“In the end, we all look alike”

Globally connected

People working for Jan De Nul bring the world to their workplace: a Jan De Nul team is often a unique melting pot of nationalities and talents.

Take the Offshore Cables Analysis Engineering team for example: this team of 7 includes only one Belgian. He works together with colleagues from Brazil, Myanmar, Spain, Turkey, Greece and Croatia.

“Our cultures show more similarities than you might think. For instance, we share a lot of expressions. You know, in the end, we all look alike”, testifies Bepo Schira, a Croatian who has been with the team for three years.

Bepo Schira

Diversity and respect.

Diversity, equality and respect are no empty words within Jan De Nul Group. Our team has 83 nationalities working in every corner of the world. Everyone is given equal opportunities, regardless of their origin, religion, gender, age, sexual orientation or political convictions.

We guarantee the quality of our projects by working together with all our colleagues in a positive and connecting way – with respect for everyone's individuality.

Inge Van Tomme,
Project Manager Knowledge, Processes & Innovation (KPI)

"With innovation, we aim above all to make our business more sustainable: more ecological, more efficient and more socially meaningful."

Cross-fertilisation during the JDN Innovation Challenge

Innovative thinking and acting is a characteristic that is inherent to a great many Jan De Nul Group employees. To further encourage this innovative spirit, we organise the JDN Innovation Challenge every year.

How does it work? Colleagues from various backgrounds and with various job descriptions from different departments work in groups on topics that are on our innovation radar. The cooperation and discussions invariably lead to cross-fertilisation generating original insights and proposals. Each team pitches its proposal and hopes to achieve the top prize: the chance to develop their idea in the JDN practice.

"The innovations we are looking for through the Challenge mainly focus on making our company more sustainable: more ecological, more efficient and more socially meaningful", explains Inge Van Tomme, Project Manager KPI.

In order to find new, driven talents, we support high-quality education with guest lectures and work placements and supervise master theses. Thanks to their comprehensive baggage, our employees can inspire, enthuse and train younger generations so that they in turn can grow into a new generation of Jan De Nul talents.

Human growth is the basis for sustainable corporate growth. That is why Jan de Nul Group nurtures talent and invests in training courses that get the very best out of our people.

By giving our employees the opportunity to develop and grow and encouraging them to think about their contribution to the company, we ensure that they are flexible and permanently employable and feel valued in their jobs.

In all divisions and departments and at all levels, we encourage divergent and innovative thinking. This creates inspiration, knowledge transfer and more cohesion and engagement among employees. It also ensures knowledge sharing with external parties. In recent years, we have rolled out several innovation initiatives, such as innovation work groups, the JDN Innovation Radar and the JDN Innovation Challenge.

Training, development and education.

"We pursue the purchase of sustainable goods and services."

Attention to sustainability among our suppliers

Jan De Nul actively strives to purchase sustainable goods and services and expects suppliers to support that effort", says Thijs van Herbruggen, Supply Chain Manager Offshore. "This means that they minimise their impact on the environment and market and supply their products in a sustainable way. In addition, they must pay attention to the wellbeing of their employees, ensure good working conditions and observe ethical business practices.

We deliberately look for suppliers who dare to innovate and take on challenges to improve the sustainability of their products and processes. Together, we work on energy-efficient solutions that reduce greenhouse gas emissions."

Value chain.

As a global player, Jan De Nul Group bears the responsibility to work in a socially responsible, environmentally friendly and ethical way throughout the entire supply chain. This is why we also place high expectations on our global network of business partners: in addition to delivering excellent quality and controlling costs, we expect our suppliers and subcontractors to share our sustainability values. When assessing business partners, we take into account labour and human rights, CO₂ emissions, waste management and business ethics.

"Commitment to safety is a constant process that the entire JDN team focuses on relentlessly."

High safety awareness

A company's safety awareness and behaviour is embedded in its corporate culture and therefore differs from company to company. In order to measure this awareness objectively, we use the Safety Ladder methodology, which assesses the safety culture according to a series of criteria, such as the way in which we show leadership, communicate, organise risk-bearing works and respond to errors.

The Certification body NCI used the Safety Ladder to map out the safety culture within Jan De Nul Group. The results were positive, both for our offshore division and our dredging division: they respectively achieved level 4 'Proactive' and level 3 'Calculated' on the five-step ladder.

"The results show appreciation for the way in which we work", says Sander Vandenberghe, QHSSE Advisor. "But of course we cannot pin ourselves down to this snapshot. Commitment to safety is a constant process that the entire JDN team focuses on relentlessly."

Health and safety.

The health and safety of our employees is always our no. 1 priority. We are committed to a proactive safety culture that is deeply embedded in the way our people work, regardless of activity. We do this with a deep-rooted safety policy, thorough safety training and awareness programmes such as our new company programme Code Zero. We also watch over the health and wellbeing of all our employees.

We also expect this focus on health and safety from our suppliers and subcontractors.