The most attractive employers in the Netherlands' AEX index

ASML is the most attractive employer in the Netherlands’ AEX index for 2026, at 44%, well ahead of the rest of the index. Scores rose across many of the country’s best-known names over the past year.

9,117

responses in the Netherlands

companies tracked

Jan–Jul

data collection period

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Same study, 11 markets

Belgium

Brazil

Denmark

France

Germany

Italy

Netherlands

Sweden

Switzerland

Three takeaways from the 2026 AEX employer attractiveness scores

ASML is the Netherlands’ most attractive AEX index employer in 2026 at 44%, up 10 points year on year and well clear of the field.

Improvement was broad among well-known names, with Akzo Nobel (+16), Unilever (+12) and Heineken (+12) all climbing.

Among companies with low familiarity, WDP and RELX share the highest score at 57%, with RELX up 14 points year on year.

The Netherlands' AEX Index — 2026 Employer Attractiveness Ranking

Employer Attractiveness is determined by observing the percentage of the informed public (i.e. those familiar with the rated company) that say they are very likely to consider the rated company as a possible place to work. The percentage includes only those answering 6 or 7 on a 7-point scale.

Nr.↕	Company↕	2025↕	2026↕	Change↕	Familiarity↕
1	ASML	34%	44%	+10	27%
2	Akzo Nobel	15%	31%	+16	21%
3	Ahold Delhaize	20%	29%	+9	28%
4	Wolters Kluwer	18%	29%	+11	20%
5	Unilever	14%	26%	+12	39%
6	Philips	29%	26%	-3	67%
7	The Magnum Ice Cream Company	New	25%	—	30%
8	ING	21%	25%	+4	62%
9	ASR Nederland	11%	24%	+13	38%
10	KPN	19%	24%	+5	59%
11	Heineken	11%	23%	+12	54%
12	Aegon	18%	22%	+4	24%
13	NN Group	17%	22%	+5	35%
14	ABN AMRO Bank	24%	21%	-3	56%
15	Shell	17%	17%	—	58%

Ranked separately: companies below 15% familiarity

These companies are known to fewer than 15% of the public. With so few people familiar with them, their scores come from a small and unusually informed group rather than the general public, so they are not directly comparable to the main ranking and are listed separately here.

Nr.↕	Company↕	2025↕	2026↕	Change↕	Familiarity↕
1	WDP	New	57%	—	3%
2	RELX	43%	57%	+14	3%
3	IMCD	50%	56%	+6	3%
4	CVC Capital	New	56%	—	4%
5	Exor	54%	56%	+2	3%
6	Besi	50%	55%	+5	4%
7	SBM Offshore	New	54%	—	4%
8	Prosus	31%	53%	+22	4%
9	ASM	34%	53%	+19	9%
10	InPost	New	45%	—	4%
11	dsm-firmenich	23%	41%	+18	5%
12	ArcelorMittal	23%	36%	+13	6%
13	Universal Music Group (UMG)	26%	33%	+7	14%
14	Adyen	23%	30%	+7	13%

METHODOLOGY

How the ranking is built

Employer Attractiveness is the percentage of the informed public, who say they would consider that company as a place to work.

Respondents rate the statement “If I were looking for a job, I would consider [company] as a place to work” on a 7-point scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree.The score is the share who answer 6 or 7, the two highest levels of agreement.

The 2026 results are based on 9,117 responses representative of the Dutch population, collected daily between January and July 2026 through Caliber’s real-time tracking study. Results can be broken down by age, sex, geography, and occupation.

Why familiarity matters

Familiarity shapes how an Employer Attractiveness score should be read, because the score only counts people who already know the company.

Companies that serve niche audiences, operate in less visible industries, or provide B2B services tend to be less widely known. The people who do know them are more likely to be potential employees, which can lift Employer Attractiveness under this methodology.

Highly familiar companies reach a much broader audience through marketing, media presence, and consumer appeal. A smaller share of that audience are potential employees, which can pull scores in the other direction.

Go beyond the ranking

Explore your Employer Attractiveness score by segment and geography, and take a closer look at your overall reputation across the dozens of attributes Caliber’s Stakeholder Intelligence Platform tracks every day.

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