Attractive employment

Royal A-ware strives to be an employer of choice by investing in the development and well-being of its employees. We believe that our employees contribute significantly to our success and are committed to providing a positive working environment that promotes well-being and reduces absenteeism.

Impacts, risks and opportunities

As part of our DMA, we identified the following material impacts, risks and opportunity related to 'Attractive employment'. Royal A-ware's own employees and flex workers are included in the scope.

Impacts

Potential negative impact on employee motivation and well-being due to unfavourable working conditions, such as limited wage growth, limited vacation days and partial public transport reimbursement.
Actual negative impact on the health and well-being of employees due to non-optimal working conditions such as extreme temperatures, high noise levels, vibrations (from forklifts) and physical and mental work pressure.

Risks

Risk of employee departure, with loss of crucial knowledge, skills and experience.
Risk of stagnation of growth due to insufficient recruitment and retention of qualified personnel.
Risk of difficulty filling vacancies, partly due to the tight labour market, which can lead to increased workload for existing employees, potentially resulting in reduced job satisfaction.
Risk of illness and absenteeism.
Risk of employee turnover and difficulty attracting employees because collective labour agreements do not sufficiently reflect the wishes and needs of current or potential employees due to being negotiated with unions with low coverage within Royal A-ware.
Risk of production line downtime due to a significant number of flex workers leaving for competitors offering more attractive employment loss of flex workers to competing employers offering more attractive terms.

Opportunity

Opportunity for employee retention and development, and the strengthening of knowledge, skills and experience within the organisation by stimulating a positive work environment.

Employee involvement

We encourage employee participation in shaping our policies. Our Works Council plays an important role in this. For more information on employee participation, see the Employee representation section in the Risk and corporate governance chapter.

Our approach

Royal A-ware aims to provide a positive and supportive work environment so that our employees experience less stress and fewer health issues. Our absenteeism policy aims to prevent absenteeism and improve the overall work atmosphere. It is rooted in our belief that work promotes health. We take a proactive approach, providing employees with the support they need to recover and return to work, focusing on what employees can do rather than what they cannot. The policy applies to all Royal A-ware employees and distinguishes between our dairy activities and transport activities, recognising the unique needs of each sector. Employee sick leave serves as a key indicator of both well-being and job satisfaction.

The employees of Royal A-ware are covered against loss of income through public programs for to the following major life events: sickness, unemployment, employment injury and acquired disability, parental leave and retirement.

Dairy activities

Within our dairy activities in the Netherlands, our approach to absenteeism focuses on prevention. In 2025, we updated our absenteeism policy to better support employees during absence, with clearer roles and responsibilities and greater employee involvement in the process. The policy is accompanied by various new measures to prevent and reduce absenteeism and promote employee vitality.

Transport activities

For our transport activities, we seek to optimally support our employees in recovery. We are actively looking for places to reintegrate employees (both inside and outside AB Texel) and are currently evaluating how our occupational health and safety service provider can support us. The responsibility to support employees during sickness lies with the supervisors, who receive support from HR.

Objectives and actions

Royal A-ware aims to provide a pleasant working environment, leading to greater well-being and lower absenteeism. To achieve our goal, we implement various ongoing actions. The HR Director of Royal A-ware and the HR manager of AB Texel are responsible for the effective implementation of their respective absenteeism policies. Our ongoing actions include:

Analysing absence data to raise awareness, advise management and, if necessary, implement targeted interventions at the local level.
Investing in the development of our employees and promoting a culture of appreciation and recognition.
Investing in leadership development at all levels within our organisation. We believe that managers have a responsibility not only to inspire, guide and support employees in their development, but also to provide direction and drive results.
Conducting annual FIT conversations and annual work meetings. During these conversations, supervisors and employees discuss performance, personal and professional development, employability and workload.
Providing a safe working environment. One of the ways we do so is by enabling employees to report their work-related grievances through various channels, including confidential counsellors, the complaints committee or a manager.
Provide access to support from qualified and registered occupational physicians and experts in physical and mental well-being.

Actions in 2025

In 2025, we carried out the following actions:

Introduced a revised absenteeism policy. We communicated the new policy with employees through A-ware Speak. Managers received toolkits with guidance for preventing absenteeism and supporting employees in their return to work.
Collaborated with OpenUp to support our employees’ mental well-being. OpenUp is an online platform that offers low-threshold mental health support.

Planned actions 2026

We plan to implement the following actions:

Provide absenteeism training for all managers within our dairy activities to improve early detection, enable preventive action and more effectively manage (the risk of) absenteeism.
Continue the rollout of the absenteeism policy.

Targets and achievements

Although the absenteeism rate is not equal or lower than the sector average, there is a significant reduction compared to 2024 for Dairy. Especially in the second half of 2025 focus has been on reducing the absenteeism rate resulting in a positive effect. In 2026 focus will continue to lower the percentage further.

For the transport activities the absenteeism rate is also significantly lower and is almost equal to the sector average. The chosen path for further reduction of this percentage will continue in 2026.