best practices report

TIC TAC – Insights into
Swiss Best Companies to Work for
BEST PRACTICES REPORT
GREAT PLACE TO WORK® SWITZERLAND
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CONTENT
CONTENT
About Great Place to Work®
Mission and goal of Great Place to Work® ............................................................................................................................................ 4
Intent of this report................................................................................................................................................................................................... 5
How to work with this report ............................................................................................................................................................................ 6
Companies that had the will to make it happen .............................................................................................................. 12-15
Great Place to Work® uses three different tools
to determine the Best-Workplaces-Lists ....................................................................................................................................... 16
9 Practice-Areas................................................................................................................................................................................................... 18
VOAHI............................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 20
Details of the nine dimensions ................................................................................................................................................................ 22
HIRING AND WELCOMING........................................................................................................................................................ 24
HIRING ....................................................................................................................................................................................................... 28
Best practices ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 32
WELCOMING ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 42
Best practices ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 46
INSPIRING ............................................................................................................................................................................................... 52
Best practices ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 56
SPEAKING ............................................................................................................................................................................................... 64
Best practices ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 67
LISTENING .............................................................................................................................................................................................. 73
Best practices ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 76
THANKING .............................................................................................................................................................................................. 82
Best practices ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 86
DEVELOPING ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 92
Best practices ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 96
INNOVATION
ASSESSMENT
WORKPLACE
EMPLOYER
CULTURE
ATTRACTIVENESS
CREATION
RECOGNITION
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CELEBRATING .................................................................................................................................................................................. 120
Best practices .................................................................................................................................................................................... 124
SHARING............................................................................................................................................................................................... 128
Best practices .................................................................................................................................................................................... 132
Titelfoto: Oris Swiss Made Watches
BENCHMARKING
CARING .................................................................................................................................................................................................. 104
Best practices .................................................................................................................................................................................... 110
Engagement .......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 138
Best practices ..................................................................................................................................................................................................... 142
Further Inspiration ........................................................................................................................................................................................... 148
Best Workplaces in Switzerland 2009 - 2016 ........................................................................................................................... 152
Imprint ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 158
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TIME TO CELEBRATE!
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9 PRACTICE
AREAS
The framework used to evaluate companies is based on the 9 Practice Areas – the key
leverage areas where management has the most impact on the employee experience.
The 9 Practice Areas map to the definition of a great workplace from a management
perspective: one where you achieve your organizational objective with people who give
their personal best and work together as a team or family – all in an environment of trust.
Together, the manager definition plus the 9 Practice Areas form the management model
of a great workplace.
The 9 Practice Areas are as follows:
LISTENING
THANKING
DEVELOPING
CARING
CELEBRATING
SHARING
Special open systems for incorporating peoples’ ideas, for including
people in decision-making, and for
airing concerns and grievances, are
prevalent.
Recognizes and rewards good work
and extra levels of effort; strives to
create a climate of approval.
Focus is on nurturing individuals’
gifts to foster personal growth and
development as well as offering
job-specific training.
BOOST
YOUR
BRAIN!
HIRING AND WELCOMING
Focus is on hiring for potential and
character of the person, rather than
primarily on skill set. New employees
are welcomed and assimilated into
the team with orientation programs,
personal sponsorships, and the like.
INSPIRING
Employees learn and understand how
their job has meaning for the organization and for society, beyond earning
a salary and making a profit for the
business.
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SPEAKING
Management goes to great lengths to
be open and transparent, offering
access to information across the
board, enabling and encouraging
employees to contribute beyond the
scope of a narrowly defined job.
A multiplicity of systems and programs are in place for creating a
caring environment for the individual
and his/her family.
Celebrations of both personal milestones and company successes are built
into the way people work together.
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Employees sharing the fruits of their
labour in a variety of ways; rewards
are egalitarian in nature.
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HIRING
AND
WELCOMING
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HIRING AND
WELCOMING
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OVERVIEW
CHECKLIST
When evaluating a Culture Audit©, we focus on several key points in each dimension.
The focus is not only on hiring for skills but also on the potential and the character of the person.
WHAT WE WOULD LIKE TO KNOW HERE IS
• What do you do to attract and find the right people for your company?
•W
hat are the characteristics you seek in prospective new employees, aside from the skills needed to do their jobs?
•H
ow does your hiring process (recruiting, interviewing, procedures, etc.) ensure that a job candidate will fit into your
culture?
• In what ways do you welcome new employees to your company?
EXAMPLES FOR HIRING
EXAMPLES FOR WELCOMING
• Team Interviewing
• Company sends welcome letter or welcome package,
which includes new hire’s family/spouse
• Voting on New Hires
•C
omprehensive orientation for new hires
• Hiring based on “Culture Fit”
•N
ew employee handbook
• Interview questions related to company values
nnouncement to the company about new hires
•A
• Personality Tests
•W
elcoming event for new hires
• Employee referral program
•W
elcome Kit
• Behavioral Interviewing/Role Playing
•W
elcome lunch with the CEO or Sr. leaders
• Candidates given company materials
•N
ew hires marked with button, ribbon, etc.
• Feedback to rejected candidates
• Scheduled break (or event) with manager and different teams
GAINING AWARENESS
• Employer branding activities (trade fairs, sponsoring,
events, goody bags, general marketing)
• Advertisements (TV, newspapers, magazines)
• Open house days for applicants / community /
everybody / schools, …
• Talent days (special events for the target groups)
• Web 2.0 / Social Media tools for connecting with others
HIRING
• Invitations to events (barbecue, workshops)
• New hire events (e.g., quarterly)
• Newsletters and info-mails sent before the start
• Information package (program for first day/week/
month, specific company information, internal
communication)
• Prepared workplace and IT access
•B
uddy or mentor for new hires
•O
rientation Follow-Up (after 90 days, etc.)
ONGOING
Timeline At what point in time does the process start?
Target group Who are you trying to attract and, specifically, how?
Channel Through which channels are you trying to attract people?
Design What are the milestones in the hiring process?
Selection What does the selection and interview process look like?
Involvement of shareholders Who defines the need for a new position? How is HR involved (Search, support,…)?
Employee involvement How can the team be involved in the process?
Communication How do you keep the involved people up to date? How do you handle those
applicants that did not fit a specific job but might be a good fit for another?
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• Job offers linked with social media (information about
team)
•J
ob offers with videos
•O
rientation days for applicants or new hires
•M
otivation or bonus for employees who bring in new
colleagues (referral programs)
•O
nline Interviews, tests, case studies
orkshops for candidates
•W
•M
anager guidelines on how to welcome the new team
member
•U
p front call if everything is clear for the new colleagues
BEFORE START
•T
our of the facilities
REVIEW
UP FRONT
• 1 or 3 month celebration/Apero
• Mentoring with an experienced colleague /
“Buddy” for informal questions
• Orientation meetings with managers after the first
(half) year
• Feedback survey about the starting phase
• Alignment of goals and the current situation
regarding the specific development plan
• Special new hire events or groups
• Meeting / getting to know top management in person
• 360 degree feedback for all new hires after the first
year
• Special coaching offers for new hires
WELCOMING
START
• Welcoming mail and communication to the team
and other employees
• Tour through the office in the first days
• Team lunch, individual lunches with everybody from the
team
• Taking extra time for the first team meeting with the new
hire
• Training about the company, history, products, goals and
tools
• Welcome from the CEO / top management
• Welcome present, flowers or company event
products
• Starter package with all needed tools and information
• Prepared onboarding plan
• Interactive onboarding plan with meetings (new employee
can set his own priorities and define needs)
• “Onboarding survey” to check the employee’s
expectations and to check the quality of the process
• Specific development plan for new hires
AND
WIN THE HIRING COMPETITION
• Provide robust opportunities for growth and development.
• Highlight the impact employees can make by working at
your company.
• Ensure pay is fair and benefits are enticing.
• Employ creative recruiting tactics.
• Make a phenomenal first impression.
• Make your company’s unique culture a selling point.
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Hire people who are smarter and more
Employee referral
knowledgeable than you are! – Could your
EMC Computer Systems AG
management team handle this?
Are you sure?
Google Switzerland
Our hiring principles
More than a decade ago, our co-founders wrote a set of hiring “Do’s
and Don’ts,” as well as some simple-yet-effective hiring principles.
These principles are alive and well today, informing who and
how we hire. We draw upon these principles and our data-driven
hiring process to help us hire candidates who aren‘t just great at
what they do, but who will challenge the status quo and bring innovative ideas with them. Here’s how we think about our hiring:
Hiring do’s and don’ts
Hire people who are smarter and more knowledgeable than
you are;
Don‘t hire people you can‘t learn from or be challenged by.
Hire people who will add value to the product AND our
culture;
Don‘t hire people who won‘t contribute well to both.
Hire people who will get things done;
Don‘t hire people who just think about problems.
Hire people who are enthusiastic, self-motivated, and
passionate;
Don‘t hire people who just want a job.
Too “junior”? – Let’s give it a try!
JobCloud AG
If an applicant seems to be too “junior” at first sight, but
the team may be able to compensate for the lack of experience, we may give the candidate an opportunity (if the
team leader agrees).
We are not only interested in a candidate’s technical skills,
we are also interested in a candidate’s personality.
The cultural fit is one of the most important aspects that
we assess during the job interview. A highly skilled applicant with a low cultural fit will likely be refused.
Refresh hiring knowledge
Google Switzerland
Hire people who inspire and work well with others;
Don‘t hire people who prefer to work alone.
Hire people who will grow with your team and with the company;
Don‘t hire people with narrow skill sets or interests.
Hire people who are well-rounded with unique interests and
talents;
Don‘t hire people who only live to work.
Hire people who are ethical and who communicate openly;
Don‘t hire people who are political or manipulative.
Hire only when you‘ve found a great candidate;
Don‘t settle for anything less...
These guiding principles have informed the design of our entire
hiring process, including how we review resumes, how we interview, and how independent committees of Googlers calibrate
our hiring decisions.
We know that our orientation teams can do a lot to help
Nooglers acclimate to Google, but a Noogler’s real journey at Google begins with his or her first manager. We are
always looking for ways to help managers help Nooglers,
and we continued to focus on this important relationship
in 2014. We know that seemingly small gestures from managers have a big impact on helping Nooglers feel welcome and productive at Google. That’s why we start sending managers tips on successful onboarding the week
before a Noogler starts and encouraging them to meet
their Nooglers after their first day. Feedback from Noogler
surveys have shown that these efforts from managers, in
addition to the many other ways managers work to support their Nooglers, make a huge difference by helping
Nooglers feel supported and empowered from the very
beginning.
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We are about to implement a new solution (SaaS) by Eqipia,
which will help our employees to get a better overview of
EMC Switzerland’s job openings and which will allow us to
access the personal network of our employees. Every new
job opportunity will be shared by e-mail and with one click
the employee can share the job on social platforms such as
Xing, LinkedIn and Facebook. By getting the e-mail they will
also receive an immediate overview of possible matches out
of their social network, which makes it even easier to refer
somebody. The new job ads will be interactive and appear in
a new and fresh layout. Of course every employee is free to
participate, there is no obligation. On the other hand, the employee will be able to profit from our referral program and get
CHF 2’500.00 if a candidate can be hired throughout their
recommendation.
Rackers are the experts when it comes to who and what
makes up a good fellow Racker, and so we also encourage
Rackers to recommend friends and family to our business.
CHF1500 and upward is awarded for successful referrals
(paid once the new Racker passes their probation period).
Our Racker Referrals programme has been continuously
improving over the years. After feedback from Rackers, we
have made some huge improvements, for referrers, referees
and recruiters. When Rackers sign in with their personal social account (Facebook or LinkedIn) they can promote job
openings to their social networks. They will still be eligible for
the referral bonus even if they don’t actually know the person
that responded to their unique link!
Applicants who have been referred by Rackers are more likely to be hired than general applicants. In the highly competitive talent war we find ourselves in, referrals have consistently hovered around 20% of hires, annually. This is a
testament to the overall health of our culture to which Rackers are comfortable recommending the company to their
friends and family.
UMB AG
The best marketing for UMB AG as an excellent employer is
a recommendation from one of our employees. We announce open vacancies in the UMB team mails and in the CEO’s
newsletter. A successful referral is honoured with 6,000 CHF.
UMB is proud to have paid more than 100,000 CHF for referrals in 2015.
We rarely work with head hunters. This year, we hired 29 new
employees without the help of head hunters, which we attribute to the success of our internal referral program.
Software Engineer –
Joined Rackspace August 2015
My first good impressions of Rackspace
started with the interview process.
All together I had 4 interview rounds.
First I received a phone call from HR
asking some questions about me,
giving a nice introduction of Rackspace, what do they do,
how they operate, what is the story and also answering all
of mine questions I had beforehand.
Then I had a ~45min video call with my future dev manager who asked me lot of questions based on the STAR
method and also personal questions to see who am I really and if I would fit into the team or not. This was the point
where I started to feel that they are really interested in me
also as a person and not just looking for another resource.
The third round was a homework including two programming tasks I needed to solve and hand over on Github in
72 hours.
The 4th round was in person at the Rackspaceoffice, next
to Technopark in the Digitec building. This was a 4 hours
session with 2 different tech people each hour. The questions were hard and challenging but not super hard; it was
a good challenging environment with lots of smart people.
All the way through the interviews I had the feeling that
they try to treat me like a friend and are very interested in
me as a person.
Q_PeriorAG
Employee referrals comprise 35% of all applicants at Q_PERIOR. This channel is important because it ensures a high
probability of a good social and cultural fit. The employee
knows the potential candidate, and surely no one knows
more about our culture than the employees we have. A referral is, therefore, a good assessment of both our culture and
the candidate’s profile. There is also a “Recruiting Award”
with a monetary bonus between 2,000€ and 6,000€ for the
recommending employee, depending on the job level of the
candidate.
NetApp Switzerland GmbH
The NetApp University offers a training program named
New Manager Essentials: Hiring that conveys the skills to
ask the right questions in the right way in an interview situation. It is also a refresher course addressing our company values and the cultural fit we strive for.
Rackspace International GmbH
HOW ABOUT BEAT?
HIRING
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Do not wait for them, approach them
EMC Computer Systems AG
The Global Services Associate Program at EMC has been a huge success since we started in 2008. It is an excellent opportunity
for Graduates with no or little work experience, to join EMC and attend a two-year program, incl. 9 weeks in a boot camp in our
headquarter Boston, USA. We offer four different areas to join: Presales, Project Management, Implementation and Customer
Services
Finding the right talents for this program has always been a challenge, as the ongoing war for talents is not only reality when it
comes to hire experienced people but also for Graduates. We therefore wanted to change the way we recruit those individuals
and how we present EMC as an employer of choice by organizing the first edition of the GSAP Career Day.
So, what is new? We created a new Job Description and also a Microsite to attract our target group.
As described earlier, diversity is one of the top priorities on our people agenda, we specifically addressed 9 female talents based
in Zurich, Berne and Gland by approaching them via Linkedin.
The biggest change is that we organized the complete recruitment process in 1 day in which we focused on the following
topics:
• Welcoming, incl. coffee and breakfast
• Present EMC
• Insights; a day in the life of a Presales Consultant
• Interview blocks with specific focal points, each 20 minutes
• Lunch
• Short presentation of each attendee
• Closure
Do you look around? -
The app knows more
Or do you just think you look around?
NetApp Switzerland GmbH
Hello NetApp welcomes new employees and facilitates
onboarding at NetApp.
This application provides our employees with a new tool for communicating with management, allows them to quickly decode
NetApp abbreviations, provides access to important reading
resources and lets them know about available training opportunities – all from an iPad, iPod Touch or iPhone.
Graduates sales academy
Cisco Systems (Switzerland) GmbH
One of the first places we look for talent is within Cisco. Our
Talent Connection Programme helps managers to identify
existing employees for new roles. Since it was introduced
5 years ago our internal fill rate has averaged 42% of total
Swiss hires. It’s improved employee confidence in being able
to build their careers in Cisco. Employees use our Career
Path tool to complete their career profile for Talent Connection and they can opt in for Cisco recruiters to contact them
to discuss any internal roles. This allows our recruiters to
proactively source internal talent and it enables employees to
explore a range of opportunities with hiring managers.
SAP (Schweiz) AG
The SAP Academy for Sales is a fast-paced 9-month rotational program to empower you with the effective selling and
negotiation techniques, as well as other must-have business
skills, to jump start your successful sales career at SAP. In
Total 15 new hires have started the Sales Academy in Switzerland. 50% of these new hires are female and help enrich
generational and gender diversity in our work force. In addition to hands-on training, networking opportunities and mentoring from top SAP executives and sales leaders, you’ll also
head to our state-of-the-art learning facility in California for
innovative classroom training. In 2015 we plan to hire 6 more
graduates.
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To sniff a chance
Grünenthal Pharma AG/ Protopharm AG /
Proto Chemicals AG
After the first job interview, all candidates for all positions will
complete a trial day. They will be connected with their potential colleagues and learn about the work and also the work
environment. Afterward, HR will collect impressions from the
involved employees and prepare a decision that is based on
a consensus.
The first GSAP “career day” took place on July 15th and was a great success. The feedback from our candidates as well as from
our involved employees has been exceptional. Our candidates were able to get a deep insight into EMC and what it means to
be a Presales Consultant. On the other hand, our employees appreciated the opportunity to be part of the recruitment process
and being involved in the selection of their new colleagues. It was a win/win situation. And we achieved our goal and hired 2
candidates out of the “career day” who have started their EMC journey on October 1st, 2015.
Q_PERIOR AG
Since 2013, we (and not head hunters) have proactively searched, identified and inspired suitable candidates. With this active-sourcing approach, the candidates are carefully selected. Currently, we reach 32% of all applicants with this channel. The
experienced recruiters have completed special training and provide the candidates with a tailored package such as information
about Q_PERIOR, the company’s sections, and our social media channels. They also provide detailed information about specific
consultants of Q_PERIOR through video clips or by organising appointments for informal talks with consultants by telephone or
in person.
HIRING
Formula Student Competition and
a stair-climbing wheelchair
Twice the referral bonus
National Instruments Switzerland GmbH
We sponsor the “Formula Student Competition” in which
nearly all technical high schools participate. Students develop
a Formula 1 race car that, of course, is also built with parts
from National Instruments.
Moreover, we also support the worldwide “Student Award”.
The 2015 “Student Award” was presented to the ETH Zurich
student team that had interesting innovations. National Instruments invited the winning team to a customer and networking event with approximately 3,000 visitors at the National
Instruments headquarters in Texas/USA, where they proudly
presented their product.
NetApp Switzerland GmbH
By end of the business year in 2015 (May), NetApp wanted to
dramatically boost the manpower in the occupation groups
of field workers, sales engineers and global enterprise managers. On the 17th of February, HR EVP Gwen McDonald sent
an email motivating all employees to make suggestions for
suitable candidates. Within minutes the recruiting team received 150 names and emails from all sites worldwide.
EMEA employees were eligible for twice the referral bonus in
the amount of 5’000 USD.
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HIRING
Team recruiting
Haufe-umantis AG
We put much emphasis on personal and cultural fit between
the candidate and current company employees. Our “team
recruiting” ensures this. At Haufe-umantis, employees are involved in the entire process. They define if a new employee
is needed and what the requirements are. When it says “we
are looking for“ in a job offer, it‘s not just the company looking
for a suitable candidate, but first and foremost, it’s the employees looking for a new colleague. Accordingly, the team is
involved in all steps from analyzing the requirements, layout,
and content of the job offer and hiring – in some teams, they
even recruit completely on their own.
HR and team “delegates“ perform a preselection as a service
for the team.
During the last interview, the candidate meets the whole team
to get to know the people he/she will be working with. The
employees have the final say in hiring decisions.
Scout 24 Schweiz AG
The HR department manages and supports the recruiting
process for new hires. The final hiring decision is made by the
line manager with support of HR. However, the team in which
the potential new hire would work has veto power.
Closing blind spots
Google Switzerland
We know that in order to be a company that betters the
lives of everyone, Googlers need to better reflect our users
– all of our users. In 2014, for the first time in gender and
ethnicity workforce information our history, we released our
externally. The journey to a truly diverse and representative
workforce is a long one, but we felt that in order to address
the challenges we face in building a diverse workforce, we
must be prepared to discuss them openly, starting with the
facts. We have a long-standing commitment to hiring diverse talent, and this level of transparency will bring greater
accountability for making measurable change through our
numerous diversity initiatives.
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Easter egg hunt
Sweden Blocket
For a period, the company had a great need to recruit developers and felt that the traditional methods were insufficient. As
a way to find new routes of recruitment a team was created
who together came up with the idea to hide so-called “Easter
Eggs” (hidden codes) on their website. These Easter Eggs
could only be understood and resolved by skilled developers.
Blocket communicated through a media campaign and on
their website that those who managed to solve the codes
would be placed on a leader board where those who solved
the problem best would get a recruiting call. The campaign
was a success - both in terms of recruitment and in the media
- and out of the 25 people who were called for interview, five
of them were hired instantly.
Analyse how you analyse
Google Switzerland
While we value having candidates meet with different Googlers, we recognize that interview days can be long for candidates. A few years ago, we studied the impact of multiple interviews on candidate performance and found that more than
five interviews resulted in diminishing returns for the candidate. This is why our candidates typically won’t go through
more than five interviews for a Google role, thereby improving
the interview process for the candidate and for Google.
After a candidate has been interviewed and all interviewers
have submitted their feedback, the candidate is evaluated by
at least one cross-functional hiring committee and then by
a group of top leaders. Research shows that one individual
interview is not a good predictor for future job performance.
These hiring committees are intentionally designed to ensure
that hiring managers and interviewers aren’t ever optimizing
for short-term hiring needs. They provide an independent
perspective to ensure we truly are hiring candidates who are
good for Google. These committees introduce another step
into the hiring process, but help us ensure that we’re hiring
the best talent out there.
You find them if you want
EMC Computer Systems AG
EMC Chosen is an EMEA initiative to identify,
attract and hire female talents throughout the
region. Every local recruiter is obliged to actively source candidates and to report all action
to the EMC chosen responsible. Our aim is to
have at least one female talent on every shortlist when it comes to hire Sales- and Presales
roles. We strongly believe in Diversity, but at
the same time we know the importance of
hiring the right individuals which is of course
not reduced to the question of gender. As a
result of this initiative we were able to hire 2
female Account Managers in 2015, which is
15% of hiring in sales in the same period. Not
yet where we would like to be, but at least a
first step.
Knowing and experiencing the difficulties
of hiring female talents in IT, we decided to
launch a new initiative later this year by using
social media in a more efficient and interactive way. Therefore, we will create a new group
on Xing and Linkedin which is called “Women
in IT Switzerland”. We are currently setting up
the project with one of our female talents as
the group leader. The goal is to organize an
event twice a year, which is focused on topics
around “Women in IT”. It will be a great opportunity to better understand the needs and expectations of the targeted group and to promote EMC as potential employer of choice.
Cisco Systems (Switzerland) GmbH
Ten years ago, only one of our senior leaders was a woman. Today, almost
half of our Executive Leadership Team are women: Kelly Kramer (CFO), Rebecca Jacoby (SVP Operations), Francine Katsoudas(Chief People Officer),
RubaBorno(VP, Growth Initiatives), and Karen Walker (Chief Marketing Officer).
But we want and need to attract more women to every part of Cisco, at every
level. That’s the focus of our JUMP and DARE programs.
DARE is designed to encourage and inspire women who are just starting
out in their careers. It’s a one-day, interactive workshop that focuses on key
issues like visibility, internal politics and positive branding. In FY14 and FY15,
720 women took part, all over the world. On average, they scored it 4.26 out
of 5.
JUMP is a more targeted program, aimed at women with high potential in
mid-level positions. It’s the first time we’ve had a comprehensive program
designed specifically for aspiring women leaders in Cisco. Unlike DARE,
it’s only open to those who’ve been nominated by someone else. It’s a nine-month program, broken up into three modules that focus on increased
self-awareness, leadership skills and qualities, and powerful communication.
Since its launch, 1,184 women have been through the program, up 20% this
year. On average, they scored it 4.67 out of 5.
Adecco management & consulting SA (internal employees)
At our headquarters, we have colleagues of 30 different nationalities, where
31% are Swiss. It is our goal to keep the diversity at a high level and this
is one of the reasons why candidates apply for jobs with us. As per end of
October 2014, 21% of the colleagues at the headquarters came from an
Adecco company in another country.
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Industry insiders
Federal Express Europe inc.
A promotion opportunity exists when a vacancy
is posted and filled by a selection process. All employees from any function, who meet the minimum
competency criteria, may apply.
Meet them where they are
SAS Institute AG
The SAS Academic Club is a platform for sharing the company’s
know-how, trainings and software with students and professors.
More than 20 universities and non-commercial research centers
in Switzerland are part of this club, which enables SAS Institute to
get in touch with students already in an early stage and to identify
potential talents.
Students benefit from low attendance fees at SAS conferences
and trainings, mostly they can attend those events even for free.
At the yearly SAS Forum Switzerland, they also get the chance to
present their theses to an audience of around 300 participants.
Another effect of the SAS Academic Club is that professors regularly choose SAS as a partner for research projects which creates
interesting job perspectives for involved students.
Cisco Systems (Switzerland) GmbH
Cisco maintains 30 work places (number will increase up to 70
workplaces in 2016) within the innovation park of the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). This ensures a close collaboration and knowledge exchange between the local university
and the engineering people of Cisco. A lot of engineers based in
Lausanne are former students at EPFL and started with a Cisco
internship, respectively with a collaboration during the bachelor
and/or master thesis.
Scout 24 Schweiz AG
We regularly invite selected educational institutions to our digital
Powerhouse. During these in-house sessions, Scout 24 increases
its brand awareness and improves its image. Visitors can connect
with the company and the management and learn more about
what we’re doing and how we’re doing it. Moreover, Scout 24
supports bachelor’s theses, master’s theses and diploma theses,
which we regard as an excellent way to connect with talent. Some
of our employees are also lecturers at educational institutions.
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HR
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FedEx has a proud record of promoting from within, in
order to retain skills and unique corporate knowledge
while recognising increased skills, competency and
loyalty to the company.
One of our IT specialists in Zurich and one of our Account
Executives in Geneva have started as Couriers. The Senior
Manager Operations at Basel Airport has started as a Hub
Handler – loading and unloading aircraft.
Second chance
Gender-balanced management team
IKEA Schweiz AG
Mundipharma Medical Company
Our management team consists of three women and three men.
We are happy about that, we enjoy the collaboration, and we
think a gender-balanced top management is most valuable for
our company.
Moreover, our sales management team is also gender-balanced,
two women and two men.
Treat them not like absolute beginners
Supporting the non-selected
Mercedes Benz Financial Services
When hiring for a position, Mercedes-Benz Financial Services will not only follow-up with the successful candidate, they also reach out to the candidates that were not
selected. A Candidate Feedback form is used to ensure
candidates understand their strengths and opportunities
as required for the position and what they can do to close
the gap.
Plante & Moran
At Plante & Moran, interns are treated like first-year staff. The purpose is for interns to genuinely get a feel for the profession and
what life would be like as a full-time staff member. They are exposed to audit and tax teams, meet with clients and sometimes
tour client facilities, as well as receive feedback from managers
against the same competencies as full-time staff. At the conclusion of the program, interns give a formal presentation on what
they have learned. Finally, the firm holds its Intern Summit, an
opportunity for interns from all offices to interact and network with
one another.
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As part of our culture, we as co-workers at IKEA, have the
privilege to make mistakes. We apply this also in the
recruitment process and we informally call it “the second chance”. In practice it means that we favour candidates having had failures in their personal or professional life: e.g. candidate that has had to interrupt an
apprentice ship with another employer, candidates with
previous problems or people who have been outside of
the labour market for a longer period.