Promoting health and well-being

Healthy employees are central to a well-functioning company, and in 2023 we focused on ensuring that our people were both healthy and safe, enabling us to operate a well-functioning company that contributes to and reflects society.

Safeguarding occupational safety

PostNL Safety As indicated
2022- 2023

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The occupational safety of our people also remains one of our priorities. PostNL already has several measures in place to ensure a safe and healthy working environment, such as working instructions and tools to reduce the physical load. Additionally, we continually investigate and test new measures and tools to make improvements. Our certified ISO:45001 management system helps us with the structured management of the health and safety of people working with or for us. This includes identifying and following up on areas for improvement.

In 2023, the number of recordable accidents was 5.2 (per 100 FTEs) from 3.8 (per 100 FTEs) in 2022. This increased recordable accident rate was partially due to adverse weather conditions, with a series of storms hitting the Netherlands in 2023. We deem the number of recordable accidents as being relatively low, compared to the exposure our large workforce has on a daily basis. In 2023, we had 0 fatal accidents across our operations (2022: 3).

Focusing on lowering absenteeism

While absenteeism levels remained high in 2023, we worked hard to better understand why this occurs and to tackle the problem. This involved introducing a number of key initiatives that focused on helping both employees and managers. For example, for employees we implemented additional programmes aimed at staying healthy at work, introduced people coaches who worked directly with employees to help prevent absenteeism, and paid greater attention to the causes of absenteeism from psychological issues and physically demanding work.​ We also set up an absenteeism task force.

For managers, we rolled out an e-learning module to help them recognise and deal with psychological complaints, and we provided them with practical tools to help them hold productive discussions with employees, for example before absenteeism becomes an issue. By the end of the year this targeted approach had made an impact, and we saw lower absenteeism levels in December compared to a year earlier.

We also developed new approaches to deal with absenteeism, which we will implement in 2024. These will include:

• Introduce logistics coaches to work on developing tasks to reduce physical complaints, for example within Parcels
• Create a dedicated Absenteeism department​ within the HR organisation
• Provide people on sick leave with extra support during the first six weeks of their absence
• Promote the resumption of work by temporarily deploying employees to other suitable work
• Continue to study and implement best-practice examples from across the company.

Winner of the Diamond Award Cultural Diversity 2023

PostNL was delighted to receive the Diamond Award Cultural Diversity 2023 from the Talent to the Top Foundation. The award recognises our focus and progress on diversity and inclusion across the organisation, where we work to create an environment in which everyone feels safe and is provided with development opportunities to maximise their potential.

To be the Netherlands' favourite deliverer we need to reflect Dutch society, and a study by the national statistics office, Statistics Netherlands (CBS), provided insight into the composition of our entire workforce with regard to Dutch, Western and non-Western backgrounds. With over 100 nationalities working for the company, we truly reflect a diverse society.

Making progress in all areas of diversity and inclusion

The cornerstone of the progress we make in diversity and inclusion is our diversity policy, which is structured around six key themes: gender equality, multicultural diversity, acceptance of the LGBTIQ+ group, age differentiation, diversity in thinking power, and helping people regain and maintain access to the labour market.

With a diverse workforce that reflects society, we believe it is important to fully utilise our talent and create a place where everyone feels at home, at all levels of the company. Every four years we carry out research into diversity and inclusion through our company-wide Diversity Index, which provides valuable insights into whether our people feel accepted at work and are given equal opportunities.

In 2023, we continued to promote diversity and inclusion across the company and beyond. PostNL complies with the binding diversity quota for the Supervisory Board. Additionally, PostNL has determined ambitious and appropriate outlook figures for the Board of Management and senior management. We also continued to ensure that everyone who works with or for us feels comfortable and safe, regardless of origin, orientation, religion, or social background, and we have discussions with our partners to ensure these values are imprinted along our value chain and promote our company-wide Diversity Index to other organisations.

We train our recruiters and managers on how to be aware of prejudices and help them develop the skills to work with people from different cultures. We also take this into account in our recruitment and selection processes, and we are PSO certified (Performance Ladder Social Entrepreneurship). This means that we go above and beyond to help vulnerable groups in the labour market find work.

To help make our key themes reality within the company, we pay particular attention to the following four main areas:

PRIDE

Our PRIDE network operates across the company and actively campaigns for greater acceptance of the LGBTIQ+ community.

Women Inclusion Network (WIN)

WIN works to empower women in their work, and encourages them to develop and realise their ambitions. It also operates a proven mentoring programme, which includes senior management acting as mentors for talented and ambitious women to help them grow and prepare for senior positions within the company.

Young PostNL

The Young PostNL network focuses on young talent within the company, and organises its own events aimed at developing this talent.

Multicultural diversity

Multicultural diversity is one of our four main diversity and inclusion focus areas, and aims to attract, retain and develop multicultural talent within the company.

Each of the four areas are sponsored by Executive Committee (EC) members and the EC periodically updates our Supervisory Board on diversity and inclusion developments within the company, ensuring that diversity and inclusion is given the full support of the company.

PostNL Gender diversity Percentages
2022-2023

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