What are the material issues the company has identified?

In its 2019 Corporate Responsibility Report Attica Group identified a range of material issues, such as passenger safety, CO2 emissions, responsible communication and sales, sea pollution, products and services quality. Among these, promoting employee development stands out as a key material issue for Attica Group.

Stakeholder engagement in accordance with the GRI Standards              

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) defines the Principle of Stakeholder Inclusiveness when identifying material issues (or a company’s most important impacts) as follows:

“The reporting organization shall identify its stakeholders, and explain how it has responded to their reasonable expectations and interests.”

Stakeholders must be consulted in the process of identifying a company’s most important impacts and their reasonable expectations and interests must be taken into account. This is an important cornerstone for CSR / sustainability reporting done responsibly.

Key stakeholder groups Attica Group engages with: 

Stakeholder Group	Method of engagement
Employees	·      Events / Meetings ·      Training ·      Negotiations with Employee Unions (through Greek Shipowners Association for Passenger Ships – SEEN) ·      Corporate Intranet
Shareholders	·      Shareholders General Assembly (annually/extraordinary) ·      Websites ·      Meetings
Customers	·      Qualitative Greek Domestic Lines Survey (every 2-3 years) ·      Quantitative Greek Domestic Lines Survey (every 2-3 years) ·      Customer Services Division ·      Websites ·      Satisfaction / Complaints Questionnaires ·      Social media ·      Information leaflets
Sales Network	·      Events / Meetings ·      Information systems ·      Travel agents’ online portal ·      Websites
Suppliers	·      Supplier evaluation ·      Meetings ·      Contracts
State	·      Discussion with representatives at local and national level ·      Meetings / Presentations ·      Participation in organisations and associations ·      Vessel inspections ·      Formal communication
Associations and Unions	·      Participation in associations ·      Meetings / Presentations ·      Discussion with representatives at local and national ·      level ·      Formal communication
Local Communities	·      Qualitative Greek Domestic Lines Survey (every 2-3 years) ·      Quantitative Greek Domestic Lines Survey (every 2-3 years) ·      Meetings / Presentations ·      Local events and programmes
Citizens	·      Qualitative Greek Domestic Lines Survey (every 2-3 years) ·      Quantitative Greek Domestic Lines Survey (every 2-3 years ·      Websites ·      Social media
Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs)	·      Collaborations ·      Meetings / Presentations
Media	·      Press releases ·      Press conferences ·      Websites

How stakeholder engagement was made to identify material issues

To identify and prioritise material topics Attica Group engaged with its stakeholders through relevant surveys.

What actions were taken by Attica Group to promote employee development?

In its 2019 Corporate Responsibility Report Attica Group reports that it took the following actions for promoting employee development:

• Implementing an annual Training Plan
• To design its annual Training Plan, Attica Group considers identified training needs, responsibilities and requirements for every job position and changes in the shipping industry (e.g. legal framework). Attica Group delivers a wide range of training programmes and seminars for its marine and office employees each year, which indicatively include:
  • Marine employees:
    • Corporate Responsibility (e.g. responsible procurement)
    • Foreign languages
    • Safety and security issues.
    • Response to pollution incidents
    • Fire fighting
    • Cleaning processes
  • Office employees:
    • Shipping
    • Finance / Taxation (e.g. International Financial Reporting Standards)
    • Management issues (e.g. Strategy, Corporate Governance, Protection of Personal Information, Human Resources, Internal Audit, Legal)
    • Information Technology
    • Marketing
    • Foreign languages
    • Safety
    • Corporate Responsibility (e.g. environmental protection)
    • First Aid
    • Digitisation
    • Cybersecurity
  • Within 2019, Attica Group:
    • Conducted trainings on its human rights policies and processes to 2 office employees, with a total duration of 80 training hours
    • Conducted training programmes on Corporate Responsibility issues to its office employees, with the participation of 13% of employees, 92% of Managers and 96% of Directors and Top Management members, as well as to marine employees, with the participation of 1% of vessel Officers and 6% of Master and Senior Officers
    • Included Corporate Responsibility issues in 3 in-house training programmes related to environmental management, responsible procurement and responsible communication issues
    • Trained 10 marine employees on safety and Corporate Responsibility issues
    • Conducted training programmes on digitisation with a total duration of 230 training hours

• Applying a Performance Appraisal System
• Attica Group implements a Performance Appraisal System for its office and marine employees, with a three-phase Performance Appraisal System for office employees to identify their strengths and areas for improvement and improve their overall performance. The Performance Appraisal System for office employees consists of 5 main areas:
  • Performance Criteria
    • Personal Objectives
    • Performance Standards (one of which is Compliance with Procedures)
    • Attributes (Common Attributes and Team Leading Position Attributes)
  • Appraisal Summary
  • Employee Professional Requirements
  • Training and Development Activities
  • Comments
• At the same time, Attica Group appraises all vessel Officers and marine employees (including employees whose employment tenure onboard its vessels has expired) four times per year, in order to ensure efficient crew selection and proper vessel manning. The appraisal results are included in a relevant Report which is forwarded to the Marine Personnel Department and assesses marine employees’ performance, skills and diligence throughout their service onboard Attica Group’s

Which GRI Standards and corresponding Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been addressed?

The GRI Standards addressed in this case are:

1) Disclosure 404-1 Average hours of training per year per employee

2) Disclosure 404-2 Programs for upgrading employee skills and transition assistance programs

3) Disclosure 404-3 Percentage of employees receiving regular performance and career development reviews

 

Disclosure 404-1 Average hours of training per year per employee corresponds to:

• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4: Quality Education
• Targets: 4.3, 4.4, 4.5
• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5: Gender Equality
• Targets: 5.1
• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
• Targets: 8.2, 8.5
• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 10: Reduced Inequalities
• Targets: 10.3

Disclosure 404-2 Programs for upgrading employee skills and transition assistance programs corresponds to:

• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
• Targets: 8.2, 8.5

Disclosure 404-3 Percentage of employees receiving regular performance and career development reviews corresponds to:

• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5: Gender Equality
• Targets: 5.1
• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
• Targets: 8.5
• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 10: Reduced Inequalities
• Targets: 10.3

 

78% of the world’s 250 largest companies report in accordance with the GRI Standards

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References:

1) This case study is based on published information by Attica Group, located at the link below. For the sake of readability, we did not use brackets or ellipses. However, we made sure that the extra or missing words did not change the report’s meaning. If you would like to quote these written sources from the original, please revert to the original on the Global Reporting Initiative’s Sustainability Disclosure Database at the link:

http://database.globalreporting.org/

2) https://www.globalreporting.org/standards/gri-standards-download-center/

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