winnett, Food and Beverage Manager, P&O Cruises, Guest Experience
Nominated for…
Helen has been a key part of the new P&O Cruises Drinks Package project, working closely with the F&B Product Team. She has not only given valuable input into the creation of the packages, but has been the key communicator with the fleet, travelling on board all the ships to train and support each of them with launch. During the project Helen has shared her knowledge, expertise and previous experiences both operationally and product level, and she is positive and enthusiastic, always giving 100% with the teams on board ensuring that any feedback is heard and addressed.
The project has been a big collaboration across the business involving many stakeholders. Helen has played an important part in ensuring that the guests’ journey and the team on board have been represented throughout. And that the rollout has been communicated and received well on board by both the crew and guests alike, resulting in an improved product and overall guest experience.
New All Inclusive Drinks Packages were introduced to the Fleet just ahead of the summer. Helen went from ship to ship over two months, taking bar team and reception teams through the impacts, highlighting what was in and what wasn’t included in the packages, re- enforcing the message of potential fantastic revenue against service delivery and responsible drinking. The teams felt fully briefed and were able to ask questions and ensure they had the right glassware and menus to deliver these new packages. With constant turnover of leavers and joiners Helen was able to identify ship Ambassadors who would continue with the roll out of this renewed proposition. This was a great communication exercise for all onboard, coupled with encouraging teams who are already trained in bar delivery. The result has been successful and we are seeing some very high take up.
Q4 – Karen Tall – Executive, Air Operations
Nominated for…
Karen was ashore in the terminal at the time that Britannia broke free of her mooring lines. Karen immediately messaged me and told me she was in the terminal as I was on ERO. Although Karen was on her holiday, she was my eyes and ears on the ground telling me how the guest mood was, how many people were gathered, what the facilities were like etc. This enabled me to inform the crisis team of the situation on the ground and we could then discuss how to react in order to protect our guests and respond to the immediate situation.
Karen remained calm, positive and helpful at all times. She prioritized ADA guests when the time came to disembark and also then offered her help and support further to the ships team as the incident continued. Karen really displayed the culture essentials and even though ‘off duty’ still wanted to help her ship and shore colleagues.
Our Team nominees…
Q1 – Fleet People Operations – Vikki Palfrey, Laura Taylor, Emma Hutchinson, Andy Upham, Emma Tongs and Adam Shelmerdine
Nominated for…
Back in January, Fleet People Operations received news that 20 crew arriving in Brazil to join Aurora, did not have the correct documentation and were at risk of deportation. The team really brought our Culture Essentials to life and did a fantastic job working with the right subject matter experts to discuss multiple options and approaches to help the crew get on board and avoid an itinerary impact for our guests.
Q2 – Events Activation Team – Kelly Frew, Brodie Hanley Macintosh, Rachael Laming, Libby Haskell, Abbie Cook, Antonia Simpson, Jenny Michalczuk, Jenny Hadley, Casey Caldwell, Emma Mahoney, Laura Furnell, Ruth Venn, Tom Driscoll, Anna Goddard, Phil Yeomans, Flávio Diolaiti, Chris Bowry, Emily Pepper, Abi Winfield, Jenna Whorton, Jacqui Pennal, Emily-Mai Brown, Laura Snow, James Cook, Joshua Merchant, Alice King, Geraldine Phillips, Paul Moran, Emma Dear, Debra Futter, Glinda Robinson, Ellie Ranger, Andy Giles, Mark Aquilina, John Paolino, Sarah Wing and Billy Wales
Nominated for…
BAFTA Nomination:
After a highly competitive bid process and many weeks of hard work, it was a huge honour for BAFTA to select our brand as their exclusive partner of the Television Awards. The event being literally only a matter of weeks away, the project team had to leap into immediate action! They quickly agreed roles and responsibilities, developed a clear project plan and built strong relationships with BAFTA, to ensure all elements were covered and importantly, gave our brand the strongest and most impactful cut through possible. There has been an incredible amount to do in a very short time, but the team’s clear communication, collaborative and empowerment of each other to deliver has been a thing of beauty to see – everyone being proactive, solution orientated, responsive and constructive. I know they’ve worked long and hard hours to bring this all together for the day, and believe are therefore very worthy winners for the team award. I cannot thank them enough for their contribution and hard work.
Arvia Naming Nomination:
Arvia’s naming ceremony was the most ambitious and extensive event in the history of P&O Cruises. They say it takes a village to raise a child and it takes a very skilled, detailed and passionate team to create an extremely complex two centre event which was broadcast live globally and smashed all targets. Only people who create events understand the detail and hours of input into planning, schedules, logistics, organisation with external parties, procurement and management of talent, creation of content and so much more. When you add in Government politics, stringent protocols, environmental and safety issues, maritime operations and endless iterations of guest lists and table plans (sounds easy but it isn’t!) as well as the management of press, influencers and an ambition to create more PR than we have ever had before you begin to understand the scale as well as contingencies for every possible eventuality. I have never been more proud of a team and how they worked collaboratively both internally and externally to deliver a flawless record-breaking event.
Q3 – The P&O Cruises Holiday with Shine project team – Rebecca Walker, Holly Lee, Eleanor Penk, Libby Haskell
Nominated for…
Ellie noticed that we were struggling to engage agents in taking their own P&O Cruises holiday during her time as maternity cover for the reward and loyalty executive role. She put together plenty of proposals of ways to increase Holiday with Shine redemptions and evolved a double points solution. This really was a passion project for Ellie, and she really used her initiative and passion to improve the experience for agents. It was a pleasure to watch Ellie drive this forward.
Becky returned and worked brilliantly to drive this campaign forward and met many challenges and changes along the way. Becky has really improved her skills to embrace the financial modelling aspect of this project. I could not be prouder of the resilience that Becky has shown making with last-minute changes to contend with. She’s a credit to the team and should be really proud of the project management skills she’s displayed.
Holly and Libby both did a phenomenal job at using their creative skills to completely make over and improve our Holiday with Shine offering on the shine rewards club page, deliver awesome paid social ads, and email journeys. Libby loved creating bespoke socials for this project and it showed. Holly’s passion for the project was clear with the amount of time she spent finding the best way to gain and present feedback from agents. Holly also found ways to avoid creative fatigue through emails, sustaining our targets for open and click through rates throughout.
The team’s hard work has meant more and more agents are considering taking their own P&O Cruises holiday, with 98% interested in taking a P&O Cruises holiday. This will hopefully result in booking increases per individual agents!
Q4 – Britannia ERO Team. Dave Varty, James Stride, Matt Richardson, Jenny Fortune, Matt Andow, Mai-Liss Green, Nicola Robinson, Alexander Preston, Oliver Evans, Thomas Axton, John Snyder, Courtnay McAleavey, Victoria Stevens, Sam Cox, Simon Stevens, Amy Martin, Sian Batchelor, Matty Brown, Jade Williams, Nicola McIntosh, Bob Dixon, Caroline Kerr, Laura Furnell, Laura Troke, Laura Robey, Jason Buttery, Dean Provis, Peter Lewis, Lizzie Cooke, Tom Driscoll, Lucre De Aviles, Jo Fenn, Jackie Bridle, Annie Barber, Jacqui Pennal, Sam Peplow, Emma Millard, Mark Price, Sudhir Pandey, Peter Ryan, Sue Owen and Sarah Wing.
Nominated for…
In late August, as the island of Majorca faced a severe weather crisis, the Britannia ERO Team demonstrated unwavering dedication and adherence to our core values.
Speak Up: See something, do something Amidst challenging circumstances, the team acted swiftly, showing an unwavering commitment to ensuring the safety and well-being of our guests.
Respect and Protect: Respect and protect our People, the planet, the law, and our company Their response was marked by respect, not only for our guests but also for the integrity of our company. They worked tirelessly to secure accommodations, prioritising the well-being of our guests.
Improve: Focus on compliance and our performance as a team Throughout this ordeal, the team demonstrated exceptional teamwork and a dedication to compliance. They navigated the complexities of high-demand flights and technical difficulties with UK air traffic control services
Communicate: Talk openly about our values and priorities, and act as we expect others to Communication was the linchpin during this incident, and the Britannia ERO Team excelled. They kept our guests informed, addressed concerns, and ensured everyone was aware of the steps being taken to resolve the situation.
Listen & Learn: Listen to each other, be accountable for our actions and learn from our mistakes Accountability and a commitment to learning shone through. The team addressed guest concerns and provided additional allowances for food and drink, displaying empathy and a drive to improve the guest experience.
Empower: Give our teams what they need to succeed The Britannia ERO Team’s actions exemplify empowerment. They took the initiative to provide our guests with the best possible care under challenging circumstances, ensuring their comfort and safety.
In the face of adversity, the Britannia ERO Team’s response to the Majorca weather disruption exemplifies the core values of Carnival UK’s Culture Essentials. Their dedication, teamwork, and commitment to our guests deserve recognition and celebration.