Employee Engagement

We want our people to feel comfortable within our organisation, inspired and energised by their work, and supported by colleagues and managers. Every year, our employee engagement survey helps us understand what is important to our colleagues, and to act on the results. In 2024, the response rate for our survey was 80% (2023: 79%) and the engagement score was 83% (2023: 80). We maintained or improved performance on every measure of the survey from 2023. We track the mental health and well-being of employees through the survey. In 2024, this score was 79% (2023: 78%). More than two-thirds of our employees (70%) reported having a good work-life balance. Although this score shows a 2% improvement compared to 2023, we continue to see the need to support managers to distribute work effectively and act when team members report problems in their work/life balance.   

One area that needed attention was compensation and benefits. In 2024 we worked on a total reward project, developing competitive salary packages to attract and retain our talented people. We improved opportunities for internal mobility, enabling employees to develop meaningful careers within our organisation. All our vacancies are published on an internal career platform as well as to external audiences. 

Being partly employee-owned and having more focus on delivering on our purpose (steward-ownership), is an attractive feature for existing and potential employees. We include information about this in our employee value proposition narratives. We also launched a global referring policy rewarding employees when they successfully bring new colleagues to join the company.  

We aim to create the best possible start for new recruits, making them feel part of the team and quickly orienting them to our work and values. We continued to improve our onboarding process in 2024, ensuring we deliver a consistent employee experience across the world. The virtual Royal Start events that take place for new joiners in the Netherlands are now available for all our locations. Local face-to-face events are also held regularly to build connections and strong teams.  

Enjoyment and shared experiences are part of the mix of a happy working life. Offices regularly hold events to bring people together. For example, in the Netherlands, around 500 employees joined a beach volleyball event organised by our young professionals. Charity fundraising events included the Brite Cycling Classic and the 500km team relay Roparun. Lively celebrations marked NACO’s 75th anniversary, along with the 20th anniversary of our presence in the Philippines and 50 years in Thailand. In Vietnam, employee birthdays of the past three months are celebrated with local colleagues every quarter. In Jakarta, colleagues held an Iftar gathering celebrating the end of Ramadan.