Proud, resilient and professionally fit

The future of NS depends on a proud and healthy workforce. We are nothing without them. We believe in being a good and attractive employer for everyone who works for us. For example, by offering varied work that has an impact on society, as well as freedom and development opportunities. And by continuing to invest in public and personal safety and a healthy working environment. NS provides excellent employment conditions and we strive for equality in all respects. To grow our passenger offering, we are reorganising work where necessary. With a manageable workload and a cost-conscious approach. Technological developments help us to achieve this.

The world is changing fast: society poses new challenges, technology is constantly evolving and jobs are changing. In this world, we at NS continue to build a place where everyone feels welcome and seen: our people are the beating heart of NS. With us, you can learn and grow and we care about your well-being. We believe that it is only possible to move forward together and by respecting everyone's story, talents and ambitions. That is why we are committed to being an employer that allows you to truly be yourself. There’s a good reason why we are one of the largest and most popular employers in the Netherlands. Every year, Intelligence Group publishes a list of the most popular employers in the Netherlands: In 2025, we were ranked 11th (2024:12th).

Trends and developments in 2025

As an employer, you prefer to have everything under control to provide your employees with a stable, pleasant working environment. Nevertheless, there were a number of developments in 2025 over which we had no influence, but that we as an organisation had to address.

Levels of coarsening in society are increasing. People are less patient and less friendly in their interactions, and undesirable behaviour on the streets and public transport is on the rise. NS is a microcosm of the Netherlands. Many of our people witness this social trend for themselves in their daily work: verbal aggression, harassment and even physical violence are all too common. These developments require ongoing investment in public safety, training in dealing with aggression, and a culture in which staff support each other. NS is a social enterprise and our employees reflect society. We are seeing growing polarisation not just in the outside world, but also within the mini society that is NS. This contrasts strongly with what NS aims to be, always and for everyone: an open, safe and inclusive organisation. So we continue to address this development in a number of ways.

Sickness absence in the Netherlands remained at a high level in 2025. After rising during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, the national sickness absence rate has stabilised around 5 to 6%. Work-related stress, symptoms of burn-out and long-term sickness absence due to mental health problems are playing an ever-greater role. An ageing workforce is contributing to more long-term absence due to chronic conditions and physical complaints. Healthy employees are crucial for NS. Business unit vitality plans provide useful insight into what is going on, but their implementation has not yet had a visible effect on the figures. The sickness absence rate of 8.6% is higher than the Dutch average. Although the figures have now stabilised somewhat, the transition to a healthier organisation requires perseverance and joint effort.

Technology is rapidly evolving. Digitalisation, robotisation and artificial intelligence are significantly changing the world of work. The nature of many colleagues' work is evolving, with some jobs disappearing, while at the same time new professions are emerging that require different skills. This also applies to rail transport: from train drivers operating increasingly smart trains to mechanics using handy diagnostics [see box]. This shift requires continuous staff upskilling and retraining. NS is therefore increasingly investing in lifelong learning, as well as development programmes to prepare employees for new technologies such as data-driven maintenance, automated systems and digital customer service.

Finally, we continued to feel the impact of labour market shortages. The labour force is shrinking, partly due to an ageing population, while the number of vacancies remains as high as ever. The combination of these factors means that the labour shortage in the Netherlands is expected to rise to 1.4 million by 2030. In 2025, NS had a particularly strong need to recruit Safety & Service employees and mechanics. We are constantly thinking about how we can fill vacant positions and what technological developments can help us do so.

What did we do in 2025?

Supervisors play an extremely important role in everything we do. They help their people cope with change and ensure that new developments go as smoothly as possible. But supervisors are not just there as managers, they also offer support to our colleagues. Also in the event of social or political unrest. They therefore form a protective link between the outside world and work at NS. Their commitment and care make colleagues feel safer and better supported.

For NS, this meant taking steps in 2025 not just on broad, strategic themes such as leadership, diversity and inclusion, sickness and vitality, and mobility. We also achieved visible and tangible results through new initiatives that directly contribute to the well-being and development of our colleagues. We would like to draw particular attention to a number of additional specific achievements and initiatives in 2025.

New collective labour agreement

On 15 September, all unions agreed to the negotiated result on the new collective labour agreement. The new NS collective labour agreement contains clear agreements on salary, allowances and working hours.

Part of this new collective labour agreement is the Heavy Work Scheme: colleagues who have performed heavy work throughout their career at NS can now, under certain conditions, stop working early up to three years before their state pension age with an allowance from NS. NS is one of the first major employers in the Netherlands to agree such a Heavy Work Scheme.

Equal pay

At NS, we provide equal pay for equal work. NS conducts a ‘male/female’ income analysis every two years. The most up-to-date calculation from 2024 shows that there is no gender pay gap at NS.

Targeted recruitment

NS once again invested heavily in recruiting new colleagues in 2025. Recruitment of mechanics, IT professionals and Safety & Service officers remained particularly challenging. NS continued to deploy targeted recruitment campaigns in 2025 with the aim of filling all vacancies. Examples include an ambassador programme for operational and technical staff and campaigns specifically aimed at young people (particularly vocational education students). This programme won the Werf & Award in the Labour Market Communication category in May. In addition, colleagues could also qualify for a payment in 2025 if a candidate they nominated was hired. We ensure a fast and pleasant application process that is in line with the target group, where for many positions the right talents and skills are more important than qualifications. This approach led to the successful filling of 4,107 vacancies in 2025 (2024: 5,069).

Participatory jobs

One of our goals is to create 200 participatory jobs for people with disabilities. In 2025, NS had 138 employees with an occupational disability in what are known as participatory jobs (2024: 165). Of these employees, 128 were still in employment at the end of December (year-end 2024: 151). Due to the tight labour market, staff with disabilities are difficult to recruit. We train internal employees and managers in mentoring colleagues with an occupational disability. We also offer various forms of support, such as career guidance, job coaching, workshops and training. This allows these colleagues to further shape their careers inside or outside NS and improve their job prospects.

Cultural diversity

For new hires and promotions of employees with a diverse cultural background, we cooperate with organisations such as the Refugee Talent Hub, Agora Network and the ECHO Foundation. For people with a refugee background, we offer specific apprenticeship programmes in addition to regular vacancies and what we call Kickstart jobs to increase their chances in the labour market. For example, Service & Operations has a one-year course for service employees and Train Modernisation offers a senior secondary vocational education course in engineering and technology in collaboration with Randstad Techniek. We also look for a diverse range of talented individuals to advance to senior positions.

Learning and development

Professional expertise is a priority for NS. Naturally, we facilitate our colleagues to keep their professional knowledge up to date and acquire new knowledge and skills. This includes a particular emphasis on safety and technical training. We took several steps in the field of learning and development in 2025. For example, we developed a new learning method for main guards using Virtual Reality. We set up a further training course on the ERTMS for train drivers. To employees such as main guards, train managers and Service Station colleagues, we offered 'Strong at your job' training to better equip these staff members to cope with the increase in aggressive behaviour in society. The year 2025 also saw a complete overhaul of the Management Learning Programme for new supervisors and we trained new employees at our own Learning Centre and our TechniekFabriek. We also facilitated training for potential mechanics, train drivers and main guards through our partner regional training centres, including through the STC in Rotterdam. For Retail colleagues, we provided training in collaboration with national senior secondary vocational education provider NCVB in Tilburg.