Excellent employers - recommended by employees
For the twelfth time, "Great Place to Work" has published a ranking of the "Best Employers in Switzerland". As part of the largest study worldwide, more than 17,000 employees in over 200 companies in Switzerland were surveyed and analyzed to determine what is particularly important to employees.
UMB, AbbVie and CSP are the best employers in Switzerland in their respective categories. This result is based on feedback from over 17,000 employees surveyed by Great Place to Work. 4 out of 5 employees would recommend these companies to their friends and acquaintances. For the first time, the awards ceremony for the 12th edition of this competition was not held at a formal event, but was purely virtual due to the Corona crisis. More than 200 companies took part in the independent analysis of their workplace culture this year - but just 46 made it onto the list of the best.
Well-known brands among the top employers
With UMB, a company that already emerged as a winner in the medium category in 2016 and 2018 is swinging out on top among the large companies with more than 250 employees. AbbVie has also been among the best employers for a long time and has been honored in the medium category (50-249 employees) every year since 2015. This year, it has now been enough to win. In 2017, CSP AG Competence Solutions Project was narrowly beaten in the small company category (up to 49 employees), but this year they are at the top of the podium.
In addition to well-known brands such as Digitec Galaxus, IWC Schaffhausen, Sunrise, SAP and DHL, the award-winning employers include many Swiss SMEs. For these, an excellent workplace culture is an important tool in the battle for the best talent in view of the shortage of skilled workers and demographic change.
What it takes to be among the best employers
Excellent employers know how to sustainably develop the potential of their employees. The basis for this is above all a high level of trust, achieved through lived values and leadership quality. Although these aspects are individual to each company, overarching trends and best practices can be identified. At the same time, we can see where the biggest differences lie compared to the average employer:
Employees want to be involved in decisions, which has to do with living appreciation. Agile companies do not claim that top management has all the solutions at the ready. Instead, employees are shown great trust and motivated to contribute their own ideas. Leah Martorelli, consultant at Great Place to Work Switzerland, explains how this is done at UMB, for example: "UMB has created a portal in which every colleague can easily publish their own idea, make it public and thus participate in the further development of the company: If an innovation or a suggestion is liked, the colleague can simply give it a "like". Anyone who publishes an innovation should not just be the provider of ideas, but should also be actively involved in their implementation.
Meaningfulness in work
A sense of purpose at work and pride in the company are also becoming increasingly important drivers of employee satisfaction. As an example, Dr. Thomas Schneider, consultant and co-owner of Great Place to Work Switzerland, cites the pharmaceutical company AbbVie: "Treating advanced Parkinson's is a major challenge. That's why it's important to AbbVie to celebrate each and every patient whose treatment has enabled them to improve their quality of life. Therefore, at the beginning of each month, a ship's bell is used to communicate the happy number of new patients. Each chime in the cafeteria signifies the improvement of a Parkinson's patient's quality of life through AbbVie therapy. This signaling should accompany the employees until the end of the year and show that AbbVie is doing good things month after month and that there is excellent teamwork behind every chime."
APP Unternehmensberatung, ranked third among medium-sized companies, also relies on employee involvement, as consultant Christine Meyenhofer from Great Place to Work Switzerland knows: "At the annual three-day future seminar, employees participate in the further development of values, vision and corporate policy, among other things. Although it would be less time-consuming to involve only the management in this, the participatory approach chosen offers clear added value, as the content developed is more broadly based."
Excellent employers: The 2020 ranking
Large companies (250+ employees)
- UMB AG (information and telecommunications technology, 342 employees)
- DHL Express (Schweiz) AG (Transport & Freight - freight transport and freight, 1280 employees)
- AWK Group AG (Information and Telecommunication Technology - IT Consulting, 320 employees)
Medium-sized companies (50-249 employees)
- AbbVie AG (Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals - Biotechnology, 165 employees)
- Amgen Switzerland AG (Biotechnology & Pharmaceutical Industry, 79 employees)
- APP Unternehmensberatung AG (Services - Consulting - Management, 84 employees)
Small companies (20-49 employees)
- CSP AG Competence Solutions Projects (Services - Consulting - Management, 33 employees)
- Hilton (Hospitality - Hotel & Resorts, 43 employees)
- Steinmann & Partner GmbH (Services, 21 employees)
You can find the complete list on https://www.greatplacetowork.ch/ausgezeichnete-arbeitgeber/schweiz/2020/