Diversity and inclusion
NS believes it is essential to work with a rich diversity of people in terms of age, experience, background, gender, sexual orientation and character. By attracting and retaining diverse talent, we aim to strengthen the pride and job satisfaction of our people and improve our results. Moreover, different people bring different perspectives. At NS, we ensure equal opportunities for employees to fully develop their talents, as part of our effort to create an open, safe and inclusive working environment. We want to reflect the working population at all levels. We therefore encourage the recruitment and retention of women, people with a migration background and people with occupational disabilities, for example through targets and targeted campaigns. We expect our suppliers to do the same. They can find information on this in the Supplier Code of Conduct.
Women at the top
At year-end 2024, women filled 36% of senior management positions at NS (2023: 35%). That is one percentage point more than our target. At that time, the percentage of female members of the Supervisory Board was 43%. Two female members were appointed to the Executive Board in 2024 (50%, reference date 31 December 2024). This means that NS complies with Article 5.2.3 of the 2022 Government policy document on state-owned companies or the Ingrowth Quota Act.
Equal pay
NS conducts a ‘male/female’ income analysis every two years. The calculation for the last year shows there is no gender pay gap at NS.
Staff with occupational disabilities
In 2024, NS had 165 employees with an occupational disability in what are known as participatory jobs (2023: 159). Of these employees, 151 were still in employment at the end of December (year-end 2023: 141). Due to the tight labour market, staff with disabilities are difficult to recruit. At the end of 2024, 2 job vacancies for this target group had not yet been filled. We train internal employees and managers in mentoring colleagues with an occupational disability. We also offer the latter career guidance sessions, job coaching, workshops and training programmes to help them build their careers within NS or elsewhere.
Staff with a migration background
For new hires and promotions of employees with a migration background, we cooperate with organisations such as the UAF, Refugee talent Hub, Agora Network and the ECHO Foundation. These are cultural diversity organisations. We also paid extra attention last year in management development processes to the hiring and promoting of people in these groups. Besides awareness workshops for line managers, we introduced anonymous job applications more widely in the recruitment process, as well as deploying unbiased selection and structured interviewing methods.
For those with a refugee background, there are a number of specific apprenticeship programmes to improve their job prospects. Within Service & Operations, we developed our own one-year apprenticeship programme for general service staff. A total of 10 asylum permit holders started this programme. From this group, one person was able to move on to a regular position as a service staff member. We are also continuing the technical work-study programme at vocational education level for asylum permit holders in Haarlem and Berkel-Enschot with Randstad Techniek. A total of 28 asylum permit holders are now in a two-year training programme to become train mechanics. Eight people obtained a level 2 vocational training diploma and joined NS as mechanics. In these apprenticeship programmes we offer employees a learning track, language support, workplace guidance and development opportunities. Twelve asylum permit holders also started our own vocational training programme at the Techniekfabriek, where we also provide additional language support.
In 2024, ten asylum permit holders started in an Asylum Permit Holder Kickstart Job: a position at higher professional education/university level, in which employees receive mentoring and language training. NS offers them a maximum of 3 one-year contracts. In 2024, two people were able to move on to regular positions in our company and ten people had their contracts renewed. We also continue to encourage new hires of employees with a migration background through regular vacancies and traineeships.
NS set up a Diversity Committee in 2020 to promote diversity in senior positions. Since the committee was established, we have seen an increase in staff with a migration background in senior management positions. On 31 December 2024, 8.1% held this type of position (31 December 2023: 7.8%). Our aim is to have at least 10% of senior positions filled by employees with a migration background by 2025. NS wants to bring the representation of this group more in line with the composition of today’s society.