Description

The risk that the change programmes that have been initiated will not provide the required results (or will not do so on time), as a result of which NS fails to fulfil the agreements and expectations of its stakeholders.

Explanation

We have started a number of organisational and other changes in order to improve the service provided by NS and achieve the operational targets. Making the right choices every time remains a challenge because of dependencies between various improvement initiatives. What is more, the underlying processes at NS are very complex. Finally, a number of improvements also require a change in how staff behave. All of this means it will not always be easy to achieve the required changes on time and in full.

Measures

NS’s effectiveness is increasing further. By managing the project portfolio, we are able to detect and address bottlenecks in good time. In addition, we are holding discussions with the employee participation bodies and trade unions about NS’s long-term strategy and the changes this necessitates based on the change agenda. The agility of NS and the ‘employee of the future’ are explicit themes in these meetings. In 2018, a number of important setup changes were implemented in the operations following trials; the implementation is still demanding our attention. More changes to the setup will follow in 2019. We take information from measurements (employee engagement surveys, integrity and safety), the future of work and changes in the individual business units and turn this into an integrated change story and integrated approach.

Risk control trend

Control has improved thanks to improvements in the portfolio management and the above-mentioned developments such as the setup changes that have been implemented. Given the growing pressure on financial returns for the organisation, it is essential that the said improvements are made and that the number of programmes and projects are reduced so that it becomes clearer where responsibilities lie in the line management.