What’s it like to work at Carnival UK?

Twice a year we invite Carnival UK colleagues to participate in our engagement survey (this is referred to as our ‘Pulse survey’ for shoreside colleagues and ‘Life on board survey’ for crew on our ships), the responses we receive help us better understand the employee experience.

 The next engagement survey will be live from Monday 22 April 2024.

What you tell us in the survey helps us shape our areas of focus so we can improve what it’s like to work at Carnival UK. Here’s what you told us in the last survey (October 2023), and what we’ve done since then…

Shoreside, you told us… 

• You were frustrated by seeing empty spaces in our car parks and wanted fairer allocation for all colleagues. In February we introduced our new car parking allocation app, Wayleadr which helps us to make best use of the limited car parking spaces we have available to us and ensure these are allocated fairly across all colleagues. To date we’ve seen a 50% reduction in empty bays.

• You wanted better opportunities for collaboration and communication across departments. Collectively we’re a very diverse team and we recognise value in coming together in person to aid decision making, creative thinking and to build strong team dynamics. To better aid communication and collaboration in person we’ve introduced a fixed anchor day, made 82 meeting rooms available, introduced two dedicated collaboration zones and added a new 140-person meeting space on floor 4.

• You wanted better prioritisation on projects to help manage workload. To improve prioritisation across the business we’ll be introducing a centralised Enterprise Project Management Office (ePMO). The new ePMO will help us prioritise projects and programmes with the most value and identify the right people across the business to be involved in them. We’ll share more on this shortly.

• Our shared goals and business priorities weren’t always clear. In January we kicked off the year with an event at the o2 Guildhall, Southampton to reveal our six business priorities as well as our ‘Together to get there’ vision. Since then, we’ve installed graphics around the Carnival House to keep our priorities front of mind and we’ll also be structuring our quarterly business updates around these priorities to make sure all colleagues understand how we’re doing against target. 

• You wanted leaders to better role model our Culture Essentials. All shoreside Managers have now been given the opportunity to attend our Leadership and Management Essentials programme to support them to build their leadership skills and behaviours. We’re also supporting the development of our senior leaders (ELT and their direct reports) by bringing them together to spend time each quarter as a group to work on their collective and individual development. The aim of these sessions is to support senior leaders to develop as a community of leaders and cultural ambassadors.

You also gave us feedback that was specific to your business area, and we’ve been working with your Employee Experience Groups (EEG) to make improvements that matter to you most. Your Senior Leadership Team (SLT) and EEG have access to the targeted action plans for your area, so speak with them to find out more.

On our ships, you told us… 

• Investing in your wellbeing is important to you. In 2023 we saw scores for wellbeing improve significantly. This was largely supported by the introduction and trial of Welfare Officers on board some of our ships, as well as improvements made to the process around how time and attendance is recorded. In 2024, we’ve committed to extending the successful Welfare Officer trial which will see our Welfare Officer remit expand to focus on mental health, education, and meaningful conversations. Thanks to the candid voices of female colleagues, we’ve also taken steps forward for inclusivity by introducing a complimentary range of emergency sanitary products on our ships.

• You wanted leaders to better role model our Culture Essentials. We’ve completed a pilot of the new Leadership and Management programme which will be rolling out across the fleet from April. 

• You were confused about how to progress and move up to the next role. In 2023 we introduced career passports to the Cunard fleet which provided a clear and fair route for everyone to progress if they want to. To date, we’ve launched passports in Restaurant, Bars and Housekeeping departments and this year are continuing the development in other departments. For P&O Cruises the recent expansion of the fleet has created many career opportunities and we are now reviewing processes and considering how we can best support career progression going forward. We’re currently focusing on the HOAS (Hotel Assistant) position and throughout the year will be splitting the role out into separate departments such as Housekeeping, Dining & Beverage, and Inventory. Changes will be phased and implemented throughout the year.

We also made improvements to how Senior Management Team (SMT) and Heads of Department can view scores for your ship, through introducing interactive dashboards and quicker access to the results. We’ve also standardised the way ships develop action plans so that no matter which ship you are on you can clearly see what the focus areas are and what we’re doing to make improvements. 

In just a few weeks we’ll be asking you to complete the survey for your latest feedback. By taking part, you’ll be helping us identify things we’re doing well and things we need to improve so we can make Carnival UK an even better place to work.

The next survey will be available from Monday 22 April 2024, you’ll receive an email on this date inviting you to take part.