Employees

In our 2020 Materiality Analysis, employee development is considered the seventh most material topic.

The expertise and commitment of our employees and their cooperation and communication are vital for the professionalism and efficiency of our organisation. Only with their commitment are we able to deliver the desired quality in our products and services.

We strive to create a varied workforce and we pay special attention to the welfare and safety of our employees.

Training & Development

Providing continual learning opportunities for all our employees is an important aspect of our value retention policy. We aim to give all our employees regular training and opportunities for professional development and personal growth.

The majority of our employees work in or near our parking facilities as Parking Hosts. Our social relevance for operational employees is considerable. Together with the retail and cleaning sectors, we are committed to helping people who prefer practical work. We are a binding factor; we offer varied work and a certain status, so all colleagues feel appreciated.

Each country has developed, or has plans to develop, e-learning programmes for employees so training can be followed regardless of coronavirus contact restrictions and at the employee's own pace. Training opportunities available in all counties include:

• job related training for Parking Hosts and QCR employees;

• first aid, including resuscitation and AED use for Parking Hosts.

In 2020, a multi-year Cyber Security Awareness Programme was rolled out. This is based on the Q-Park Information Security Governance Framework and is designed to raise awareness of digital security issues among all employees. The online training consists of several modules and relevant topics such as smartphone risks, identity fraud, social media and internet use.

The material covered is important to Q-Park and useful for our employees' home life too.

Results

In 2020, due to the coronavirus pandemic, we were unable to provide as many training hours for our employees as usual.

Chart 26 Average annual training hours per employee

Chart 27 Employees receiving regular training

Health & Safety

Our aim is to increase our employees' engagement as well as contribute to their health and safety.

In response to the spread of the coronavirus, we implemented measures in our parking facilities and offices to safeguard the health and safety of our customers and employees. During the lockdown periods and wherever feasible, office employees have been working from home.

Measures taken in parking facilities included:

• additional cleaning, to ensure all customer contact points were cleaned regularly;

• posters and floor stickers to remind customers and staff to keep their distance.

Q-Park promotes the health and safety of customers and employees. We achieve this mainly by training our employees, equipping them for their work, and by creating a safe and healthy working environment. We also offer our employees the opportunity to learn life-saving skills.

Every year, we receive millions of visitors in our parking facilities at all hours of the day. Unfortunately, it is inevitable that our employees will encounter aggressive or inappropriate behaviour.

• We offer conflict management training.

• We have CCTV monitoring.

• Our Parking Attendants who issue control fees have a ‘direct contact’ button on their GSM.

We consider the well-being of our employees to be a key sustainability issue. For this reason, we now report quarterly on the number of incidents involving employees as well as the resulting lost days.

Results

The aggregated numbers are:

Table 2 Number of incidents and lost days

Other information

At the end of 2020 there were 1,837 employees (2019: 2,122) corresponding to 1,563 full-time equivalents (FTEs) (2019: 1,764). The decrease in total employees is primarily driven by the further business optimisations and the disposal of Q-Park Contacts BV in the Netherlands.

Employee contract and gender

For comparison purposes, the employees of recent acquisitions in the Netherlands and Denmark are not included in the employee contract information table, nor are temporary workers or people who are self-employed.

Table 2 Employee contract information