The future of work is becoming hybrid - balancing act between tradition and innovation

Peter Geiger, Chairman of FEP Freie Erfa-Gruppe Personal Ostschweiz, welcomed the 180 participants as well as 20 people who followed the event from home via live stream. Six HR experts illuminated the topic "HR in turbulent times - balancing act between innovation and constancy" from different perspectives. The event was moderated for the first time by Sabine Bianchi.

Promote cross-divisional collaboration

The first speaker was Alex Villiger, economist with a doctorate from the HSG and Head of Human Resources at Graubündner Kantonalbank. There, he has initiated and implemented a fundamental realignment of HR work. This is based on the fact that the digital transformation, the demographic slump and the change in values have fundamentally and sustainably changed the world of work. Within 20 years, for example, 150,000 office jobs had disappeared because of digitalization. The complementary effect creates more jobs than the substitution effect destroys, says Alex Villiger. The complementary effect is driven by the search for innovation: "If you only optimize the Walkman, you'll never invent an iPod," says Villiger, quoting Heiko Fischer. A fundamental reorientation of human resources work is becoming inevitable. He presented the new leadership model for the working world 4.0. Leadership must awaken the potential of employees, align teams with customers, and promote network-like cross-divisional collaboration, he said.

Pizza delivery on onboarding day: part of the future of work?

Liza Follert, Head of People Attraction at Helvetia Insurance, spoke about constant change in the midst of constant change. Important aspects of this, she said, are personal experiences and accompanying people through important steps in their career paths. "Whether virtually or in person, in our interviews we are at eye level," said Liza Follert. In the interviews, the "you" culture is carried out consistently and at all times, all questions are answered. Taster days to get to know the team and learn more about the job are also part of the process. Participants were able to see for themselves on the spot how an application to Helvetia works. Funny, personalized videos accompanied the applicants from the application, to the invitation to the personal interview, to the employment. Welcome boxes before the start, gummy bears and pizza delivered to the applicants' homes on their first day of work are designed to whet their appetites and make onboarding so cool that they can hardly wait to get started.

Well-being in the future of work 

In the wake of the Corona pandemic, most companies inevitably had to address the issue of home offices. While working at home was a relief for some, others felt more stressed. This was also a finding that Adrian Brunner of Cisco, an international IT company, addressed in his presentation, "Workforce of the Future: home office and mental health - new mindset for HR." He talked about how managers found it difficult to perceive their teams emotionally because of the physical distance. This meant that it was sometimes almost impossible to find out what the well-being of employees was like. But once the pandemic is over, many companies will not return to the "old" way of doing things. "The future of work is becoming hybrid, work at home, work in the office, work everywhere," says Adrian Brunner. Therefore, a proactive approach to employees is necessary to get a picture of their mental health. To make employees feel comfortable in new work environments, he advises: focusing on teams, building trust, stepping up when it becomes relevant, making mental health an issue, creating healthy workplaces. Work, he says, is first and foremost not a place, but an activity.

Culture change: leadership as a key element

Corporate cultures must change in order to be prepared for the future of work. This was demonstrated by Karin Schmidt, Group Head of HR & Communication and member of the Executive Board at Mibelle Group (Migros Industrie). Migros Industrie used to be a conglomerate of more than 20 different companies. The task now is to merge these companies in such a way that synergies can be better exploited, overarching processes streamlined and cost items optimized. HRM plays a key role in this major change process. Six goals are to be achieved in this transformation. A key element of this is a leadership initiative to address issues such as employee engagement, talent management, work-life balance and inclusion. Much of this is currently still in its infancy, the speaker said, and there is still a lot of work to be done. But with a pioneering spirit, community and responsibility, Migros wants to build the future together.

Values: foundation in difficult times

Daniel Frei, co-founder and CEO of tibits AG, then gave the audience an impressive demonstration of what the pandemic can do to a company. "The last 20 months have been the most difficult in the entire history of the company," said Frei, who, together with his brothers, made meat-free system catering respectable 20 years ago. But thanks to a steady commitment to the company's values - joie de vivre, trust, progressiveness, time - and a consistent focus on people, tibits didn't let it get them down. On the contrary: the company used the time to accelerate innovations that had already been started and to put new projects into practice, such as the Biomedical Health Hotel Sonnenberg in Schwellbrunn.

Life Cosmos Engelberg Monastery

A very different kind of "enterprise" is the one that Abbot Christian runs: The Benedictine monastery of Engelberg. He showed how ancient rules of the order can be combined with modern business management. The audience was shown that it is also possible without profit maximization - indeed, that the greatest profit is not only to maintain the monastic community over the centuries, but also to constantly develop it further.

The next East Switzerland Staff Day will take place on September 15, 2022. Further information under www.personaltag.ch.