DNS Belgium's social impact has six impact domains: employee wellbeing, diversity, digital inclusion, raising awareness among internet users about cybersecurity risks, protecting the privacy of internet users and preventing incorrect content. Below is an overview of our key policy measures and activities in these fields in 2024.
General employment figures (B8, C5)
*for an overview of the diversity of our employees, see 2. Diversity and inclusion.
All our employees (36.9 FTE) have permanent employment contracts and work in Belgium. In 2024, five people (three men and two women; 1.9 FTE) also worked with us as consultants, but they didn't work exclusively for our organisation.
Staff turnover and new hirings
In 2024, one colleague left the organisation, resulting in a staff turnover rate of 2.71%. This remains well below the Belgian average of 17.8%, according to figures from Securex. We also welcomed three new colleagues.
Interns and internships
We welcomed three interns at DNS Belgium in 2024; two in our engineering department and one in the communication department. This allowed us to meet our goals of providing at least two internships annually. These internships offer young talents the chance to gain valuable experience and contribute to our organisation. In addition, we supervised one master’s thesis.
1. Employee wellbeing (B9)
a. Health and prevention at work
We have a dedicated health and safety team, consisting of one health and safety officer and two counsellors. In 2024, no occupational accidents occurred. The counsellors registered one interview with a staff member, not including several informal, ad-hoc chats with colleagues.We also offer an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) through Pulso. This provides employees with an accessible channel for quick and discreet advice or support on a range of personal issues that may affect their wellbeing or performance at work. In 2024, no use was made of this service.
Healthy work-life balance
DNS Belgium acknowledges the importance of a healthy work-life balance and offers flexible parental leave arrangements. In 2024, eight colleagues made use of parental leave or career leave.
Employee satisfaction: wellbeing and participation
In June 2024, we launched an employee satisfaction survey to gain insight into employee wellbeing, engagement and overall satisfaction. For the first time, we also calculated an Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS), which measures the extent to which employees would recommend DNS Belgium as an employer. The survey included questions on topics such as strategy and decision-making, autonomy at work, appreciation for contributions, collaboration and diversity. It also addressed communication between teams, trust in leadership and opportunities for personal and professional growth. The results provide valuable insights that help us strengthen our organisational culture and take targeted actions to improve wellbeing, development, and collaboration.
b. Professional and personal growth (B10)
The average number of training hours per employee in 2024 was 21.68 hours, which is significantly below the target of 96 hours or 12 training days per year to which each employee is entitled. This low average is partly due to underreporting, as self-study and on-the-job learning were not registered. Male colleagues completed an average of 24.37 hours of training, while female colleagues averaged 13.6 hours. A possible reason for this difference may lie in the fact that more female colleagues work part-time and therefore have fewer annual working hours available for training.Next year, we plan to analyse the training hours in proportion to working time and find ways to improve reporting accuracy.
Personal support
In 2024, 30 employees had at least one personal development interview with our Learning & Development consultant. These discussions covered topics such as training needs, promotion pathways and coaching requests. This approach fosters a culture of continuous growth and ensures that each employee receives targeted support in their development pathway.
As part of possible promotion pathways, five employees had personal development plans in place in 2024. These plans are designed to promote individual growth and career development.
c. Code of conduct and human rights policy (C6, C7)
Code of conduct
DNS Belgium has a code of conduct, i.e. the Guide for Ethical and Sustainable Behaviour. This guide clarifies how our objectives and values are applied in carrying out tasks, making decisions and dealing with customers, stakeholders and colleagues. We also expect third parties (such as suppliers and subcontractors) to respect these principles.
The guide includes the following themes:
- Ethical and sustainable work environment
- Trustworthy work environment and employees with integrity
- Safe and respectful work environment
These themes explicitly address issues such as discrimination and accident prevention. In addition, our employment regulations comply with Belgian legislation. This ensures that topics such as child labour, forced labour and human trafficking are fully covered by legal provisions.
Complaints handling mechanism for DNS staff
Our employment regulations include a complaints handling mechanism. And our Guide for Ethical and Sustainable Behaviour encourages everyone to report suspected violations or unethical behaviour confidentially and without fear of retaliation, for example through the HR department, the counsellors, the managing director or the relevant public authorities.
Human rights policy
DNS Belgium believes that protecting and promoting human rights are essential for responsible and sustainable business practices. As the manager for all .be, .vlaanderen, and .brussels domain names, we recognise our role and responsibility in ensuring compliance with human rights, with particular attention to the rights to privacy, online safety and trust among citizens and users of our domain name zones. Since 2023, our organisation has a human rights due diligence strategy aimed at (1) identifying and restricting risks, (2) encouraging collaboration with the necessary stakeholders and (3) reporting transparently on progress and actions taken.
Serious human rights incidents
We're not aware of any confirmed incidents involving our own employees, employees in the value chain, affected communities, consumers or end users.
We also expect third parties (such as suppliers and subcontractors) to follow and respect our Guide for Ethical and Sustainable Behaviour. This enables us to monitor and prevent potential serious incidents relating to human rights within our value chain.
2. Diversity and inclusion (B10, C5)
Our efforts around diversity and inclusion focus on fair remuneration, promoting diversity in our employee profiles and encouraging employee engagement in our organisation. In 2024, we underlined our commitment to diversity and inclusion by establishing an internal Diversity-Equity-Inclusion (DEI) Circle. With the support of inclusive communication experts Hamza Ouamari and Sana Sellami, we formulated concrete objectives. These include fair pay, diverse representation at all levels, dealing with unconscious bias and an inclusive company culture. These goals constitute the basis of a DEI strategy with the next step being the development of a DEI charter. This charter was officially presented to all employees in December 2024.
Fair pay
DNS Belgium falls under Joint Collective Agreement Committee 335, where no collective labour agreement (CLA) applies. For non-recurring result-related benefits, we follow CLA90. Positions are fairly evaluated using the Hay classification system, with levels ranging from Hay 14 to 22. We developed an internal process that supports employees in their growth to higher Hay levels through clear procedures, assessments and evaluations. Promotion criteria are based on expertise, impact, responsibility and problem-solving ability.
All permanent staff are entitled to the following extralegal benefits: cafeteria plan, hospitalisation cover, internet allowance, meal vouchers, eco vouchers, net allowance for homeworking, net allowance for mobile, group insurance, training budget, bicycle allowance, 32 holidays a year, free parking, mobility budget or commuting allowance.
We calculate the pay gap at DNS Belgium using the ratio between the annual total remuneration of the highest paid person and the median remuneration for all other employees. The pay gap ratio between the highest paid employee and other employees currently stands at 2.39, which comes down to a pay difference of 139%. In 2024, the pay gap will have narrowed compared to 2023. The ratio of the pay rise for the highest-paid employee to the median pay rise for the rest of the workforce is currently 0.63.
The pay gap between male and female employees is 13.5%. This means male employees earn 1.14 times more on average than their female colleagues. A reason for this is the absence of women in management positions.
Diverse representation at all levels
Currently, no women are represented at management level within DNS Belgium. This is partly due to the fact we're a small non-profit organisation with a level structure and only three management positions. At the same time, it's a bigger problem within our sector. However, we want to change this and are consciously focusing on personal development plans to have more women progress into leadership roles.
Dealing with unconscious bias
The digital sector continues to struggle with persistent unconscious biases regarding women in technical positions. DNS Belgium has also observed that female under-representation is most pronounced in our engineering department: out of 16 engineers, only 2 are women. We aim to change this by continuing to raise awareness of the issue.We also do this at an international level. For example, our colleague Dulce took part in a panel discussion about women in digital, at the invitation of the European Commission, where best practices were shared on attracting and retaining women in the sector.
I took part in the ‘Women in Digital’ strategy because I believe it’s important to contribute to retaining women in the IT sector by focusing on more equality and a better work-life balance.
Inclusive corporate culture
For DNS Belgium, an inclusive corporate culture is a culture that focuses on employee engagement. We do this primarily by working according to the principles of Sociocracy 3.0 (S3). In 2024, S3 became increasingly established within DNS Belgium. More and more teams are self-managing and apply the S3 principles in their day-to-day operations.
To involve employees more actively in the HR policy, we added three personnel representatives to our HR committee in 2023. Their selection used the S3 role selection method. The committee meets every three weeks and the minutes are shared with all employees. This ensures everyone stays informed about ongoing themes and decisions. Employees are also encouraged to provide feedback or raise concerns. For reasons of continuity and further development of this consultation process, the representatives also remained on the committee in 2024.
And finally, we organised a strategic team session where colleagues participated in ‘dialogue circles’ based on S3 principles to share their vision on strategic topics such as domain name growth, diversity and inclusion and the renewal of our values.
S3 enables us to collaborate more effectively, increase employee engagement and strengthen our decision-making processes.
3. Digital inclusion
DNS Belgium continues to raise awareness about the digital divide. In 2024, we published the results of the KBS study, which showed that 40% of Belgians aged 16 to 74 are digitally vulnerable. This clearly underlines the importance of digital inclusion. That’s why DNS Belgium takes numerous initiatives to promote digital inclusion in Belgium.
a. Digital for Youth
One of the most impactful ways DNS Belgium supports digital inclusion is through Digital for Youth . In 2019, together with Close the Gap, we established non-profit organisation Digital for Youth with the aim of reducing digital exclusion among underprivileged young people.
Students work with Digital for Youth laptops on digital math skills.
In 2024, we donated 325.000 euros to Digital for Youth. In addition, several colleagues use their skills to assist the organisation and we regularly put their work in the spotlight. Our contribution has allowed Digital for Youth to support 123 youth organisations across Belgium, thus strengthening the digital skills of 16,455 young people. Read more about this in their 2024 Impact report.
Founding Digital for Youth, together with Close the Gap, remains an important milestone for DNS Belgium in the field of digital inclusion. As co-director, I am proud to see how we are making a real impact for digitally vulnerable children and young people in Belgium.
b. Digital accessibility
Digital inclusion also means that the DNS Belgium website is accessible to the widest audience possible to ensure everyone has access to their own space on the internet. We aim to use plain language and our site fully complies with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA. In doing so, DNS Belgium wants to set a good example in terms of accessibility and user-friendliness.
We also believe that digital inclusion means that domain names need to be affordable to everyone. This is why we offer our domain names at low prices and communicate transparently about our rates. Our aim is to keep our prices at a comparable level to our neighbouring countries.
c. Digital inclusion: a joint challenge
DNS Belgium is active in the DigitAll ecosystem, a coalition of companies, civil society organisations and public bodies working together towards more digital inclusion in Belgium. Towards the end of 2021 we signed the Charter for Digital Inclusion and committed to nine pledges aimed at closing the digital divide. In 2024, we continued to support this mission by contributing to the development and promotion of the Digital Inclusion by Design Index. We also actively participated in an open letter in the national press to draw broader attention to digital inclusion and in an impact assessment of the DigitAll ecosystem.
DNS Belgium is also active in the Digital Inclusion Taskforce , coordinated by Mediawijs, which brings together local councils, public bodies, research bodies and civil society organisations. The taskforce’s objectives include dissemination of information, strengthening networks, identifying needs, policy support and providing recommendations on the digital inclusion of vulnerable groups.
4. Raising awareness of cybersecurity risks among internet users
DNS Belgium believes it is crucial that internet users are aware of their online safety and of the risks and dangers of the internet and digital society. The main focus is on groups that are most vulnerable online, such as children, young people and the elderlyIn 2024, we launched several initiatives to promote cybersecurity and raise awareness:
a. For children and young people:
Scale of M
In cooperation with Ketnet, Link in de Kabel, JEF and Mediawijs we added a cyber security component to De Schaal van M, the annual search for Flanders' most media-savvy class. We also provide educational material and information that classes can use as inspiration for the challenge. DNS Belgium was also on the jury that evaluated the great and often inventive entries. In all, nearly 1,900 classes in Flanders participated, around 39,000 pupils. DNS Belgium also gave a prize to the runner-up
5th grade of Sint-Paulus in Hansbeke is the most media-savvy class of 2024.
Apenstaartjaren survey and Génération2024 survey
The Apenstaartjaren survey is conducted every two years to assess media use among young people in Flanders, while the Génération2024 survey is conducted every four years among young people in French-speaking Belgium. DNS Belgium supported the 2024 surveys with financial backing and in terms of content by adding the research component on online security.In addition to expanding the quantitative research, we also developed a field study in collaboration with Mediaraven and Bibliothèques sans frontières. In all, more than 10,000 Belgian children and young people were surveyed.
Cybersecurity challenge and Capture The flag UHasselt
We developed challenges for the Capture The Flag challenge of UHasselt and for the Cybersecurity Challenge Belgium. DNS Belgium is one of the main sponsors of the Cybersecurity Challenge and developed a number of puzzles and a challenge for the 2024 finals which had 800 participants. In this challenge, students were asked to illustrate how the DNS protocol works in an original way.
DNS Belgium challenge at the Cybersecurity Challenge Belgium 2024.
Promotion of Edubox Cybersecurity in French-speaking Belgium
In 2024, we participated in SETT Namur, the largest education fair in French-speaking Belgium, to promote the French-language version of Edubox Cybersecurity.
DNS Belgium at the SETT fair with the Cybersecurity Edubox.
Collaboration with the University of Namur and IBM on Service Design and Innovation in Cybersecurity
For the second year in a row, DNS Belgium collaborated with the University of Namur and IBM to challenge Engineering and Management Sciences master’s students to develop targeted awareness campaigns on online safety for different age groups. DNS Belgium supported the students by offering guest lectures on cybercrime and digitally inclusive design.
Knowledge sharing on cyberawareness for young people and children
DNS Belgium continuously seeks to share its expertise on cyber awareness for children and young people by supporting various partner initiatives. In 2024, we contributed to the book Mijn Smartphone luistert mij af en 22 andere mythes (“My smartphone is listening to me and 22 other myths”) by Mediawijs. We also participated in an episode of the Cyber Talk Podcast on the Digital Wellbeing of Children – Safe and Happy Online.
Cybersecurity campaigns for young people
Cybersecurity topics for children and young people remain a core part of DNS Belgium’s communication on our website and social media. Through the webpage of our large-scale cybersecurity campaign for young people ‘Safe not Sorry’ and the accompanying TikTok videos we continue to reach a wide audience.The icing on the cake was when the campaign was awarded a BOCA (Best of Content Award) in 2024 for ‘best use of influencers’ and ‘best use ofsocial media’.
Safe not Sorry campaign awarded two BOCA prizes.
b. For the over-65s:
Research into online behaviour of the over-65s
To make our efforts around online safety for the over-65s as effective as possible, we conducted qualitative research to gain an insight into how this highly diverse group engages with the internet.
What do over-65s do online, which channels do they visit, what challenges do they face, when do they feel unsafe or uncertain, where and by whom do they want to be helped, what do they understand by internet fraud, have they already been victims, etc.? By answering these questions, we’ll be able to support them more effectively.
5. Protecting the privacy of internet users
a. Edubox Privacy
Following the success of Edubox Cybersecurity, in 2024 DNS Belgium supported the development of a new Edubox focused on Data and Privacy. This educational toolkit encourages young people to be more careful with their personal data. It teaches them how data is collected, what happens to it, and how to strike a better balance between what to share and what to keep private online.After its launch in March 2024, the Edubox was accessed 2,147 times that same year. According to VRT estimates, it reached approximately 5.400 students.
VRT Edubox on Data and Privacy.
b. Collaboration with the Data Protection Authority (DPA)
Since 2020, DNS Belgium has collaborated with the Data Protection Authority (DPA) which oversees GDPR compliance in Belgium. Specifically, this means DPA notifies us of GDPR violations on .be websites using a ‘Notice & Action procedure’. We then launch an infringement procedure against the registrant and divert visitors to the web address to a warning page (action). Obviously this only applies to serious and repeated cases and as a last resort.In 2024, we received no notifications from the DPA regarding privacy breaches in the .be zone.
This collaboration helps us to safeguard the privacy of Belgian internet users and protect them from cybercrime, including misuse of personal data.
6. Combating false content online
A relatively recent and legitimate concern among internet users is online disinformation, such as fake news. DNS Belgium shares this concern and closely monitors both societal and legal developments to assess whether we should and can develop a policy on fake news and disinformation. In 2024, we exchanged information and experiences with other European registries within CENTR on the potential role of ccTLDs in the combat against online disinformation. We also raised awareness among hosting providers and online service platforms about the Digital Services Act which came into effect in February 2024 and includes measures to counter the spread of illegal content and disinformation.