5.7 Own workforce

Nedap strives to be the preferred organization for top-tier talent by fostering a culture of growth and excellence, and by facilitating a work environment where people feel safe, valued and empowered. This ambition is part of the Our employees focus area of our sustainability policy. We achieve this by offering personal and professional development opportunities, translating our DEI vision into action and making procedural decisions (e.g., updating the hiring policy for senior management positions) aimed at enhancing diversity in our organization. Our workforce includes employees directly employed and paid by our legal entities, as well as non-employees, such as secondees, self-employed contractors, temporary workers and students.

We acknowledge the risk that due to fast-moving developments in technology, we are unable to keep all our own employees' knowledge up to date, leading to a loss of our competitive advantage. We also acknowledge that the nature of the work environment poses risks and may result in negative impacts. When we are unable to foster a diverse, equitable and inclusive work environment, this may negatively impact the well-being of individual employees and non-employees. When workers (employee and non-employee of any gender, age and/or working for any of our entities) do not feel empowered to be their authentic self, they may also experience barriers to reaching their full potential. Risks include losing well-qualified workers and not being able to attract new qualified people due to reputational damage. We have not identified any groups of people, such as people working at specific Nedap offices or individuals undertaking particular activities, who are at greater risk of harm.

5.7.1 Policies related to own workforce

Nedap has implemented several policies related to its own workforce, which are detailed below.

Human rights

Nedap's dedication to upholding human rights, as defined by the United Nations in its Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is formalized in Nedap's human rights policy document, which has been drafted in 2024 and will be published on the website. We support the principles set out in the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and those in the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. Any investigations, based on the OECD guidelines, are conducted in a way that corresponds with Nedap's size and the nature and context of its operations, as well as the severity of the risks of adverse effects on human rights. This policy applies to all our employees and non-employees worldwide. We also specifically address human rights in our code of conduct and explicitly reject any form of trafficking, forced labor and child labor. Our current human rights policy does not describe mechanisms and processes for monitoring compliance with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, ILO Declaration and OECD Guidelines, nor are there measures in place to remedy any negative impact on human rights. We will assess whether such additions are necessary for Nedap. For more information on our human rights policy, please refer to section 3.1 Business integrity.

Workplace accident prevention

We comply with all relevant laws and regulations regarding working conditions and employee health to create a safe work environment for our employees and have not deemed it necessary to formalize this in a policy. At our Nedap office in the Netherlands, we have two designated prevention officers and a well-functioning, trained Emergency Response Team consisting of around 90 people. As mandated by law, we have a risk inventory and evaluation, plan of action and company emergency plan in place that describe risks related to the work environment and instructions for responding to possible situations. All Nedap subsidiaries globally have implemented their own prevention policies in compliance with local laws and regulations. In 2025, we will implement a periodic review process to ensure the prevention policies of our subsidiaries remain up to date. For more information, please refer to section 3.1 Business integrity.

Equal opportunities

As outlined in our code of conduct, we do not permit any form of discrimination. Nedap has also devoted significant time and attention to DEI in recent years, aimed at developing, documenting and sharing our approach within Nedap. Following structured discussions on this topic, we translated our insights into the first iteration of our Nedap-wide DEI policy and action plan, which has been approved by the Board of Directors. Our DEI policy serves as a starting point. Recognizing both the importance and complexity of this topic, we will continue to enhance our insights and refine and expand our policies. In 2024, Nedap recruited a DEI Lead and DEI Catalyst from offices worldwide to lead initiatives that create a more welcoming and inclusive workplace. Both roles report to the CCO.

Personal development

Nedap's talent development approach is built on trust, autonomy and continuous growth and is not formalized in a policy. We empower employees to take ownership of their development by providing the right environment, tools and opportunities to learn and thrive. We foster a culture where curiosity and initiative are valued, encouraging individuals to explore new challenges and expand their expertise. Through mentorship, learning programs and real-world experience, we support personal and professional growth aligned with both individual aspirations and Nedap's ambitions. By investing in our people, we strengthen our collective ability to add value and drive innovation. Talent development at Nedap is not a rigid framework but an evolving journey to help people reach their full potential. More information on talent development can be found in subsection People and talent development in section 2.2 Progress on our people.

Whistleblower policy

The whistleblower policy describes the procedure for safely reporting (the suspicion of) misconduct or irregularities. Misconduct refers to situations that can have serious consequences for our organization, our employees, other stakeholders and/or society. Irregularities are failures or errors in execution, structures, processes or procedures within the organization that are so serious that they exceed the responsibility of direct management.

5.7.2 Processes for engaging with own workforce

Within Nedap, we have various formal and informal channels to engage with employees. We elaborate on these channels in the paragraphs below. 

Works council

In line with the Works Councils Act ('Wet op de Ondernemingsraden'; WOR), the works council has the right to promote and protect the interests of employees, while also considering the overall interests of the company. At Nedap, the threshold for informing and escalating issues to the Board of Directors or management is low. Nevertheless, Nedap's management takes its obligation of involving the works council in important decisions in a timely manner seriously. These include decisions regarding organizational changes and large financial decisions. 

The Board of Directors has an open line of communication with the works council, resulting in valuable exchanges about both legally mandated issues and other relevant topics.

The works council holds monthly meetings, alternating between consultation meetings with the company’s Board of Directors and independent meetings without the Board of Directors' presence. The meeting minutes are published and available to all employees.

The Board of Directors sets the overall agenda. As part of the consultation meetings, the works council brings forward issues raised by employees. During the year, the works council also meets with the Supervisory Board of Nedap N.V. to discuss the strategy of Nedap and evaluate its working relation with the Board of Directors.

Trade unions

Nedap N.V. has its own collective labor agreement (CLA), negotiated and concluded with the trade unions active at Nedap, FNV and De Unie. Every year, these trade unions prepare a proposal for a new CLA. Typically, a new CLA is concluded for one year, beginning on 1 April. The negotiations for a new CLA are conducted between a delegation from management, Human Resources and legal affairs, along with a representative from the relevant union and a Nedap union member. A delegation from the works council attends the negotiations, acting as observers. These discussions culminate in a so-called negotiation result, a document outlining the main points of the new CLA. This negotiation result is then presented to the union members at Nedap. Upon approval, the unions and management sign the CLA, after which it comes into force. Nedap's employees can participate in the process by becoming members of the relevant unions, FNV and De Unie.

Whistleblower policy

Nedap's corporate culture is based on transparency and personal responsibility. We encourage our employees to speak up to prevent or quickly resolve undesirable situations. We recommend employees talk to someone they trust, such as a colleague, team captain or the Compliance Officer, about their concerns. When this is not a viable option, the procedures of the whistleblower policy can be used. 

Confidential counsellor

The confidential counsellor is responsible for dealing with sensitive topics, which are any topics that an employee prefers to discuss privately. In many cases, simply talking about such topics provides relief. Examples include integrity violations, sexual harassment, aggression, discrimination and bullying. Nedap has two types of confidential counsellors, confidential counsellors for undesirable behavior (CCU) and confidential counsellors for integrity (CCI).

Engagement surveys

In recent years, we have used annual questionnaires to measure employee engagement, focusing on a different department each year. As a result, each department was surveyed once every three years. Department-specific action plans were developed to follow up on outcomes. We aim to move toward a more continuous form of employee engagement and organizational listening, while further professionalizing our way of working. We are in the process of selecting a new partner to support us in these efforts.

Weekly Board Update

In the Weekly Board Update, a member of the Board of Directors shares their insights, relevant decisions or vision for the future. In addition to this weekly email, we publish recent updates on Nedap's intranet, giving employees a glimpse into the decisions and initiatives shaping our organization. This helps to keep employees up to date on the latest developments and promotes a shared understanding of the direction we are taking together. 

We also engaged our employees to collect the necessary insights for developing our DEI policy. In 2024, we conducted a survey among all female employees to gain insights into how they perceive opportunities for growth toward a leadership position.

5.7.3 Remediation of negative impacts and reporting of concerns

Nedap has various mechanisms and channels in place for the workforce to express concerns. We follow up on each report and monitor the effectiveness of these channels to remediate negative impacts. 

Our whistleblower policy explains how employees can safely report (the suspicion of) misconduct or irregularities. Employees may report concerns to the Compliance Officer in person or by phone. Alternatively, employees may report concerns in writing via our reporting system IntegrityLog. The IntegrityLog system helps us to register, monitor and follow up on issues raised. We continuously evaluate the effectiveness of the system, with the number of reports submitted providing insight into employee awareness of these channels. Our General Counsel/Head of Compliance is the functional owner of this reporting system. Through the mandatory code of conduct training for all employees in 2024, we raised additional awareness of these channels. In addition, we use the Weekly Board Update to create awareness around this topic. We see an increase in informal notifications from our workforce.

While we encourage employees to report (the suspicion of) misconduct or irregularity internally first, we also provide the option to report concerns directly to a competent external authority, such as the House of Whistleblowers ('Huis voor Klokkenluiders'). We describe the procedure for this in our whistleblower policy.

We are investing in the expansion of training and development opportunities for our workforce. These investments contribute to a work environment where people can reach their potential. In 2024, we invested in our learning management system, the Nedap Learning Platform. The platform makes it easier to access training programs, addressing feedback from employees who experience barriers to working on their development. We evaluate the effectiveness of our training and development offer by asking employees how much time they spent on their development. The Nedap Learning Platform will enhance our insights into how employees make use of our training and development offer moving forward. 

5.7.4 Actions to manage our IROs and their effectiveness

Actions on diversity

One of our actions related to our own workforce is focused on achieving gender balance. This is also reflected by our leadership targets on this topic. As mentioned previously, a DEI Lead and DEI Catalysts were recruited to lead initiatives aimed at creating a more welcoming and inclusive workplace. The DEI team will dedicate several hours per week to enhance inclusivity, alongside their regular duties.

The goal of this team is to realize the full value of the talent available at Nedap in the short and medium term. We achieve this by focusing on the inclusion of non-Dutch-speaking colleagues and the progression of female talent into leadership positions. The Women Leaderships Initiatives survey conducted among our entire female staff, which followed in-depth interviews with a select group of women at Nedap, has provided us with the insights we need to better facilitate the development of female talent. This is an example of an initiative within Nedap to formulate targeted actions for achieving our DEI goals, planned for 2025. 

Several actions to further shape our work environment are already underway, including the global and regularly held Unconscious Bias, Cultural Intelligence and Ambassadors for Inclusion trainings. These trainings go beyond our focus on gender balance in leadership and address other relevant DEI topics to make our workforce more aware of possible undesirable behavior in their day-to-day work.

In case of an adverse impact on our workforce, we will discuss the matter with the people involved. In the event of a violation of our code of conduct, we will consider disciplinary measures.

Actions on talent development

In addition to the above actions, we have a talent management approach in place that involves more targeted actions related to DEI, focusing on specific roles, teams, departments and/or individuals. Examples include individualized development plans and the recruitment of specific profiles where we identify a gap in the existing potential within our employees.

Within talent management, we pay structural attention to gender with a focus on creating a balanced talent pipeline and realizing the full potential of female talent within Nedap. This focus is an outcome of the interviews conducted by an external HR consultancy firm. Our efforts span the top and upper management roles, as well as roles that feed into these management levels. As part of our talent reviews, we assess the potential of individuals in line with their career aspirations. As part of the succession planning process, we identify key positions and potential successors for the purpose of business continuity.

Leadership reviews take place in August and September. Outcomes of the leadership reviews for key positions are reported to the Supervisory Board in September. Succession planning takes place in October and November, which involves the development of action plans for potential successors of people in key positions.

The talent identification & potential assessment takes place in February and March and involves identifying talents and their potential. Talent identification covers all employees, and outcomes are communicated to the appropriate management level. Team captains then engage in conversations with the employee to create a personal development plan.

These processes are recurring, allowing us to monitor progress toward our ambitions, including our goal to achieve gender balance at various levels within the organization. We also gain insight into the effectiveness of our actions, allowing us to make adjustments as needed.

Developing our employees is both a goal and a necessity for staying relevant in a rapidly evolving world. We send out an annual development survey to our employees, which serves as an important tool for shaping our professional development offer. In 2023, we learned that many employees found it challenging to dedicate time to their development, often due to pressing responsibilities, a lack of time and difficulty finding the appropriate development opportunities. This is one of the reasons we launched our Nedap Learning Platform. We will continue to develop more in-house trainings in the coming years.

A key area of DEI is gender balance. We disclose the gender ratios and our targets related to equality within Supervisory Board, Board of Directors and senior management of the company, and we submit our plans of action to achieve these targets on an annual basis. In doing so, we comply with the Law on Entry Quota and Targets ('Wet Ingroeiquota').

5.7.5 Targets related to managing our IROs

Annually, we report on gender balance and our targets for equality within the top and sub-top of the company and submit our plans of action to achieve these targets. This is in line with the Law on Entry Quota and Targets.

Our Supervisory Board composition adheres to the statutory diversity quota, ensuring at least one-third female and one-third male representation. Our Board of Directors maintains a gender balance, with at least one-third representation of both males and females. Additionally, as stated in our policy, we strive to achieve a target of 27% female representation in senior management by 2028, based on the 2023 percentage. This is in line with the overall gender distribution within Nedap, which serves as the baseline value. Our definition of senior management can be found in subsection 5.10.4 Senior management of section 5.10 Sustainability notes.

Our goal to align female representation in senior management with Nedap's overall gender ratio was originally set for 2025. However, progress has been slower than anticipated. To ensure we achieve this important objective, we are striving toward this goal with a revised timeline of 2028, providing a more realistic and achievable path forward.

We share ambitions, initiatives and progress with the works council, ensuring that we take the employee perspective into consideration. We also share the results and follow-up actions from our engagement surveys with the works council. These surveys include DEI topics such as perceived equality/fairness, sense of belonging/inclusion, support for diversity and awareness on initiatives.

Our ongoing target is for each employee to spend at least 40 hours on development per year, including both personal and professional development. This 40-hour target was set based on a benchmark against similar companies. This target represents our commitment to continuous learning and growth, which are key to staying competitive and resilient. It is also a benchmark and an integral part of Nedap's sustainability policy.

5.7.6 Characteristics of Nedap's employees

During the reporting year, none of Nedap's subsidiaries had more than 50 employees working in their respective country. We have included the numbers for Nedap as a whole based on how our employees are registered in our HR systems. When onboarding an employee, personal information such as date of birth and gender are taken from the identification document presented by the employee. This information is updated only when there is a change to the details on the identification document.

The number of leavers in 2024 is 112 (2023: 101), resulting in a turnover rate of 10.8% (2023: 10.6%).

All numbers are reported at the end of 2024 and 2023 respectively. All employees who have left Nedap, with a last working day of 31 December, are included in the headcount and FTE numbers. FTE is defined as a full-time equivalent and is based on the number of hours an employee works per week versus the subsidiaries' standard working hours. For most employees this is 38 hours per week.

These numbers link to the average number of employees of note 15 in section 6.1 Consolidated financial statements.

5.7.7 Characteristics of non-employees in Nedap's own workforce

The number of non-employees is measured by headcount and represents the number of non-employees at the end of the year. All non-employees are registered in our HR systems. This provides insight into the flexible layer of our workforce and helps us to maintain a balance between employees and non-employees.

5.7.8 Diversity metrics

The table below shows the composition of senior management by gender.

We apply our own definition of senior management as stated in subsection 5.10.4 Senior management of section 5.10 Sustainability notes.

The age distribution of our employees is as follows:

5.7.9 Training and development

At Nedap, we do not track and register training hours or performance reviews in our systems, as this does not fit our culture. We also maintain a broad definition of professional development, which in addition to formal training includes activities such as visiting conferences, watching webinars and engaging in self-education. For this reason, we ask our employees to self-report their development hours and indicate whether they underwent any development or performance review.

In the last quarter of 2024, we sent out the annual development survey. In this survey, we asked our employees to indicate the number of hours they spent on their own development in 2024, and whether they had at least one performance or career development review with their team captain or an employee from HR.

Based on responses from 547 employees (53%), the following survey results were obtained.

The table above presents gender data based on employees' self-identification, as reported in the annual professional development survey. Because we anonymized the survey, these figures differ slightly from the official genders data in our HR systems.