11 Employee wellbeing

Gasunie is committed to creating a work environment geared towards increasing focus, performance, a sense of purpose and job satisfaction. We recognise the importance of being a good employer and make every effort to make Gasunie an attractive place to work.

We feel it is important for our employees to be involved in the decision-making process in the company. Through the Works Council, employees can have a say and can influence policy and the course of events at the company. To be able to effectively represent the employees, it is essential that the Works Council know what matters to those employees. Works Council members have regular contact with the employees they represent and the Work Council keeps employees informed of the matters the Works Council is working on. The Works Councils also provides the management with important information from the shop floor. In 2024 the Works Council met with members of the Executive Board on six occasions, with a member of the Supervisory Board also sitting in at two of these meetings. The Works Council has the right to advise the Executive Board on important financial, economic and organisational decisions and the right to approve decisions on schemes or regulations relating to staff and/or staffing. The Works Council and the management also consult with each other in the interest of the proper functioning of the company in achieving all its objectives. The management can benefit from these consultations, for example in its decision-making and when determining the policy to be pursued. The Additional Information section of this annual report includes the Report of the Works Council, in which the Works Council looks back on its activities in the year 2024.

Given that human trafficking, forced labour, child labour and human rights are covered in both the Dutch and German constitution and laws on workplace health and safety, the latter of which contribute to the protection of employees and ensure safe and healthy working conditions, we do not have a specific policy on these matters. Accordingly, our policy with regard to employees is not explicitly aligned with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. In our Conduct Guidelines – Working Together we focus on how we can work together in a constructive and pleasant way. These guidelines focus on social topics like combating discrimination and promoting diversity, equity and inclusion. We have not drawn up specific policy documents for these topics.

Employee satisfaction (LT)

Induction programme

To give the increasing number of new hires at Gasunie a good start in the company, in 2024 we further expanded both our central induction programme and our induction programmes for staff at certain specific units. We expect that this action will raise employee satisfaction and we plan to keep this programme in place over the coming years.

Performance management cycle

We took steps to further foster the dialogue between managers and employees on personal and professional development in the Netherlands and in Germany. In the Netherlands, we do this through ‘FLOW interviews’, where FLOW is the Dutch initialism for ‘Focus on Learning, Development and Agility’. We have done this by, among other things, introducing FLOW interview cards, posting regular messages on the intranet, HR providing advice to managers, and by making a digital portal available where the progress of the FLOW interview process can be tracked. In Germany, the regular performance management process has been further improved.

Sickness absence (LT)

Occupational health physician

Thanks to the drop-in consultation opportunities we offer, our staff are increasingly able to find their way to the occupational health physician and the staff welfare officer. Having the opportunity to consult with these professionals is an important factor in preventing sickness absence. We hope that by making use of the occupational health physician, we can identify health issues at an earlier stage and this way reduce the level of sickness absence.

Questionnaire

From 2024, the Occupational Health & Safety Service will send an employee a questionnaire on their fourth day of sick leave, which the service can then use to estimate whether this will be a case of short-term or long-term sickness absence. In the event of the latter, the employee is, where necessary, invited to visit the occupational health physician earlier than the standard fourth week of sick leave. We hope that this way the employee will have faster access to health professionals and a shorter recovery time.

Recognising the signals

In the ‘Recognising the signals’ prevention course, employees learn how the brain works, what influences mental resilience, signs that indicate that limits of mental resilience are being reached, and circumstances or combinations of circumstances that can lay the foundation for mental health issues or can pave the way to mental wellbeing. In 2024 we offered our employees this series of five master classes.

'PMO/PAGO'

Gasunie carried out a periodic job-specific occupational health check (‘PMO/PAGO’) in both 2023 and 2024. The response rate among employees was high. Participants complete a questionnaire and undergo biometric health screening. They then talk to a vitality coach who discusses the answers and the screening results with them. We feel that this will make employees more aware of the importance of a healthy (or healthier) lifestyle and that they will actually put the lifestyle advice they receive into practice. From the results of this health survey, Gasunie gains (at department level) a better understanding of matters such as employee health & fitness, lifestyle and capacity for work, as well as social safety, inappropriate behaviour, the impact of work pressure and work stress, and informal caregiving.

Master Your Energy

The Master Your Energy course, in which participants learn how to use their energy more intelligently, has sparked a lot of interest among our employees. This course helps employees understand which things cost energy and how the body can be ‘recharged’. Employees also learn how to gain more control over their energy and how to organise their day more effectively so that they can work with more focus and still have enough time and energy to do the things that are important to them outside of work. The course is now also a part of the induction programme for new employees.

When an employee goes on sick leave, the provisions under the Dutch Sickness Benefits Act come into play; if the sickness absence is due to an accident, however, we apply the provisions agreed in the collective labour agreement.

Employee satisfaction

On behalf of Gasunie, once a year an independent research agency (Effectory) asks all employees and non-employees working for Gasunie in the Netherlands how they feel about working at Gasunie. The results for Gasunie are compared to general and sector-specific benchmarks from which the threshold values are derived. We do not link any specific figures or set targets for this since this would run contrary to the continuous improvement process. Gasunie aims to have the highest level of employee satisfaction possible and annually evaluates the results of the survey so that it can maintain a high level of satisfaction. By evaluating the results each year and making improvements on the points of attention, we ensure that our employees feel valued and supported.

Sickness absence

With the increased workload at Gasunie as a result of the extra efforts in the area of transmission security and the energy transition, preventing sickness absence has received a great deal of attention. Our Gasunie target is a sickness absence rate among our own (on-payroll) employees that does not exceed 4.0%. This percentage was calculated based on past figures combined with the progressive average sickness absence rate taken from the sickness absence report.

The metrics relating to employee satisfaction and sickness absence have not been validated by an external party other than our auditor.

Employees appear to be satisfied with Gasunie as an employer, feel valued, find Gasunie’s vision for the future inspiring, and support Gasunie’s objectives. An employee net promoter score (eNPS score) of 26 (2023: 30) indicates that Gasunie employees would generally recommend Gasunie as a potential employer (benchmark: 18).

The majority of employees dare to be themselves and feel that their fellow employees accept them for who they are. Being able to work safely in the physical sense also scores high.