Creating incentives through flexible working models

In connection with the Swiss labor market, people often talk about a shortage of skilled workers. What are the characteristics of this in your industry?

Hans C. Werner: As the leading ICT company in Switzerland, Swisscom operates in an extremely dynamic industry. This dynamism also has a particular impact on the job profiles and job descriptions in our company, in the sense that the requirements are also in a permanent state of flux. The shortage of skilled workers is accordingly accentuated where new profiles are created in a very short time and these have to be procured on the still scarce labor market.

Digital transformation will become increasingly important. Will the industry be able to meet the demand for labor at all in the future - and if so, how?

The digital transformation is characterized by a fast pace. We are responding to the constantly changing workforce requirements on two levels. On the one hand, it is important to us that our employees grow with the digital transformation through ongoing skill-based training and development and maintain their labor market skills. On the other hand, we are very committed to vocational training in order to promote our own talent. For example, Swisscom is a frontrunner when it comes to ICT training. We train around 870 apprentices, including around 450 ICT apprentices. Swisscom thus trains a good proportion of its IT specialists itself and makes its contribution to the next generation in the ICT industry.

What strategy is Swisscom pursuing to find the right people?

In addition to the professional requirements, it is particularly important to us that people feel comfortable in our culture and can contribute accordingly. We therefore also take care to position our culture and values openly and transparently in the labor market and give this aspect just as much importance in recruitment as the professional requirements. After all, we are only successful in the market with employees who fully identify with our corporate culture.

Does the regulation of immigration to Switzerland (before or after the implementation of the immigration initiative) pose particular problems for your industry or your company, and how do you cope with them?

Restricting immigration would significantly limit access to the entire ICT labor market. Even though we are focused on the Swiss market, the ICT industry is highly international and success is accordingly dependent on access to the entire labor market.

That is why Swisscom is already heavily involved in vocational training and invests in the further development of its employees through a wide range of on and off-the-job development opportunities, the establishment of succession and talent programs, and internal training on specialist, leadership and project management topics. By offering attractive working conditions, such as flexible working models, we also create various positive incentives to attract and retain qualified employees. The fact that Swisscom is already very successful in this area is demonstrated by a very good internal staffing rate of well over 60 percent in recent years.

What would be the impact of losing the free movement of persons with the EU?

As already mentioned, the loss of the free movement of persons would restrict the competitiveness of the entire labor market, the ICT sector and thus also Swisscom.

What impact will BREXIT have on your company?

It is still too early to foresee the impact.

31st international Europe Forum Lucerne

Topic: Tension between labor market & immigration. Strategies for business and politics

November 14, 2016 | KKL Lucerne

Business symposium 13.00 to 17.30

CHF 550.00 - incl. snack and networking aperitif

public event 18.45 to 20.30

Admission free, registration required

Information and registration: www.europaforum.ch