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Corporate culture

AIDA Values – Our key values

Our business culture is based on four deeply rooted values - the AIDA values. These are mutual trust, a passion for the AIDA product, respect for each other and diversity among our employees. Our AIDA values are the expression of what AIDA stands for, how AIDA employees live and work with one another and how we successfully put our vision and our strategy into action.

Values must be put into practice. In order to enshrine them on a permanent basis, they are incorporated into existing mechanisms and assessed regularly. The following measures aimed at implementing our values are a permanent fixture in our corporate culture:

Management workshops & training courses

When it comes to sharing our values, our managers act as role models, which allows our employees to put them into practice in their day-to-day work. Our AIDA values are therefore an important component in any management workshop or training course, both on land and at sea. We educate our managers especially in value-oriented conduct and leadership in everyday work-related situations, and to motivate them to establish our values firmly in their own team through their function as a role model.

Training Managers on board the AIDA fleet

Training Managers on board the AIDA fleet provide additional opportunities for our employees to undertake advanced training at sea. Their portfolio includes service and sales training, management and soft skill seminars as well as language courses in German and English. The inclusion of training managers on board was our response to the crew’s wishes, who had expressed a desire to improve their language skills and other abilities in a targeted manner.

Employee Awards

Seniority Awards are our way of showing our respect and appreciation for the performance of long-serving employees at AIDA Cruises and of thanking them for their loyalty and dedication. We reward our employees’ outstanding achievements with a monthly ‘Employee of the Month Award’. Furthermore, once a year the ‘Ship of the Year Award’ is presented to the entire crew of a ship for their excellent performance in the three categories of HESS (Health, Environment, Safety, Security), RAAS (Risk Advisory & Assurance Services) and guest satisfaction. The new AIDA intranet has offered all of our employees an innovative platform for information and communication ever since its introduction in 2015. In order to reward the achievements of our editors, we give out the Intranet Award on a monthly basis to particularly committed employees. Since 2016, we have awarded the Smiling Star Award to the employees who won over their guests and colleagues with a special ‘SMILING MOMENT’ and thus earned the award by means of obtaining the most nominations or the most original moments. The winners receive prizes, such as the opportunity to enjoy a special leisure activity or an extra day of holiday.

The AIDA intranet

Open channels of communication and transparency are important criteria in enabling us to inform and motivate our employees. In 2015 we set up the new AIDA intranet, which gave us an innovative and digital internal communication platform that enabled our employees both on land and on board each AIDA ship to keep up to date at all times and in any place with important news and projects from elsewhere in the company, in individual departments and from on board. Every employee can access the intranet via private mobile devices, which is of particular benefit to our ship-based employees. With the new AIDA intranet, we are not only promoting the exchange of information, but also boosting cooperation between various departments and encouraging our employees to think and act in an inter-departmental manner. The increased transparency moreover contributes to mutual appreciation between our departments and colleagues, as we are able to provide our employees with the opportunity to present their projects and initiatives, whether large or small. An essential section of the new intranet is ‘AIDA4me’. This is where we tell our employees everything they need to know about training opportunities and provide in-depth information about planning and developing a career. In order to find a balance for the day-to-day workload at AIDA Cruises and to help our employees to conserve their energy, AIDA Cruises also helps its employees to reconcile their job with their family and leisure time. In AIDA4me, our employees will find information concerning our childcare services, how we promote health and wellbeing as well as other attractive services and benefits.

Code of Business Conduct and Ethics

All AIDA employees are familiar with the Code of Business Conduct and Ethics and receive extensive training in how to abide by it.

As part of a modern E-learning training program, it is possible for every AIDA employee, whether they are based on land or at sea, to run through these training courses at any time and in any place. The content of the training covers subject areas such as codes of conduct and ethics, anti-corruption, antitrust, insider trading and how to deal with employee grievances. Each employee is required to renew their own certificate on a regular basis, i.e. every two to five years.

UNWTO Code of Ethics for Tourism

AIDA subscribed to the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism, promulgated by the UNWTO, all the way back in November 2012. By signing up to this code, we were making a commitment to responsible and sustainable tourism. As a signatory to this code, AIDA Cruises regularly reports to the UNWTO regarding the adherence to and development of its measures aiming to promote sustainable tourism.

Commitment to diversity

WE ARE COLOURFUL. This is one of our company’s key values - both on land and at sea. In a broader sense of the word, COLOURFUL stands for diversity. AIDA would not be as successful as it is without this diversity.

We are liberal-minded, very quality-conscious and are convinced that cultural diversity enriches our company. Learning from one another is more than mere lip service at AIDA - it is a core component of our AIDA Values. As a multinational company with employees hailing from more than 40 countries, diversity is a natural part of our professional life - and a huge asset. It is for this reason that we joined the ‘Diversity Charter’ initiative. Through this participation, we are expressly proclaiming our commitment to respecting all of our employees on an equal footing, regardless of gender, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, ideology or age. We moreover respect the unique cultural features of our colleagues’ country of origin and take their needs into account.

Fair Company

In accordance with our AIDA Values, we cultivate a working environment imbued with mutual appreciation, irrespective of age, origin or hierarchy. We are part of the ‘Fair Company’ initiative run by karriere.de, as we believe whole-heartedly in fairness towards interns, students and high-school graduates. Since 2010, we have been the bearers of the ‘Fair Company’ hallmark of excellence.

Should an employee feel that they have been treated unequally, he or she is able to approach their superior, their employee representative or a trusted liaison officer. The personnel (HR) manager, who is on the ship’s board, supports human resources work on board our ships and also provides advice regarding questions on labor law. How to handle discrimination is clearly set out in our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics. In such cases, the relevant departments and the personnel department must be informed immediately. We examine the facts reported to us meticulously and enact labor law measures as required in line with our zero-tolerance policy. Any breaches of the code are reported directly to the company management.