NS is one of the biggest employers in the Netherlands and is a strong brand in the labour market. Every day, our 21,000-plus staff enable people’s door-to-door journeys in the Netherlands. We welcomed over 5,000 new colleagues in 2017, either starting permanent jobs, or temporary assignments or part-time jobs alongside their study or other work.

The labour market is becoming tighter and tighter. The number of job vacancies is increasing, unemployment is falling and the population is ageing. NS is seeing the effects of this in its recruitment in a number of regions and in crucial professional areas such as technology, IT and retail. We are responding by adapting the recruitment channels to suit the target groups and by using our own staff to help find new colleagues. We also continue to focus on lifelong learning with our own training programmes such as at TechniekFabriek, annual refresher instruction courses and close collaboration with regional vocational education centres.
Staff are given an individual budget that they can use to make personal choices in facilities and activities relating to health and motivation at work. Key factors are maintaining professional skills and developing talent and leadership. This lets us retain our appeal as one of the leading employers in the Netherlands.

Our employees

• At the end of 2017, the NS workforce in the Netherlands comprised 21,835 staff (18,780 FTEs)

• 81% of all NS staff had a permanent contract (2016: 80%)

• Women made up 34% of the workforce at NS (2016: 34%)

• The average age of our employees is 43 (2016: 43)