Employer attractiveness How to win the race for the best skilled workers

As a Swiss employer, are you attractive to skilled workers? Most prospective employees still base their decision for an employer on the usual satisfaction factors, such as:

• Salary
• Working conditions (number of working hours, overtime set-up, leave, social benefits, occupational pension scheme)
• Long-term job security
• Work location
• Company image (in the sector and society)

Consequently, if you want to attract the best skilled workers, you have to perform at least in line with the market on all these decisive issues. Are you lagging behind your Swiss competitors in any of the satisfaction factors listed? Then we recommend that you start by investing in a good basis. Because no matter what you offer your employees, if you, as an employer, can’t keep up with your competitors in terms of the basic requirements, you will always have trouble attracting good skilled people and, above all, retaining existing ones. The higher people assess your employer attractiveness, the easier it is to attract good staff. 

Promote your employer branding not just to the outside, but within the company as well. Many employees no longer want to spend their whole working life in the same position. Accordingly, opportunities for personal development have become a decisive factor in making a company attractive to employees and keeping them loyal to the company in the long term. It is not always easy for SMEs to offer their employees new, attractive positions. However, ongoing personal development can also mean:

• being entrusted with new customers,
• switching departments,
• being given greater responsibility in the team,
• the opportunity to pursue continuing education or learn new skills,
• or supervising apprentices.

It is important that, as an employer, you proactively encourage long-term perspectives. Think specifically about what opportunities for development you can offer employees at your company over the years and to whom you can offer what in terms of personal development. 

Talk to your people regularly and ask what they need to stay motivated. Of course, you can’t always offer everything, but the better you know the needs of your workforce, the more likely you are to find a mutually satisfactory solution. This is the only way to keep your attractiveness as an employer at a consistently high level and to be able to count on good and loyal staff despite the shortage of skilled workers. 

Managers make a significant contribution to the corporate culture and so also to employer attractiveness. Ultimately, managers are a relevant factor in attracting employees to a company – and in retaining them. Did you know that line managers are often the reason that people leave? This makes it all the more important that you take a strategically clever, considered approach to filling management positions.

It is important to know what your strategy is and where you want to take your business in the next few years. Do you have a management team working on this?

Select people for management roles who are not only technically expert, but also

• are empathetic and want to lead people,
• able to motivate people,
• fulfil a role model function (live corporate culture, act strategically),
• have good communication skills,
• are able to give transparent and relevant feedback
• and have an interest in accompanying employees in the long term and supporting them in their ongoing personal development. 

Read also the article on the topic skills shortage (in German).

As Aristotle once said: “Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.” People who enjoy going to work perform better, are more committed to their work and the company than average, and are more loyal to their employer. This cannot fail to have a positive impact on the work result. But how can you encourage your employees to enjoy their work?

In addition to the points already discussed, a positive work and team culture contributes significantly to employee satisfaction. It helps your employees feel that they belong, as well as sending a positive signal to the outside – and is therefore a good measure for employer branding. When defining a corporate culture, the most important thing is that it matches your company and your workforce. A culture must be authentic, otherwise it will not have any effect and will not be successful in increasing your attractiveness as an employer.

We recommend that you think carefully about how you define your individual culture and how you want to actively live it out in your everyday work. Here are some examples from practice:

• “We live a ‘big family’ corporate culture”: All staff are on first-name terms. We promote informal exchange between staff with regular events and team-building measures. Staff are encouraged to support each other.
• “We live a performance-oriented culture”: We empower our staff to deliver top performance in their field. This is why we constantly invest in training and financially support staff in their education and training. Successes are prominently communicated and earn monetary rewards.

“We live a culture of innovation”: Staff have the opportunity to contribute innovative ideas. We offer enough scope for people to develop their personal creativity. Failures are not considered a disgrace, but are looked on as an opportunity to learn.