NS recruits over 5,000 new members of staff every year, more than half of them for the station retail outlets. In 2017, we filled 3,779 vacancies for people with vocational qualifications and 1,011 vacancies for graduates (2016: 3,829 and 722 respectively). In our recruitment, we paid more attention in 2017 to the positioning of NS as an employer. We deployed new recruitment methods and developed an attractive concept that showed the challenges NS is working on. We are recruiting more online and targeting specific groups more. In order to implement the arrangements in the personal safety agreement, NS took on 140 additional chief guards and 60 Safety & Service staff this year. In addition, 19 trainees and 38 work placement students started with us. The hiring desk filled 529 temporary positions with external employees. Furthermore, all these new employees were screened, frequently tested and had to run through online modules to familiarise themselves with NS.