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AIDA as an employer

AIDA as an employer

Together on a successful course

AIDA Cruises offers attractive job opportunities both on land and aboard our fleet for qualified and motivated staff members and managers. AIDA’s values are the keystone of our business culture, which is based on diversity, respect, passion and trust. We are convinced that only a satisfied employee can greet our guests with the legendary AIDA smile. Ensuring this contentment involves providing attractive work surroundings on the one hand, and generating confidence in their own abilities on the other. We offer our employees a wide range of career opportunities and further their talents with appropriate training courses aimed at developing them both personally and professionally.

 

Occupations

Occupations

The working environment at AIDA Cruises is varied and international. In 2016, we employed around 8,000 members of staff from more than 40 countries, 7,000 of which work aboard our 11 ships and 1,000 of which were based in our onshore offices in Rostock and Hamburg. All of our employees work towards achieving a common goal: preparing our guests for the most enjoyable part of the year - their holiday.

As Germany’s leading cruise company, AIDA Cruises offers a diverse and exciting work environment. The occupations that we offer cover an exceptionally broad range of roles, ranging from navigation and marine engineering to hotel work, catering, entertainment and guest hospitality on board the AIDA ships, as well as IT, personnel management, sales, marketing or finance and controlling at our onshore facilities. Professionals and managers can find versatile entry-level career opportunities with our company and excellent career prospects. With our made-to-measure training courses, we moreover further the professional and personal development of our employees.

Both for jobs at sea and on land, we offer potential applicants an insight into the life and workings on board and on land through events such as the AIDA open days, the exclusive AIDA Career Days on our ships and the opportunity to take part in job and industry fairs.

Employee benefits

Employee benefits

Working for our company offers the opportunity to develop one’s potential on the job, assume responsibility, carve out a career and travel the world. Switching between the various AIDA ships has an additional advantage: you can work in new, international teams time and again, make new friends quickly and accumulate precious life experiences. Young people can carve out a career at AIDA exceptionally quickly - provided the necessary qualifications, ambition and dedication are there.

We offer our employees an attractive working environment in an atmosphere of mutual trust and respect. In addition, we strive to ensure an even work-life balance. Our employees can take advantage of the diverse leisure options that AIDA provides, both on land and at sea. We have also put together the AIDA 4me package with offerings ranging from voyages to employee rates, on board discounts and preferential rates for sport, wellness, health and leisure activities, which also apply in companies linked to AIDA. Among the other benefits of the AIDA 4me package are an occupational employer-funded pension scheme and employee bonuses.

Smiling Star Award – The new service and quality campaign ‘I LOVE TO SEE YOU SMILE’, launched in 2016 under the aegis of AIDA President Felix Eichhorn, and signified the further development of our values.

>> More information can be found in the section titled ‘AIDA Values – Our values’

The ‘Employee of the Month’ program offers further recognition for exceptional performance, in which crew members are distinguished for their outstanding achievements. This recognition is connected with a financial award.

Our employees’ private lives do not suffer from working on board either. AIDA offers its crew members more opportunities to enjoy balanced and eventful leisure activities than any other cruise line. Every employee has the opportunity to take shore leave, as well as having free access to the on-board guest area, which includes complimentary use of the entertainment and fitness programs. The crew have their own restaurant, a bar, a sun deck, a sauna and an area for sports. The meals in the crew’s mess are varied, top-quality and - just like the work clothes, accommodation and equipment - free of charge.

We moreover promote the health of our employees. Our crew has free access to medical care. We provide information regularly via the intranet on the advantages of an active, healthy lifestyle and provide incentives for recuperation and exercise. Other precautions that we take include examinations performed by company doctors and flu vaccinations. Our annual ‘Health Days’ are a highlight of the calendar, featuring various workshops focusing on exercise, fitness, nutrition and relaxation. The first Health Day took place in 2017 under the heading of ‘Spring Awakening’. The variety of activities on offer ranged from diverse fitness checks, posture analysis, a back-related activity course and a running workshop. Another of the highlights of 2016 was the opportunity we gave to our employees to take part in an evening excursion on the Baltic Sea on board the Großherzogin Elisabeth training ship.

Ensuring that the workplace is family-friendly is a vital ingredient for achieving a successful work-life balance. That’s why AIDA offers its employees daycare in various nurseries, special rates at childcare agencies as well as holiday offers and flexible working time models. In addition, we have created a brochure for expectant parents that is designed to provide them with ample information from the first week of pregnancy right up to returning to the workplace. In 2016, 102 employees made use of parental leave, of which 76 were based on land and 26 were part of a ship’s crew. The proportion of these who were fathers was 22.4 percent on land and 53.9 percent on board. In 2016, the return rate of employees after their parental leave was 90 %.

Certification of the fleet according to the Maritime Labor Convention (MLC)

Certification of the fleet according to the Maritime Labor Convention (MLC)

The shipping industry is the only sector with an all-encompassing international framework of employment regulations, which are enforced uniformly around the world. The Maritime Labor Convention (MLC) is an International Labor Organization convention (the ILO is a subsidiary of the UN), which forms the international basis for labor law on cruise ships. The regulations of the MLC cover basic working conditions including health, safety, minimum age, recruiting, working hours, accommodation on board and social security, and guarantee appropriate working and living conditions on board.

 

The MLC and previous ILO conventions form the international basis for employment law in the shipping industry. The regulations set out therein cover basic working conditions including health, safety, minimum age, recruiting, working hours, accommodation on board and social security, and guarantee appropriate working and living conditions on board. All flag states and workers’ native countries are obliged to implement the MLC and previous ILO conventions in domestic legislation.

At AIDA, we welcomed the global inception of the MLC. The standards of the MLC and the associated required rights have been common practice in our company for many years. We even go beyond what is demanded by the MLC in many areas.

The inception of the MLC in 2013 represented the fourth of the pillars that make up the set of international shipping regulations coming into effect. The other conventions are the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), the Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL) and the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watch Duty for Seafarers (STCW).

For further information on the Maritime Labor Convention, please visit the ILO’s website at www.ilo.org.

AIDA Values – Our values

‘We are AIDA’ and ‘Smiling is second nature to us’. What do these slogans actually mean? What are the values behind them, how are they put into practice and what unites us in our day-to-day work on board and on land?

In a continually evolving environment, it was important for us to answer these key questions with this ‘values project’, and to revitalize our corporate values. Our employees had a determining influence on the development of this process. During a total of nine workshops on board the AIDA fleet, in Rostock and in Hamburg, as well as in our training centers in Manila and Goa, we gathered ideas and opinions for values and codes of conduct that would shape our daily interactions from our employees. The results of these workshops were incorporated into the reorientation process of our AIDA values. The scientifically sound Corporate Energy Model was used to evaluate the results. The distinguishing feature of this model are the four color-fields, which each stand for one of the characteristics of the corporate culture. The slogans and opinions provided by our employees in the workshops were analyzed and quantified in accordance with this model. The new values were then formulated by the AIDA Value Steering Committee on the basis of this analysis. The aim was to develop a concise and catchy mission statement. Since the most important aspect of developing values is how they are actually put into practice, a behavioral description was defined for each value. These substantiate the value content and clearly reflect the statements our employees provided during the workshops.

Our new corporate values have been an established practice in our company since early 2014. In the course of a wide-ranging series of activities, engagement processes and workshops both on land and at sea, we get to grips with our values intensively with the aim of giving new life to our AIDA values every day. The results are visualized on a poster for each of the four AIDA values and displayed in every department.

The AIDA values are moreover a permanent fixture of our recruiting processes, annual performance assessments for all employees, beginner programs and all of our management training courses. The AIDA Value Committee manages and supports the further implementation of our values. The committee meets regularly and moreover submits quarterly reports to the senior management.

I LOVE TO SEE YOU SMILE - We began to develop our values further in 2016 with the launch of a new service and quality offensive, which is run under the patronage of AIDA President, Felix Eichhorn.

Our employees experience unique moments every day with both guests and colleagues, and there are many situations that light up their faces with a smile. With the I LOVE TO SEE YOU SMILE initiative, they can share these beautiful experiences and guests’ motivating praise with one another.

The aim of the initiative is to strengthen leadership skills among the crew and to inspire their sense of individual responsibility with positive incentives. Good role models embolden an individual, thus helping them to surpass the expectations of our guests and even making them feel satisfied and valuable in their working environment.

We invite our guests and colleagues to nominate an employee in recognition of their ‘SMILING MOMENTS’. The employees with the most nominations or the most moving ‘SMILING MOMENTS’ will then be decorated with a Smiling Star Award. The dedication of the winning colleague is recognized even further in the form of a special leisure activity or an extra day of holiday.

Special SMILING MOMENTS are published in our intranet for all of our employees to see. Employees also look to their colleagues for tips on how to remain calm and cheerful in tricky situations so that we are always able to say that smiling is second nature to us.

 

 

       

 

Putting AIDA Values into practice

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 actively implementing AIDA Values have either already been put into practice or will be in the near future.

Management workshops
When it comes to sharing our values, our managers act as role models. For this reason, our AIDA values are a permanent fixture in special management workshops, the objective of which is to educate our managers in value-oriented conduct and leadership in everyday workplace and stressful 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 fleet

The position of Training Manager on board our ships was introduced in 2014. Our Training Managers expand the opportunities for advanced training that our employees can access at sea. They provide language training in English and German. The Training Manager also provides instruction in hospitality, sales and personnel management. By introducing this new position, we were reacting to the crew’s wishes, who expressed a desire to improve their language skills and other abilities in a targeted manner.

Let us consider language training as an example: all it takes is a few words to give our guests new and unforgettable memories of their AIDA cruise. It is often just a little bit of attention and a charming smile - personal dialogue is more often than not the key to success in fulfilling an individual’s wishes. But this is not so easy if you haven’t grown up with either the language or the culture of the other person. It is for this reason that we help and motivate our international crew to take the first step and approach a passenger in order to have a conversation with them. The mixed approach to language teaching, consisting of reading, learning, practicing and speaking, is designed by our colleagues on board our ships.

Seniority Awards on board AIDA’s ships

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.

Equality Program
As part of our Equality Program, we develop training courses focusing around issues such as intercultural cooperation, diversity and respectful interaction with each other, and these are put into practice by Training Managers on board our ships.
The AIDA intranet
Our most important platform for internal communication across the entire company is the AIDA intranet. Since its introduction in 2015, all of our colleagues on land and on board our ships have round-the-clock access, even via private mobile devices, to important news from the various parts of the company and from on board our ships. It is organized like a website with its own news streams and background information. The wide range of tools make our day-to-day work at AIDA a great deal easier. The intranet offers our employees the opportunity to keep up to date with company news and news from their relevant department, or to find out about important projects quickly and directly. They are also able to post their own content and exciting news for the benefit of colleagues and other departments. We use this digital platform to foster cohesion and cooperation between individual colleagues and departments.
Business training courses
The AIDA Expert tool gives all of our staff access to an extensive catalogue of basic and advanced training options. This skills-based training catalogue offers a wide spectrum of subjects providing a chance to gain more knowledge. The training courses assist all of our employees - whether they are creatives, organizers or up-and-coming wordsmiths - with their development. In line with its leitmotif of ‘Gather new input, interact with colleagues and incorporate what you’ve learned into your daily work’, all of these training courses are developed especially for the AIDA world of work and the needs of our colleagues.

Employer awards

We continually invest in practical basic and advanced training for our employees, and support the most motivated and promising of our colleagues with their personal career management. It was for this dedication that AIDA Cruises was once again distinguished by the international research company, Top Employers Institute, with the ‘Top Employer in Germany 2016’ award. This annual review analyses leading employers all over the world. In addition to the company’s corporate culture, the company’s offerings in regard to personal planning, training and career planning, manager training, compensation and benefits were all evaluated.

AIDA has also been setting standards in training over the course of recent years. This commitment was recognized for the eighth time in a row by the Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK) in Rostock with the ‘Top Training Organization 2016’ award. The IHK awards this hallmark of quality to companies which stand out due to special initiatives for apprentices, continuity and creativity in vocational training.

Further distinctions such as ‘Career Maker’, ‘Fair Company’ and ‘Parents - Best Company for Families’ attest to our dedication to our employees.

We are proud of these accolades and see them as an incentive to continue to develop our personnel management techniques.