Engaging with our employees on sustainability

Our investment in raising awareness of sustainability topics among our employees reaps dual rewards: not only do changes in staff behaviour help to improve our own sustainability performance, but informed staff can pass their knowledge on to our customers, supporting them to be more socially and environmentally responsible. What is more, our employees can take what they learn at work and use it to make their own homes more environmentally efficient.

Across the Group, various channels are used to talk to our employees about sustainability issues. These include staff newsletters, intranet sites and training sessions. Wherever feasible, we integrate sustainability information into regular business communications, as we want sustainable practices to be a part of how we go about our day-to-day business. This approach is paying off and increasingly we are seeing the impetus for sustainability initiatives coming from parts of the business other than the sustainability team.

For example, sustainability questions are now included in our employee survey. Each year in the UK, one issue of the main employee newsletter focuses primarily on sustainability. Our Sustainable Destinations Manager has a regular feature in UpFront, the Thomas Cook UK newsletter for overseas staff. However, more and more, sustainability is also being mentioned in the articles from other members of the overseas management team. The Insider, our magazine for employees in North America, features a regular 'Green Thumb' article. Our North American colleagues also found a creative way to engage with employees on the issue of saving energy: they took advantage of the building's lifts being modernised to hold a competition rewarding those employees who walked up and down the most staircases!

Sustainability criteria have been incorporated into some job descriptions and performance reviews. All UK employees with responsibility for sustainability in overseas destinations are now required to report monthly on their sustainability initiatives, with this linked to their performance-related pay.

Employees with specific responsibilities for sustainability topics are given training as appropriate. In 2009/10, this included training for KidsWORLD reps on how to use the Hatch booklets, which raise sustainability awareness among our 4- to 11-year-old guests. It also included training for product and purchasing staff on the Travelife sustainability management system, which we encourage our suppliers to adopt. Employees in 84% of our UK retail stores took our sustainability training incorporating the Travel Foundation's Make Travel Greener quiz. The quiz takes around half an hour to complete online and includes modules on climate change and talking to customers, as well as wider sustainable tourism issues. At Thomas Cook in Germany, sustainability workshops were held in 2010 for all departments. In our UK and Northern European businesses, information on sustainability is part of the standard employee induction programme. Neilson holds employee training sessions at the beginning of each summer and winter season, which include setting sustainability objectives.

For those employees based in our UK retail network, the Ask Thomas section of our intranet site includes detailed FAQs on sustainability issues such as the environment, Travelife and animal welfare. This information is invaluable when customers want to understand the impact of their holiday.

Finally, awareness is raised through meetings and committees. In 2010 we launched our Group Sustainability Working Party with the specific aim of increasing engagement in sustainability across Thomas Cook Group. Raising employee awareness will be a core part of this work and the working party includes representatives from every area of the business. Locally some of our companies, such as those in North America and Belgium, have their own environmental committees started by enthusiastic individuals to increase understanding and improve performance.

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