A strong focus on talent management has been critical to the growth of Carnival Australia, according to its head of HR, who said that the business is very particular about bringing in the right resources from both a technical and behavioural perspective.
“I’d stress the behavioural aspect of this – because our business is people-based, business relationships between individuals, teams and customers are very important, so getting the right people is critical for us,” said Simone Shugg, vice-president – people & performance at Carnival Australia.
The flipside of this coin is that every good HR team should also assist the business in facilitating a culture where people who aren’t performing are managed out, without incurring any financial, reputational or other risks.
“Australia is a small place and our employment brand is really important,” said Shugg. “So I think the way that you treat people as they’re exiting the organisation, even if it’s involuntary, is very important and it’s an incredibly important role for HR.”
A second key role for HR in adding commercial value to the business of Carnival Australia is around leadership.
“We want leaders who are living and breathing our strategy and who are engaged to the brand so that everyone has a really strong understanding of our purpose”
“We’re really the caretakers of the leadership culture here at Carnival, so we make sure that we’re infusing the right attitudes and the right behaviours that are going to deliver our business outcomes,” said Shugg.
“I think that people don’t often leave organisations, but they leave leaders. So we’ve got to make sure we’ve got really strong leadership capability, and that comes from the top down.
“In particular, over the past couple of years we’ve focused on developing the communication skills of leaders, that they understand the business strategy and that they’re able to articulate this and what we’re trying to achieve this week, this month, this quarter, this year and five years out.
“We want leaders who are living and breathing our strategy and who are engaged to the brand so that everyone has a really strong understanding of our purpose.”
The third key for HR in adding business value within Carnival is ensuring that people are part of every discussion and decision in regards to the strategy and direction of the business, according to Shugg.
“We’re an organisation where our assets are huge ships that float out in the ocean, but if not for every single person on board the ships and shore side, those ships are valueless.
Ours is a very complex, global and diverse business, so we’ve got to make sure that people are at the heart of decisions to help enable the right outcomes,” she said.
Growth, performance and pay
Carnival has experienced significant growth over the past six years in particular, according to Shugg, who said this has been coupled with major transformation at a frenetic pace within the business.
There has been 20 per cent year-on-year growth in the cruise industry, and Carnival Australia makes up about 80 per cent of the market locally.
Shugg puts the growth of the business down to investing in a number of key factors – one of them being pay for performance.
In years past, for example, there was a standard 3 per cent annual increase in pay for everyone in the business. “We don’t do that anymore,” she said.
“We make sure that we’re investing in the right people, and the only way you can do that is by having mechanisms in place through your performance management system and KPIs so you can tell who’s doing a good job and who’s doing a sensational job.
“Depending on the level, for example, non-executive senior managers also get up to a 20 per cent on-target bonus, and it’s more if the business outperforms.
“Even at the senior level, all of our execs are measured on the achievement of our people strategy, which is really linked to internal engagement across ship and shore as well as customer satisfaction, because our people are obviously key to delivering our customer service.”
For the full interview with Shugg please see the next issue of Inside HR magazine, which comes out early August 2014.
