IN THIS ISSUE 3. Company News 7. Motivational Qoute 8.Easy Hacks for Work 7. FTI News 10. Employee Milestones 12. A typical day with... 14. A Little Ray of Sunshine 15. Thank you
Company News Road to Agile During the month of August FTIAS’s Management team immersed themselves in the Agile methodologies discovered during the workshop, facilitated by PWC, back in June of this year. Several topics were discussed and put into context with the ultimate aim of pushing FTIAS become Agile and integrate such approaches in its day-today practices. Various follow-up meetings with different members of the Management team are being planned in the coming months to tap specifically into different parts of this plan and start launching FTIAS’s new Agile techniques as we go along without waiting for the full plan to be developed. (On the right: A glimpse during the ‘Road to Agile’ workshop)
Equality Certified This has to be one of our favourite posts! The National Commission for the Promotion of Equality (NCPE) has re-certified our Company with the Equality Mark certification for another period of three years. This re-certification shows that our company kept its commitment to implement relevant policies and practices that concern gender equality and family-friendly measures at the place of work and in the access to and provision of goods and services. We would like to remind our staff members that FTIAS’s Equality Representative is Rodianne Galea who is part of the Human Resources team. Our Company is proudly committed to promoting equality of opportunity to all employees and to prospective job applicants. (On the left: Rodianne Galea, FTIAS’s Equality Representative.) Company News | THE VOICE | 3
Company News Disability and Inclusion
Earlier this month, Meeting Point Malta and Cyprus HR Manager, Regine Debono Caruana, together with FTIAS and Meeting Point International BCC HR Manager, Alexander Barbara, shared a presentation to the rest of the HR Managers within the Meeting Point destinations about employing persons with disability. This was an interesting opportunity to share with other HR experts in various countries the challenges we find in this respect together with the positives of having such colleagues on board, whilst also discuss this important topic with them too.
What a way to celebrate
Congratulations!!! Members of the MPI BCC have been awarded with a certificate and a small token of appreciation on their success in Arkadia training. It was indeed a nice way to cheer with them all on their exhaustive work on the Arkadia system rollout. Well done Arkadia wizards ! 6 | THE VOICE | Company News
“Don’t stop when you’re tired, Stop when you’re done.” Wesley Snipes
Motivational Qoute | THE VOICE | 7
Easy Hacks For Work As a mom of two boys (Louis and Nicklaus) there is always someone claiming that they are hungry in the house, so it is important to fill their tummies with nutritious snacks that is also low in sugar. Nadia Ferriera part of the FTI Supplier Realtions team, shared with us some of her speciality healthy snacks.One of her favourites is Roasted Red pepper Hummus. In order to minimise the use of mayonnaise and commercial sauces she replaces them with either Tzatziki (good quality full fat Greek yogurt and some spices) or flavoured Hummus. In addition, she explained that probiotics in natural yogurt are so important for one’s gastrointestinal tract health and provide a great source of Calcium.She also adds some frozen berries, Chia, and Roasted Pumpkin seeds. When the sweet tooth kicks in, she uses dates and Choco balls, which work well in the kids lunchboxes too.
Roasted Red Pepper Hummus Ingredients • 3/4 cup roasted red bell peppers (Just pop peppers under the grill until the skin charred. Let them cool and remove skins) • 2 cans chickpeas/garbanzo beans drained and rinsed • 1/4 cup tahini paste • 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil • 1 1/2 tbsp fresh lemon juice • 1 1/2 tsp crushed fresh garlic • 3/4 tsp smoked paprika • 1/4 tsp salt • 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper • Warm water as needed Combine roasted peppers, chickpeas, tahini paste, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, and spices in the food processor. Pour into a serving bowl and chill thoroughly before stirring. Hummus will firm up slightly as it
8 | THE VOICE | Easy Hacks for Work
chills. Goes great with grilled pita bread, cucumber, and carrot sticks or crackers
Chocolate and Coconut Protein balls Ingredients • 1 cup dates, pitted • 1/2 cup cocoa powder • 1/4 cup honey • 1 cup medium desiccated unsweetened coconut flakes plus more for rolling • 1/4 cup quick cooking rolled oats • 1 tsp pure vanilla extract • 1/2 cup unsalted cashews Place all ingredients in a food processor and whirl until the mixture starts to pull together. Shape into balls and roll in additional coconut flakes. Store in a tight sealed container in the fridge or freezer.
FTI News Together we show social responsibility With the proceeds from the sale of the FTI GROUP’s own honey produce, we have done something good. With our own bees on one of our office’s roof terraces, we support biodiversity and with the proceeds from the sale of the honey, we make our contribution to the #WeKickCorona initiative. Thanks to you, we were able to donate around €300 in aid of this campaign. #WeKickCorona supports social institutions, charitable associations, and medical staff.
(On the right: One of our bee colonies on the roof terrace in our headquarters.)
Marc Zinniker is now joining the FTI ticket shop Our FTI Ticketshop Group is getting reinforcements in Switzerland and France; the experienced flight expert, Marc Zinniker, will be joining the team as Director Sales and Operations. “With Marc Zinniker we are gaining a specialist with years of experience in the consolidator business, who is a well-known player in Switzerland. We warmly welcome him.”, said Managing Director FTI Ticketshop Switzerland and France, Matthias Huwiler. “I look forward to my new tasks with great excitement and joy. The two source markets, Switzerland and France, work differently, of course, so the greatest challenge is to work what is best for the respective branch and thus to convince the respective partners.”, says Marc. (On the left: The man himself, Marc Zinniker) FTI News | THE VOICE | 9
Employee Mil by Daphne Wells
What a lovely wedding! We met with Daphne Debono(now Wells ) who forms part of the Flights department and look at what she got to say about her big day: “The 30th of July 2021 will surely be the best day of my life. Even though we were in the middle of the Covid pandemic, and having to postpone the wedding by a year, after 11 and a half years together I can finally say that on this day I got to marry my best friend and my soul mate. We decided to get married back in 2018, the first thing that we did was to find an available date at the church. When we had the date in our hands we started to book the venue and contacting different suppliers. Everything was planned for 2020, however, due to the Covid pandemic many events were cancelled. Like many other couples, we decided that it was best for us to postpone our wedding by a year. The year 2020 wasn’t an easy year for us as apart from postponing our wedding, I also lost my dear mum due to cancer. As they say, life must go on and with the help of our families, friends, and colleagues, we managed to overcome those difficult moments. Having to postpone the wedding, means that you need to plan everything from scratch, I must say that we found many help from our suppliers as we managed to sort everything nearly in one day. In the last three months, there was a lot of planning involved and those were very stressing and exciting moments at the same time. The last few weeks involved planning the timings on the schedule of the day, meetings with the suppliers, shopping for the last few items, and confirming the number of guest attending due to the Covid restrictions. Even though we were very busy and stressed, it was still a beautiful time as my husband and I spent a lot of time together. On the big day, I woke up early and had a small breakfast, my bridesmaid arrived a few moments later and we started doing our hair and makeup. The time was passing by quickly, after we were ready, we had something to eat and relax a bit before getting dressed for the wedding. An hour or so later we got dressed and the photographers and videographer started to arrive at our house. We had nearly a two hour long photo shoot, which passed so fast that in a matter of what seemed to me like a few minutes it was already time to leave the house to go to church. As soon as we arrived at the church, I was very excited, however when I saw my now husband and our loved ones, I felt more relaxed. The time of exchanging our vows arrived as well and when we said ‘I do’ to each other, everyone started to clap. After the mass it was time to go to our chosen venue. On our way we found a lot of traffic and also some road closers, but at least we managed to arrive on time. When we arrived at the venue we saw many of our family members, friends, and colleagues waiting for us. The event passed in a blink of an eye and it was time for us to do our first dance and cut the cake. We really had a great time and were very grateful that everyone came to celebrate this special day with us. We will surely remember this day forever.”
(Daphne Together with her husband Maverick on their Wedding Day.) 10 | THE VOICE | Employee Milestone
lestone
A Typical Da
Emma Cassar M YouTravel Accounts Receiv 9 years servi
For the month of August, we met with our dear colleague Emma Cassar Mullally who is part of the Youtravel team, holding the responsibility of Accounts Receivable Team Leader. Emma has a busy life raising two young men Kieran, who is 16 years old, and Callum, 15 years old, who keep her busy with preparing meals, washing tons of clothes, and “mum’s taxi service” all this while helping her husband Daniel run their family bar. A typical day starts waking up at around 6:00am; Emma is not a morning person so she starts the day with a coffee and five minutes to herself. After her coffee, she puts a load of clothes in the washing machine and while waiting for this to ready she bakes croissants and prepares lunches for the family. Since her husband works close to the office, Emma commutes with him where they find the time to have a chat and plan the weekly tasks. Besides supporting her team members, Emma has dedicated tasks to ensure the smooth running of the department, checking that the accounts are up to date, and receivables are collected on time. Emma is very happy with her current team, being very independent which gives her the opportunity to support Matteo on more high-level priorities. After a productive day at the office, Emma’s day is not over, rushing home for the football run, cooking, cleaning, and helping her husband in the bar. In her spare time Emma looks forward to enjoying relaxed family time, travelling, reading Martina Cole novels, and catching up on television series.
12 | THE VOICE | A Typical Day with...
ay with...
Mullaly vable Team Leader ice
A Little Ray of Sunshine This time it was the Youtravel and Meeting Point North America (MPNA) team turn to help others. Both teams together decided to help Puttinu Cares, a children’s cancer support group located in Malta. On behalf of all the Company, we would like to congratulate all those staff members who donated for such a noble cause. A little donation might not cost us much but for these children and their family it might means the world! Looking forward for the next teams’ charity collection.
(Two staff members from YouTravel and MPNA teams, Natasha Muscat and Mahmoud Khaled, who donated funds for such a noble cause.) 14 | THE VOICE | A Little Ray of Sunshine
Special Thanks to Kevin Paris - Chief Executive Officer Alexander Barbara - Newsletter Editor Rachel Falzon - Newsletter Co-ordinator Samantha Bugeja AnnMarie Buhagiar Nadia Ferriera Katharina Frick Rodianne Galea Emma Cassar Mullaly
Follow Us @ftias
@ftias
@FTIAS Back Office Services
@FTIAS Back Office Services