Our The Right People Strategy is based on 4 pillars:

• international, diverse and inclusive organisation;

• leadership and culture;

• attractive employee experience;

• HR operational excellence.

In 2025, we prioritised leadership and culture, operational excellence, and the introduction and implementation of new HR systems and processes. We are now focusing on embedding the key concepts of the other 2 pillars into everyday practice.

International, diverse and inclusive organisation

In 2025, our workforce grew by around 180 FTEs to a total of 6,299 employees worldwide. Most of these were in offshore energy and product management roles that are closely aligned to our business needs and the project pipeline. Workforce growth slowed in 2025 as we prioritised optimising our existing teams rather than expanding.

Van Oord recognises that diverse leadership teams produce better results. To encourage thinking about diversity, we launched a series of regional culture dialogues. These workshops, facilitated by external trainers, encouraged teams to discuss our values and how these are reflected in their daily work, strengthening connection and shared purpose. This is an important foundation for building psychological safety in the workplace. We also include special modules on diversity and unconscious bias in our health and safety training.

We endorse a balanced gender distribution of seats within the Executive Committee, the Supervisory Board and top management of the company, and we aim to increase female representation in these groups to 25% by 2030. The percentage of women in top management increased from 10% to 14% in 2025, with new female managers joining us via recruitment and internal promotions. We introduced inclusive and fair hiring guidelines, expanded mentoring for women and launched awareness sessions on unconscious bias for managers.

In 2025, there was an increased focus on international crewing through global talent sourcing, particularly to fill certain technical roles and cover recruitment in specific regions.

The percentage of international employees in management positions rose to 32% (from 27% in 2024), while representation in top management increased to 10% (from 6% in 2024).

Leadership and culture

We invest in our people at all levels of Van Oord. In 2025, over 200 managers participated in high-performance leadership training. We are already witnessing the benefits of this investment, including improved collaboration, faster decision-making and stronger engagement scores among teams led by trained leaders.

We also continued the Catalyst programme, which prepares mid-career talent for leadership roles, and the IMPACT programme, which is designed for trainees. IMPACT attracted top graduates and provided them with meaningful project and business experience at the start of their careers. 

The Van Oord Academy helps us to make the best use of all our employees’ skills and potential and more effectively facilitates internal mobility. In 2025, we improved and expanded learning opportunities. We introduced blended learning formats and invested heavily in leadership, digital skills and sustainability-related capabilities, areas that are all critical for future projects and enabling innovation. 

Attractive employee experience

Our 2025 employee engagement survey revealed an increase in trust, security and psychological safety, with respondents indicating that they feel more comfortable speaking up. However, not all groups experienced this improvement equally, and gender differences in the results require further attention. All departments discussed the survey results to develop targeted follow-up actions.

Employee retention improved in 2025. We asked our employees what they were missing at Van Oord and took their responses seriously. We introduced changes such as career development initiatives, flexible working arrangements, new health service providers, and more clarity in our processes and structures. We also collaborated closely with our newly elected Works Council. We continue to attract a high number of talented applicants to our job postings and trainee programme. This is supported by our updated employer branding, referral programmes and attendance at external recruitment fairs.

Outlook

Our people are at the heart of Van Oord’s success. In 2026, we will continue to invest in their growth and well-being while driving the company forward. Our 3 priorities will be: further enhancing engagement and well-being initiatives, fostering a high-performance culture and building a future-proof workforce.

People figures