Own workforce

Our own employees are among the most important stakeholders within Vesteda. Without them, we cannot deliver the desired level of services; how they act and what they do determines the quality of our services, with our tenants and participants reaping the benefits. It is only with their help and dedication that we can successfully realise our goal to make ‘Housing as a force for good’.

As a company that strives to be a good employer, we therefore find it of the utmost importance that our employees can work in an environment in which they have the room to express their talents and achieve their full potential, a place where they can spend their working hours with pleasure and satisfaction, and in which they can rely on a healthy, safe and respectful working environment.

Policy

We endorse the importance of fundamental human rights; a safe working environment is a given for us. We respect each other's backgrounds in the broadest sense of the word. The space and freedom to do your work well and not to feel discriminated against or excluded in any way, are crucial for good cooperation, personal growth and equal opportunities.

Complaints & Code of Conduct

When unsafe or discriminatory situations do occur at work, we openly offer various reporting channels, including via managers, the HR department and the Compliance officer. We also provide the option to report any unwelcome situation anonymously via SpeakUp. As an employer, we train managers to encourage their own team members to speak out based on connection and openness.

At Vesteda, we have various policies that contribute to good employment and entrepreneurship. These policies include our ‘Code of Conduct' for employees and the ‘Internal Reporting Procedure’. This policy has been ratified by the Management Board and has also been discussed with the Works Council. In 2025, our 'Policy on Human Rights’ and a ‘Diversity, Equality & Inclusion Policy (DE&I)’ will be implemented. Our policy guidelines are guided by the UN Guiding Principles (UNGP) on Business and Human Rights, and the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, as well as the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.

Consultation and involvement

We involve the Works Council in important decisions that play a role within the company. The Works council represents Vesteda’s employees. The members are elected by our employees. Neither the Management Board nor the Supervisory Committee has employee representatives as members of this council. The Management Board and the HR director have several meetings with the council each year. The Works Council is included in developments in the company, and the members are asked to give their advice or approval on a range of topics. Vesteda has discussed a broad set of HR policies with the Works Council. All employees have access to these policies via our intranet.

In addition, the Works Council regularly uses its own sounding board group to keep in touch with their constituents. Of course, all Vesteda employees are also free to join a trade union. As an employer, we do not keep records of trade union memberships and it is therefore not known to us as an employer.

Vesteda believes it is important that employees are involved in the company, not only in their daily work, but also in their social connections with each other. A delegation of employees participates in the sports committee and the party committee. They organise several activities a year that further strengthen the bonds between colleagues. The basic premise is that everyone can participate in these activities, as they are accessible to all our employees. We also involve employees in projects that we initiate across departments, so that we can also take their interests into account.

Themes

Working conditions

Working time

Employees spend a lot of time at work, as working hours take up a considerable portion of each day. We believe it is important that there is also a good balance between the hours spent at work and the time that you can spend at home, on hobbies, volunteer work and relaxation.

In our employment conditions scheme, we offer our employees the opportunity to organise their own time between 7.00 en 19.00 hours, taking into account the work they do in cooperation with their colleagues.

Our employees are truly engaged within Vesteda, something that is evident from the biannual High Performance Organisation survey. This entails a possible risk that employees will work too many hours. Our managers keep a close eye on the hours our employees work, including regular conversations to discuss our employees’ well-being.

We continue to ensure that our employees have good and healthy workspaces at home. Employees have the freedom and the responsibility to choose their workplace, either at the office or elsewhere. We have a policy in place with regard to working at the office or elsewhere. However, we do stimulate bonding within and between teams.

As part of our working from home policy, we offer employees a personal budget they can use to purchase suitable office suitable equipment to create a safe working environment in their homes. Working from home gives employees the opportunity to save travel time and use this for their own personal purposes. Our employees have repeatedly expressed their satisfaction and appreciation for being able to work from home.

Work-life balance

We believe that the health of our employees is essential, so we strive to provide a healthy work-life balance. We offer a wide range of body, mind & physical exercise workshops and masterclasses.

Actions
To help our employees to achieve and maintain a healthy work-life balance, we initiated the following actions over the past year:

• We joined forces with well-being organisation De Atleetfabriek. Together with the sports committee and ambassadors, we have been working on mental, physical and nutritional themes. The programme included masterclasses, sports challenges and supporting communications.

• We also work with OpenUp, a platform that allows employees to work on their mental well-being. Via OpenUp we offer employees unlimited one-on-one coaching, consultations with psychologists and other mental resources. This initiative aims to tackle mental health issues in their early stages.

• When curative psychological interventions are needed, we work with Vitalmindz and HSK, who provide the required care. Our occupational health service 2Grip helps us to guide absenteeism and prevention.

Health and Safety

Good employment practices within Vesteda also translate into a healthy and safe working environment. On the one hand, our offices are the places where employees feel at home. On the other hand, our employees’ well-being is crucial for their continued, sustainable employability. The HR Director is responsible for health and safety at Vesteda.

To maintain and evaluate the health & safety of our employees’ working environment, an external safety expert performs regular risk inventory & evaluations. The resulting plan of action is discussed and monitored with the Works Council.

At Vesteda, we have a company emergency response policy, to ensure the safety of employees in the event of accidents and issues at any of our company premises.

At the moment, all employees working at Vesteda are self reliant. Nevertheless, we have facilities in the building, such as lifts and disabled toilets for visitors with a physical disability. The head of BHV (company emergency responder) is also responsible for properly recording any incidents (e.g. falls, entrapments) at work.

Vesteda has 27 company emergency responders spread across its various locations. We conduct an annual emergency response evacuation exercise at the head office to evaluate the current policy and train employees.

We also have a policy that supports safe working when it comes to a well-designed workplace, including a personal budget for the purchase of workplace equipment for the home workplace that complies with good occupational health and safety practices.

Actions
In order to maintain and further enhance the health and safety at Vesteda, we took the following actions in 2024:

• We organised a refresher training for all company emergency responders.

• In collaboration with the Works Council, we conducted a survey among the sounding board group regarding working from home and working at the office.

• In Q4 of 2024, the Risk Inventory & Evaluation for the De Boel Office was carried out. The resulting plan of action will be worked out in more detail elaborated in Q1 2025.

Measures against violence and harassment in the workplace

We have an anti-discrimination policy in place for tenants and potential tenants. This policy is published on Vesteda’s website.

It is, of course, possible that there will be situations in which an employee does not feel completely safe when it comes to integrity or undesirable behaviour (including discrimination, (sexually) transgressive behaviour or bullying, etc.) on the part of (potential) tenants, suppliers or their own colleagues.

If an employee finds it difficult to discuss this with a colleague or manager, Vesteda offers a range of options to discuss these situations elsewhere and to find a solution (as published in our Internal Reporting rules). A HR advisor can help open the issue up for discussion, while an internal or external confidential counsellor provide the employee with guidance and support. If that does not lead to a solution or if the complaint is of such a nature that it needs to be escalated the employee can then contact the Compliance officer, or submit an anonymous report via SpeakUp.

Actions
To maintain and enhance the measures against violence and harassment in the workplace, Vesteda took the following actions in 2024:

• Every year, all employees sign the Code of Conduct, including in 2024. This policy document clearly describes how we want people to treat each other within Vesteda. For more information please see the compliance chapter in this report.

• We provided an intensive conversation skills training course for a large group of employees with direct tenant contact, focusing on dealing with unwanted customer behaviour. This can involve telephone customer contact or physical customer contact. This training course has helped build self-confidence when dealing with aggressive behaviour.

• In November 2024, we conducted another Risk Inventory & Evaluation (RI&E) for our own office locations and drew up action plans in consultation with the Works Council, this will continue into 2025. In the coming period, we will continue to devote attention to risks in the areas of ​​integrity and safety in the workplace.

Diversity, Equality and Inclusion

Feeling at home at Vesteda is an important value. And we want all our employees, future employees, regardless of their nature or background, to feel at home with us. Our starting point is an open organisational culture in which differences between people are valued and used to optimal effect. The HR Director is responsible for DE&I at Management Team level.

Actions
In the context of a diverse, inclusive and equal workplace, Vesteda took the following actions in 2024:

• To increase awareness among employees of the impact of a diverse and inclusive organisation, we once again organised a diversity lunch in 2024.

• All managers also participated in the Unconsciousness bias workshop.

• We organised a masterclass on neurodiversity in collaboration with well-being organisation the Atleetfabriek. The aim of this was to enhance the recognition and understanding of diverse ways of thinking and acting.

• We let teams work with the RealDrives method, so they could gain a better understanding of each other's behavioural preferences and make effective use of these differences. More than 50% of all teams have now gained experience with this way of working.

People with disabilities

People with a disability are an important target group in the diversity, inclusion and equality policy. The aim is to create a working environment in which everyone, regardless of physical or mental limitations, has equal opportunities and feels valued.

As an employer, we are not allowed to record any disabilities that can be traced back to individuals, in accordance with Dutch law. Vesteda currently does not have a voluntary anonymous registration of employees with a disability.

Actions
With regards to persons with disabilities, Vesteda took the following actions in 2024:

• In 2024, we entered into an agreement with Emma at Work. Emma at Work helps young talent with chronic physical conditions to carve out an independent future. Together with Emma at Work, we help to bridge the gap between these young people and society. We believe in a society in which everyone can participate.

• In the autumn, Emma at Work hosted an inspiration session for all staff about the goals they are pursuing as an organisation. Our recruiter also held discussions with all our managers on the possibilities of placing candidates via Emma at Work. We will continue this commitment and work in 2025.

Gender equality

We have an equal distribution of men and women within Vesteda, including within the management team. This is something we are proud of and naturally want to maintain.

On the other hand, if we look at our managers, 38% are women and 62% are men. We want to work on this in the coming years to further improve this balance.

Equal pay for equal value

Equal pay for equal and equivalent work is important within Vesteda. In order to achieve this, we apply a number of principles:

• Transparent remuneration policy.

• A balanced employment conditions package that is in line with the median in the market and that has as few subjective remuneration assessments as possible.

• Equal pay between men and women for equal work.

The primary remuneration policy within Vesteda consists of a basic salary with holiday pay and a fixed end-of-year bonus. Except for members of the management team (see the Remuneration chapter), Vesteda does not have variable remuneration. Advancement in the salary scales takes place on the basis of growth in professionalism. The positions within Vesteda are all weighted based on the internationally recognised KornFerryHay method. This method has been widely validated and is the basis for our benchmark, as well as for our pay-gap analyses.

Our vacancies are provided with a salary range.

For our pay-gap analyses, we refer you to the Pay Gap and total remuneration section of this report.

Actions
With regards to Equal pay, Vesteda took the following actions in 2024:

• In 2024, we benchmarked the salaries for all employees under the employment conditions scheme to ensure that we continue to reward in line with the market, and the outcome confirms that our pay is aligned with market standards.

• In the same study, we also had the pay gap analysis carried out to gain additional insight into the gender pay gap at Vesteda.

Privacy

Vesteda processes the personal data of its employees and applicants carefully and transparently, in accordance with applicable legal and regulatory requirements. We only process personal data for applicants and employees on a lawful basis. Vesteda's privacy statement specifies which personal data Vesteda processes for employees and applicants, respectively, as well as how this personal data is protected and stored.

Actions
With regards to Privacy, Vesteda took several actions in 2024. Please refer to the compliance chapter in this report.

Workforce engagement

High Performance Organisation

In line with our commitment to being a good employer, every two years we measure the satisfaction of all employees and the extent to which Vesteda is making progress towards becoming a High Performance Organisation.

The following chart shows the scores from our bi-annual surveys and the target of 8.5.

HPO survey scores

Vesteda conducted the most recent High Performance Organisation (HPO) survey in December 2023. The total score improved to 7.8 in 2023, from 7.7 in 2021. Over the years, we have seen a consistent improvement in our score. It is important to note that achieving progress becomes increasingly challenging as we approach higher levels of performance. This result shows that Vesteda achieved a structural improvement as a HPO on nearly all success factors. Employees are increasingly awarding high scores, irrespective of their length of service. Within the Vesteda organisation, there is a strong emphasis on quality, continuous improvement, sustainability, transparency, and a positive work culture.

The survey in 2023 identified a number of attention points at the start of 2024. In 2024, we continued working on these topics, together with working groups consisting of our employees. In 2024 and 2025 we are focusing on four topics:

1. Improve data analysis and IT skills: we helped operational teams to build and interpret data and dashboards.

2. Improve discussion and feedback culture: we organised inspiring sessions on the topic of connecting communications, and have deployed 360-degree feedback surveys for managers.

3. Approach to career and development paths: We have made learning paths available to colleagues on our intranet.

4. Improve collaboration in processes and projects: We have developed a project-based work training and further professionalised the project board.

Organisational development

Vesteda encourages employees to take control of their own development, whether this is in terms of breadth or depth. Their manager supports them in their career development.

We learn with each other, and also from each other. Learning is a continuous process. It is not limited to education and training. Learning is also about inspiring, sharing and asking questions.

Vesteda believes in a growth-oriented mindset; you can learn the important skills in life through dedication, study and perseverance. That is exactly what we build on at Vesteda: Vesteda as a foundation for lifelong learning.

Continuing to develop yourself in the position you hold and for your further career ('future job') is indispensable these days. Vesteda encourages all employees to get the best out of themselves and to develop themselves professionally and personally. Each department has a training budget reserved for this (2% of the payroll), and employees make ready use of this every year.

At Vesteda, we use an annual dialogue cycle, in which employees make agreements with their managers about Vesteda’s and their own goals, as well as their own development. These dialogues are conducted with all employees employed by Vesteda. The cycle consists of at least three dialogues, with a focus on the development of professional skills, and the resulting contribution to Vesteda. This can also include suitable learning trajectories, for instance in the form of working with other departments, gaining experience in projects or following a training course.

There is no performance bonus linked to this, but the annual development of professional skills translates into an additional step in salary each year. In doing so, we emphasise that growth in terms of personal and professional development is the core of success as an employee at Vesteda.

Vesteda devotes a great deal of attention to its own organisational development, which is also a form of learning. Last year, we continued the roll-out of RealDrives and several teams conducted team sessions to enhance mutual understanding and streamline collaboration within their teams.

LEAN management forms a key component of our ongoing effort towards learning and continuous improvement. Equipped with this LEAN expertise, managers are now able to systematically develop and implement improvement strategies within their own departments and across broader areas.

Metrics

Characteristics of the undertaking’s employees

At year-end 2024, Vesteda employed 235 people, all of whom live and work in the Netherlands. Vesteda has no foreign offices.

Workforce by gender

In 2024, the male/female ratio changed slightly compared with year-end 2023. At year-end 2024, 50% of the workforce were male and 50% were female.

At Vesteda, there are currently no employees that do not identify within the gender binary of male and female.

Workforce, by fixed/temporary contract & by gender

At year-end 2024, the ratio of indefinite versus fixed-term contracts changed to 89%-11%. At this time, 109 men and 100 women had indefinite contracts, while nine men and 17 women had fixed-term contracts.

At year-end 2024, 35% of Vesteda's employees worked part-time (67 women versus 15 men). Most full-time Vesteda employees are male (103 men versus 50 women). The average FTE is 0.93. The average FTE for men is 0.98 and 0.88 for women. At Vesteda, there are currently no employees that do not identify within the gender binary of male and female.

Workforce, by fulltime/parttime contracts & by gender

As all employees live and work within the Netherlands, a geographical breakdown is not included.

Employee turnover rate

In 2024, 21 new employees joined Vesteda (57% female, 43% male) and 25 employees left the company (64% female, 36% male). In 2024, the employee turnover rate was 11% (2023: 10%).

Characteristics of non-employees in the undertaking’s own workforce

Vesteda hired various people during the year to absorb peaks in work, so it could offer work on projects, to take over work in the event of illness or for specifically required expertise. People who carry out assignments for Vesteda and are not paid by Vesteda but for whom we pay a hiring fee, are considered non-employees. We do not include outsourced work such as cleaning staff and security personnel (workers in the value chain) in this category.

Collective bargaining coverage and social dialogue

A total of 93% of Vesteda’s workforce is covered by collective bargaining agreements. Employees are represented by the Works Council. Sixteen employees, including the Management Board and Management Team, have individual employment contracts.

Diversity metrics

The male/female ratio changed slightly compared with year-end 2023. At year-end 2024, 50% of the workforce were male and 50% were female. The percentage of male managers was 62%, and 38% were women.

The male/female ratio was 50/50 within the Management Board and 50/50 within the Management Team, including the Management Board. The ratio for the Supervisory Committee was 60/40.

Vesteda recognises the importance of an equal distribution of male and female members in its Management Board, Supervisory Committee and leadership team, taking into account that the candidate’s qualifications and suitability for the function are always the leading principle.

Breakdown of employees by age

The average age of Vesteda employees increased to 43.5 years in 2024, from 42.9 years in the previous year. The workforce composition remains stable, with 68% of employees under 50 and 32% aged 50 and above.

Adequate wages

Vesteda rewards its employees in line with the market, with a remuneration consisting of a fixed monthly salary and holiday pay. Employees who fall within the collective bargaining agreements also receive a fixed end-of-year bonus. These and other primary and secondary employment conditions are included in the collectively agreed employment conditions scheme.

The level of the remuneration of all salary scales, which is assessed on the basis of the KornFerryHay methodology, is around the median of the benchmark. This benchmark survey is carried out at least every two years.

All employees employed by Vesteda are resident in the Netherlands and are paid in accordance with Dutch legislation. Vesteda’s minimum gross hourly wage was €16.29. 

Social protection

We believe it is important that our employees are protected against loss of income due to major events in employees’ lives. Examples include illness, unemployment, parental leave or retirement.

On the one hand, the Dutch legislator already offers good basic provisions, such as paid parental leave in accordance with the Work and Care Act, as well as unemployment benefits and the state pension (AOW) benefit at retirement age. On the other hand, as an employer, we provide additional arrangements for all our employees.

In the event of incapacity for work, we continue to pay our employees' wages for as long as the employment contract lasts. In the first year of illness, we pay 100% of their salary, and in the second year of illness we pay 85%. In addition, employees can voluntarily take out additional occupational disability benefits with an insurer selected by Vesteda, which mainly covers loss of income due to illness after the second year.

Vesteda employees participate in a collective pension scheme with ABP, which provides for the accrual of an old-age pension and, if applicable, a partner's pension. Pension accrual also continues in the event of disability. Additionally, if employment is terminated by Vesteda and the employee subsequently receives unemployment benefits, Vesteda will continue to pay the employer’s pension contributions for the entire duration of the unemployment benefits period.

If an employee dies while employed at Vesteda, Vesteda will pay a death benefit to the next of kin.

Training and skills development metrics

In 2024, Vesteda invested €368 thousand (or 2.1% of the gross payroll) in the education and development of individual employees and the teams. This was a slight increase in euros compared with 2023 (2.3% of the gross payroll). In 2024, the average amount of trainings budget per employee was €1,550.

In the context of the ongoing improvement of the education and development of our employees, we took the following actions:

• In 2024, we made training courses available to our employees via the intranet transparent in terms of type of learning area, covering technical, skills, leadership and financial training courses, including personal recommendations from our own employees.

• We are building a culture of continuous improvement within Vesteda. Every year, more and more employees follow LEAN training courses. In 2024, 31 colleagues took a Green Belt training course, and 15 colleagues took a White Belt training course. After a number of years, 50% of Vesteda's employees across all departments now have a LEAN working background.

• 28 employees with direct customer contact have taken part in a skills training course to deal with unwanted customer behaviour. This contributes both to higher tenant satisfaction and the feeling of a safe working environment for our employees.

Health and safety metrics

We feel responsible for the health and safety of all our employees and we implement a policy aimed at creating the best possible working conditions, within the possibilities and with the resources available.

The working conditions at Vesteda are described in our occupational health and safety plan, which complies with the occupational health and safety regulation, the decree and government regulations. This plan was drawn up in collaboration with the Works Council and is the responsibility of the HR Director. All Vesteda employees are covered by the occupational health and safety plan. Employees can consult this via the intranet.

Health metrics

• Absenteeism rose slightly to 3.9% (2023: 3.7%).

• We are not allowed to record the causes of absenteeism, which means we cannot report them.

• ​​In 2024, there were no work-related accidents involving injuries.

Actions
In the context of health and safety, we took the following actions in 2024:

• We have noticed that there can increasingly be a psychological component to absenteeism. We have had a contract with mental well-being organisation OpenUp for some time now, offering our employees the opportunity to receive advice and guidance for psychological support in an accessible manner without the intervention of their manager. We actively offer this intervention option to our employees. We do not receive feedback from OpenUp on traceable individual case studies. We very much see this service as an opportunity to prevent absenteeism, and strengthen the resilience of our employees.

• In addition, in 2024 we contracted VitalMindz and HSK (preventive and curative interventions), and we refer our employees to these organisation in the event of possible risks of absence or in the event of actual absence. We do this in close consultation with our occupational health and safety service.

• In 2024, all our managers followed a 'Dealing with psychological absence' training course via HSK, which focused on recognising and guiding employees with psychological complaints.

• At the end of 2024, a safety expert carried out an up-to-date Risk Inventory and Evaluation in the building on De Boelelaan in Amsterdam. We will develop the resulting adjusted action plan in more detail in 2025.

Work-life balance metrics

In the first quarter of 2024, we received the results of our employer brand survey. All Vesteda employees value working at Vesteda and awarded the company an employee Net Promoter Score of 67. This is a wonderful recommendation for us as an employer.

The survey also asked what makes Vesteda so attractive. This showed that we are doing well in the area of ​​sustainable employment, among other things. Colleagues gave high scores for the healthy work-life balance at Vesteda. We are happy to hear that this is currently in good balance for our employees, and is therefore an important positive opportunity.

At the same time, we also realise that this could also be a possible risk for employer and employees in the future, if employees working experience changes. This is also recognised as a potential risk in the materiality analysis.

Employees may be confronted with changing private situations. This could be family expansion, informal care or other forms of care. Our basic premise is that we apply the human dimension at Vesteda. Where necessary, we accommodate employees by sharing ideas on flexible working hours or options for working from home, or other practical solutions. Our employment conditions scheme forms an important basis on this front.

In 2024, 29 employees took paid or unpaid parental leave (2023: 19). Of these 29 of employees, 38% were male and 62% were female.

In 2024, 76 employees made use of some form of extraordinary leave. This can be leave in the event of death, childbirth of a partner, marriage or relocation.

Special leave

Our Employment Conditions Scheme also includes a senior scheme. From the age of 60, employees can apply for this form of leave, whereby, for example, they can work 10% less in return for a 5% reduction in salary. In 2024, 13 employees made use of this scheme.

Pay gap and total remuneration

We believe transparency in remuneration is important, so remuneration is also seen to be fair. Equal work should be paid equally, regardless of gender.

Our job classification system is therefore also equipped with an associated salary scale based on the KornFerryHay method. We also state the salary scale and associated salary bandwidth in our recruitment profiles.

We defined gender pay gap as the difference in average pay levels between female and male employees, expressed as a percentage of the average pay level of male employees.

In 2024, we asked KornFerry to conduct a remuneration benchmark, which we will conduct on a regular basis once every two years. We also asked them to determine a gender pay gap for the entire workforce (excluding the Management Board and the Management Team). The total fixed annual salary was taken as the starting point.

If we look at the average salaries per gender overall, men receive 10% more than women (headline pay gap). This difference is due to the fact that there are more men than women employed in the higher scales. However, if we look at each salary scale (equivalent work), we see that within the salary scales women receive 4% more than men (pay gap). Vesteda compares positively to its peers in the market on this front.

Total remuneration amounted to €17.3 million (99% fixed and 1% variable) in 2024, which was lower than the previous year (€18.7 million). In 2024, we implemented a 2% salary indexation, and in December one-off compensation of €750 pro rata to the employment contract, preceding the wage indexation of 2025.

The ratio of the annual total compensation for the highest compensated individual to the median annual total compensation for all employees (excl. the highest-compensated individual) was 6.8 in March 2024 (March 2023: 8.5).

Please see the Remuneration report for information on the remuneration of the Management Board, other Identified Staff and the Supervisory Committee.

Complaints (discrimination and harassment)

In 2024, we received one complaint from an applicant (discrimination). This was picked up and handled by the HR team. We have not received any complaints or reports regarding our own staff or applicants via compliance or SpeakUp.