Belgium's national rail company SNCB plans to embark on a massive recruitment campaign this year and will look to hire significantly more train drivers, technicians, and other rail staff.
In total, 1,600 job offers will be posted, mostly for customer-facing positions. This includes 350 train attendants and around 100 jobs within train stations or customer service locations.
Another 500 employees will be sought for positions working on the maintenance of trains, 180 train drivers, and 100 security guards. The recruitment campaign will also seek to hire specialists such as architects and construction workers. SNCB already selected 300 people at the end of last year.
“These new agents will therefore already be able to start working in the weeks and months to come: half will start this month. Having already selected people last year means that they can be deployed more quickly to reinforce the teams in the field,” an SNCB spokesperson said.
Nationwide staff shortages
The rail company expects that it will be difficult to fill some positions due to the difficulties of filling positions on the Belgian market. In Belgium, a record 100,000 jobs were created in 2022 but many companies have struggled to fill positions, especially in the service sector.
“In several regions, efforts will be made throughout the year, ranging from recruitment campaigns to Meet & Greet trains. Employment-related events will run in collaboration with Forem, Actiris, Bruxelles Formation, and VDAB,” SNCB stated.
Last year, the level of required qualification for positions was relaxed as part of a pilot project aimed at bolstering the company’s internal training once new employees have been selected. The company managed to recruit 1,300 employees to help alleviate the impact of staffing shortages but still cancelled a record number of trains due to a critical lack of operational staff.
“More than 1,300 new employees have been recruited, including 320 train attendants, 300 technicians, 160 train drivers, and 70 security officers for Securail, among others,” SNCB noted.
Despite the recruitment drive, the company is set to cut 2,000 jobs over the next 10 years as part of its productivity policy, mostly in operational fields.
