Organizational developments

In 2023, we grew our workforce, improved employership and launched new learning programs for both managers and (new) employees. Furthermore, we made an employee engagement survey toolkit that helps managers to work with their teams on the improvement areas from the engagement survey, launched the Values in Action and Leadership Impact programs and made progress on strategic HR projects like HR Connect and the Employee Value Proposition (EVP).

FMO is actively cultivating a culture that values diversity, quality, integrity, and making a positive impact on society. We have an ambitious strategy towards 2030 and recognize the role of culture in long-term value creation. That is why we have aligned our values and behaviors with our long-term business priorities and sustainability goals. Our four values – Diversity, Integrity, Making the difference, and Quality – continue to represent what we believe in and shape our FMO culture. The behaviors that underpin each value have been updated, driven by employee input, to provide guidance on how we act on that value. We recently launched a multi-year program to focus on embedding behaviors to encourage common understanding and ensure that behaviors are actionable and meaningful for everyone in the organization.

Through this initiative, training programs and leadership development, we aim to create an environment where we work together to maximize our impact as one FMO. FMO expects its employees to be aware of and behave according to the code of conduct and speak out when they feel that the business principles are threatened or compromised. Our commitment to an effective code of conduct is evident through regular trainings, for example our annual integrity awareness e-learning, and transparent reporting mechanisms. Our speak-up policy and our internal grievance and complaint mechanisms helps us monitor the effectiveness of the code of conduct.

Employee developments

At the end of 2023, we had 803 employees (2022: 689 employees) who were all covered by the collective labor agreement for banks. During the year, 177 new employees joined FMO (2022: 142 new employees). Most of our employees are based in the Netherlands. We continue to employ an international staff base, which at the end of 2023 represented 72 different nationalities (2022: 63 nationalities).

In 2023, diversity and inclusion training became an integral part of the onboarding program for all employees, laying the foundation for a culturally aware and inclusive environment. FMO Academy created a new onboarding journey that is better aligned with our vision, mission, and strategy and how FMO integrates the SDGs into its operations. In March 2023, we implemented a new commuting policy with the goal of making it more sustainable and with a focus on public transportation, fairness, and actual usage.

A further 181 externals were also working at FMO (2022: 154 externals). The increase compared to last year was the result from a growing project portfolio and our building back business strategy. The work performed by external employees consisted mostly of project management and support activities, ICT and data-related activities, KYC-related activities and several non-client facing activities in various areas of the organization. Approximately half of the external employees were self-employed (In Dutch: ZZP) and recruited either directly or via an agency.

Employee engagement

We invest in the wellbeing and development of our employees, so they will be able to enjoy a healthy and inspiring working environment. This has become even more important for attracting and retaining employees in the current labor market.

In 2023, an employee engagement survey gauged the experience of our employees and obtained feedback on inclusion, team leadership, engagement, psychological safety and employership. The average employee engagement score was 7.5 (2022: 7.3). Employee perception of the Management Board has undergone a substantial improvement on role modelling our values and behaviors, scoring a 7.3 compared to 6.3 in 2021, setting a clear strategy for the future (score 7.2 compared to 5.6 in 2021) and on being open for feedback (score 7.7 compared to 6.3 in 2021). Moreover, there were noticeable improvements in employee perception regarding opportunities for learning and development, scoring 7.3 compared to 6.5 in 2021. Additionally, the company's receptiveness to using employee ideas and suggestions for improvement also increased, with a score of 6.6 compared to 5.8 in 2021. 

Similar to the previous survey, employees indicated that they are passionate about FMO’s mission and vision and experience pride and joy doing meaningful work. Employees experience a high level of collaboration and support within their team and consider their immediate manager as one of the key contributors towards a positive employee experience. Wellbeing initiatives, social events and our working from abroad policy are well appreciated.

Based on the survey, we identified four priorities: psychological safety, cross-team collaboration and inclusive communication, efficiency, and employee value proposition. Through our departmental and team action plans and continuous dialogue we aim to improve employee experiences in these areas.

Diversity and inclusion

FMO aspires to be a diverse and inclusive employer. In 2020, we published a diversity and inclusion statement in which we express our commitment to a society in which everyone feels valued, respected, and included. We promote diversity of gender, gender identity and sexual orientation, culture (topics around ethnicity and race), age and generations, as well as people with occupational disabilities. Having a workforce from the countries we operate in allows us to create better solutions for our customers and have more impact on the world. We also want to create an inclusive working culture for our employees and our stakeholders. We believe this leads to better decisions, more creativity and innovation.

We strive for an equal gender distribution at the organizational and department level. It is our ambition to have an equal gender distribution in management roles. In order to achieve our target of 50 percent, we consider gender and other diversity-related factors for all positions (including management roles) along with other important criteria during our recruitment process. This also includes findings related to the gender pay gap, as explained further in this section.

To track our progress and performance on gender, we report on seven gender diversity KPIs, as follows:

To ensure transparency and fairness in compensation practices, FMO conducts a frequent analysis of the gender pay gap by an independent external consultant. The purpose of this analysis is to identify any disparities in pay between men and women performing the same work at the same level.

According to the most recent analysis, conducted as of April 1, 2023, the adjusted gender pay gap stands at 2.8 percent. This means that men's earnings are 2.8 percent higher than women's for equivalent roles. The figure reflects a slight decrease from the previous year's gap of 3.0 percent (as of October 1, 2022). The measured pay gap remains statistically significant.

In 2023, we implemented various initiatives aimed at promoting gender-neutral pay practices. These initiatives include raising internal awareness about offering equitable pay packages during the recruitment process and conducting thorough assessments of pay levels across genders within similar job groups. Through these efforts, we have been able to identify and address discrepancies where necessary during the annual appraisal and salary adjustment process.

Looking ahead, we remain dedicated to narrowing the gender pay gap even further. We will continue to evaluate our practices, implement additional measures as needed, and foster a culture of equality and inclusivity within our organization.

Learning and development

At FMO we consider continuous learning an important part of working. Via our internal FMO Academy, we encourage employees to develop themselves through internal and external trainings. We offer various trainings and courses, from personal skills development to (development) banking knowledge. Employees can make use of external coaching and/or sign up for our internal mentoring program. In 2024 we will implement several programs with a strong focus on leadership development.

In 2023 we launched a new one-year onboarding journey for all new employees, to make the transition into our organization as seamless as possible. It equips new employees with all the knowledge and tools they need to get up to speed. The onboarding journey combines face-to-face meetings with other new colleagues, with e-learning and a departmental buddy.

Following the launch of the updated Strategy 2030, we are continuously aligning the curriculum of the FMO Academy with the skills and capabilities needed to achieve our strategic objectives.

In 2023, we provided the following learning and development opportunities to our employees:

To support place and time-independent learning, we offer Udemy for Business, a virtual learning platform where employees can access trainings that support their professional and personal development.

Strategic and regulatory projects

Our project portfolio is key to realizing our Strategy 2030. In 2023, our portfolio consisted of regulatory projects like Privacy/GDPR and Target2 and SWIFT Migration, which both finished in 2023, and EU Sustainable Finance, Environmental and Climate Risk and Basel IV, which are all ongoing. Furthermore, we are working on projects supporting FMO’s business development opportunities aimed at market creation.

Our Management Board and senior management are closely involved in our projects. In 2023, the number of projects increased to 25 (2022: 20 projects). Nine were completed during the year and five new ones were prepared to be launched in 2024.

To closely align the project portfolio with our Strategy 2030 and improve our ability to execute on these projects, we merged the Portfolio Management Office into the Strategy department and added project management capability to the team. This way, we build up internal capabilities, save costs on hiring external staff and retain organizational knowledge.

In addition, we aligned the project selection process with the business plan cycle and strategic themes. Through a quarterly selection process, we aim to create project continuity and enable more flexibility. Finding the right people remained a challenge in 2023, but for 2024 we believe this will be less of an issue because we have more project continuity. Underutilization of external budget was the main reason we realized 81 percent of our project deliverables (2022: 85 percent) against a target of 85 percent.