Next phase, new organisational structure
NSI has a lean and mean organisation in place, aligned with its focused strategy. Now that our significant transformation process has largely been completed, both from a portfolio and an organisational perspective, NSI is increasing its focus on services, development and other value-add initiatives. This is reflected in our revised organisational structure.
As of 1 May 2020 the organisation has been headed by a two-man board consisting of the CEO and CFO and supported by a newly formed management team. By installing a management team, NSI aims to intensify the degree of collaboration, alignment and communication and foster team dynamics throughout the organisation. The disciplines represented in the management team are Portfolio Management, Transaction Management, Project Development and Finance & Control.
In 2020 NSI reshaped part of its HNK team into a Customer Excellence team that serves the entire portfolio in order to put the customer experience even more at the forefront of its operations, to better utilise datadriven insights and to further shape Space as a Service propositions. Furthermore, NSI has expanded the Development team in line with the capacity and skills required to advance the development pipeline. NSI is characterised by decentralised responsibilities, allowing the organisation to operate efficiently and empowering individuals to develop in their role, supported by a robust IT infrastructure and effective management information systems.
Organisational culture
NSI has an open and inclusive culture in which diversity is considered to be an added value.
NSI aims to be a transparent, disciplined, responsible organisation that thinks in terms of opportunities. Furthermore, we like to keep it simple.
Adhering to these core values will help NSI realise the full potential of its employees, shareholder investments and assets it acquires and operates. NSI incorporates these core values into its organisation and processes by hiring the best talent and by holding itself to the highest standards in an atmosphere of dedicated hard work, team spirit and fun.
NSI encourages its employees to give feedback and urges the whole organisation to actively contribute to our ambition of becoming the leading office property specialist in the Netherlands.
NSI culture and mindset
NSI is a progressive Dutch real estate company always on the look-out for opportunities in a competitive and changing environment. We embrace change because our strong culture and core values provide us with a stable foundation that instils confidence in the future.
We are transparent
We recognise that mutual trust can only really exist in an environment of openness, clear communication and consistent actions. Our success as a long-term investor hinges on us gaining and maintaining the trust of all stakeholders and we constantly focus on this.
We are disciplined
Our internal and external procedures are befitting of a small and flexible organisation. The procedures provide clarity on how we act and operate. We only make promises we can keep.
We take responsibility
Our intrinsic motivation at NSI is to always do the right thing. We recognise and fully embrace the high level of responsibility that rests upon our shoulders as a publicly-listed company. As employees we are fully aware of the need to support our customers, colleagues and other stakeholders and we treat them with the utmost respect. We acknowledge and correct any mistakes we make and we learn from them.
We think in terms of opportunities
We have a positive mindset and are always seeking solutions and new opportunities. This makes us versatile and enables us to add value for our customers, whilst we continue to develop ourselves. We will always address the risks associated with an opportunity to come up with wellconsidered solutions.
We like to keep it simple
Complexity often confuses, creates uncertainty, a fuzzy demarcation of responsibilities and generally results in slowdowns and delays which in turn lead to inefficiency and high costs. We take decisions after thorough and substantiated deliberation, making sure our choice of structure, process and responsibilities are as clear and concise as possible for us and our stakeholders.
We are here to stay
Our focus at NSI is on sustainability and the long term, both when it comes to the relationship with our customer, the perspective of the building, the location and the ever changing needs of users, and, but also with regard to the structure of our organisation and the interests of our shareholders. We are fully aware of short-term interests but will always favour the long term.
Healthy workplace & Employee satisfaction
The health and well-being of our employees and tenants is also one of the important pillars of NSI’s sustainability strategy. NSI aims to create a healthy, inspiring and flexible working environment to ensure the well-being of its employees. The sickness rate at NSI decreased to 3.1% in 2020 (2019: 3.3%).
Employee surveys are a strong tool used to track the actual and perceived well-being of employees. Given the specific situation in 2020 and to be able to understand what lessons could be learned from it, NSI decided to conduct a working-from-home survey instead of the regular employee satisfaction survey. The survey revealed that employees generally feel even more engaged and connected thanks to the efforts of the entire NSI team and the intensified level
of communications to keep everyone on board. On the other hand, employees experienced less effectiveness in interaction in meetings and in particular in teambuilding events. The majority of employees said they would prefer to continue to work from home part-time once all Covid-19 restrictions have been lifted.
Training and development
With responsibility as one of our core values, it is important that we provide all our employees with ample training and development opportunities. As part of our strong commitment to attracting and retaining the very best talent, we encourage employees to take externally recognised courses by granting annual individual training budgets, making NSI a great place to work.
The Head of HR engages with each individual employee to discuss their personal development plan and ambition level. In 2020 there was a greater need for training which NSI anticipated by offering a wide range of e-learning modules. A specific focus for management has been on coaching skills. At the same time many training programmes in which NSI usually participates were paused or partially cancelled due to Covid-19. However, several employees started (external)
education courses, among others in the field of data analytics, project management and real estate management. On balance, employees spent more hours on training than in an average year.
Knowledge sharing through expert sessions is normally also part of the regular learning and development cycle. These initiatives have been largely continued online.