For the 16th time, the Swiss Employer Award was presented to the best employers

For the sixteenth time, the icommit survey institute in Küsnacht conducted the employee survey for the Swiss Employer Award. 151 companies in Switzerland and Liechtenstein took part in the comprehensive survey. With a total of 45,680 employees, more people were surveyed than in any previous year. At just under 76 percent, the company average participation rate was the same as in 2015.

Among other things, employees rated work content, structures and processes, collaboration, handling change, leadership by superiors, employee development and compensation systems. Of the participating companies, the fifty with the best ratings were awarded prizes according to four size categories.

What distinguishes outstanding companies

If we compare the top three from all four size categories with the other participating companies, they stand out above all in the following three aspects: their handling of change, management and compensation. Here, the ratings of the twelve top-ranked companies are nine to twelve points above the average for all participating companies on the hundred-point scale used. In 2015, it was the same three aspects in which the top-ranked companies differed most from the others.

However, the similar results are by no means due to the fact that it is always the same companies - in fact, only around 18% of the companies take part in the survey each year. Rather, the three aspects mentioned seem to be particularly central for employees in general in companies from a wide range of industries and size categories.

Categories Large companies (1,000+ employees):

ISS Switzerland Provider of Facility Services, Zurich

Medium-sized companies (250-999 employees) :

BRACK.CH Electronics trading company, Mägenwil

Medium-sized companies (100-249 employees) :

Hotel Hof Weissbad AG, Weissbad Hotel, private clinic, health and wellness center

Small companies (50-99 employees) :

Swiss Paraplegics Association, Nottwil National self-help organization of paraplegics

Which industries are ahead

A third of all participating companies received the Swiss Employer Award for their outstanding rating. The companies receiving awards are by no means evenly distributed across all the sectors represented. The proportion of wholesale companies that received an award is strikingly high. This has risen even further since 2014. In 2016, five out of six companies from this sector received an award. In the construction sector, too, the success rate this year is once again well above average at 46%.

The situation is similar in the hotel/catering industry: 45% of the participating companies received an award. Interesting up-and-comers can be found in the healthcare and transportation sectors. Just three years ago, these industries were practically absent among the awarded companies. Last year, however, their share increased rapidly and this year, for the first time, it is even above average. Industrial companies seem to have a more difficult time, with only a quarter of the participating companies receiving awards.

In the service sector and retail/sales, only one fifth each received awards. Organizations from the education and administration sectors, foundations and associations have an even smaller share of award-winning companies, at just 13%. No companies were awarded in the field of information technology and pharmaceuticals/medical technology, although their participation was also very low.

The individual carriers

The benchmarking study Swiss Employer Award has become a groundbreaking tool for Swiss companies. It is supported by the Swiss Employers' Association, HR Swiss (Swiss Association for Human Resources Management), the business magazine "Bilanz" and the icommit institute in Küsnacht ZH, which conducts and evaluates the employee survey. (Source: Press release)