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Attracting and retaining top talent is a major concern for companies based in Switzerland, particularly in the areas of STEM and ICT, notably in blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI), connected systems and encryption. To address this concern, digitalswitzerland carried out a survey on top talent of the Swiss workplace with the following objectives: identify what new top talent will be needed in the next five years, what must be done to educate and attract these talents, and what investments must be made to educate new talents in Switzerland. The report aggregates existing study results, personal interviews and an online questionnaire. Switzerland will need to address the issue of top talent development, attraction and retention if the country is to remain at the top of international competitive and innovation rankings.
Top talent can be defined as employees who “have greater potential to occupy key leadership positions in the future, are more difficult and more costly to replace, and diminish an organisation’s status when they leave”. Top talents are people who perform better than their peers and possess the ambition to further self-develop. Top talents can quickly process and critically engage with complex information. They have the social and emotional skills to collaborate, communicate and negotiate in a diverse and unpredictable environment. They possess at least a basic understanding of technological innovations in fields such as data analytics and artificial intelligence, which helps them understand the strategic position of their organisation in a rapidly changing business landscape.
Four macro-trends are affecting the work environment: flexibilisation, automation, demographic changes and the changing geo-political landscape. Technological innovations such as online platforms allow people to offer their services to a wider set of potential customers, increasing the opportunity to be successfully self-employed and independent. One consequence of this trend is a growing preference for self-employment. In Switzerland 14.9% of the population is self-employed, higher than the United States at 6.3% and lower than the United Kingdom at 15.4%.
The combined effect of innovations in machine learning and the availability of big data enables the automation of a potentially wide range of non-routine cognitive activities, like driving a car or medical diagnostics. Activities that are unlikely to be automated soon are those that require social and emotional skills, creativity and the ability to improvise. According to a study by Deloitte, roughly 270,000 new jobs will be created by automation in Switzerland by 2025, and the Adecco group forecasts a shortfall of about 500,000 workers.
The world’s population is expected to grow to nearly 10 billion by 2050. The median age of the Swiss population is expected to grow from 42.4 in 2017 to 47.5 in 2050. A declining active workforce puts pressure on the dependency ratio; to sustain current standards of elderly support and pension schemes, societies have to facilitate and encourage longer participation of older employees. Societies have to rethink how their older generations are valued, as well as how to better use their potential. National labour markets have become more and more interdependent.
The outer segments of the labour market – characterised by either unskilled or knowledge-intensive labour – are integrating on a global level. This means that competition over jobs and workforce is increasingly taking place on a global scale. This trend aligns with a preference for international labour mobility among the future workforce: the majority of the Millennial generation (born between 1990 and 1995, also known as generation Y) expects and aspires to work outside their home country at some point in their career.
Technological innovation has long been recognised as the distinctive determinant of sustainable economic growth. Technological innovation is predominantly driven by human capital, in particular since our economic system has shifted from one whose added value is determined by physical goods to one rooted in intellectual assets, information, and the talent that develops them. It is estimated that intangible assets, which largely consist of know-how, unique intellectual property and patent rights, drive more than 80% of the valuations of contemporary publicly traded companies. In today’s economy, talent is therefore the most strategic asset, and people are the greatest creator of value. If self-motivation ranks highest on the list of desired personality traits that include complex cognitive, personal and social competencies, curiosity, creativity, agility and adaptability are among the top five personal traits desired from top talents. All these traits relate to openness to learn or to change. One key offer that companies desirous to attract and retain top talent must develop is Learning and Development (L&D), in the context of lifelong learning.
Five overarching recommendations transpire from this study:
How to create successful partnerships between high-growth start-ups and established organisations? We address this topic in a handbook we published in collaboration with Kickstart and other top-class contributors from ETH Zurich, University of Zurich, University of St. Gallen and Swisscom for the Kickstart Accelerator Program. Our objective is to jointly promote this crucial topic of partnerships between corporates, start-ups and academia and to provide examples of how to approach this topic.
It is important to emphasize that digitalswitzerland is one of many crucial players enabling innovation in Switzerland. The momentum is tremendous due to the many organizations driving technology in our country. digitalswitzerland has an important role to play with a strong network and a focus on delivering concrete projects that enable innovation. We’re a platform that connects and engages politicians, academics, corporates, SMEs, start-ups and digital shapers to drive digital transformation across the country. We have over 20 projects that cover areas like the Politico-Economic Environment, Education & Talent, Start-up Enablement, Corporate Enablement, Public Dialogue and International Connectivity as well as industry-focused projects. Leaders from across business, government and academia are actively involved in our Steering Committee and Executive Committee.
Some success stories of multi-stakeholder collaboration to deliver impact:
These are just a few examples of our collaboration projects. Our journey after three years is only just starting and we expect to see further growth and even more impact in the coming years, in particular by building on our established partnerships and creating new ones for the future.
Following a successful Swiss Digital Day where we opened the dialogue with the Swiss public on technology and innovation, our first Digital Gipfel Schweiz (Digital Summit Switzerland) took place on 5 and 6 November with over 80 CEOs from leading national and international companies, academic institutions and government representatives to discuss digital transformation in Switzerland. The event was organized in partnership with EY Switzerland and Ringier.
The aim of the summit was to underline the importance of digital transformation in Switzerland, to promote dialogue and interaction between business, research and political leaders and to support change so that the country can remain at the forefront of the 4th Industrial Revolution. Marc Walder, Founder of digitalswitzerland and CEO Ringier: “After the second Digital Day, this first Digital Gipfel Schweiz is another important initiative from digitalswitzerland. While the Digital Day was for the general public, this event provides a platform for exchange on digital transformation for the most important executives from business, research and government”.
On stage, Alexander Karp, Co-Founder and CEO of the US software company Palantir, Ulrich Spiesshofer, CEO of the technology group ABB, Robert Gentz, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of the e-commerce platform Zalando, Philipp Metzger, Director of the Federal Office of Communications and Chairman of the interdepartmental working group “Digital Strategy Switzerland”, Sascha Zahnd, VP Global Supply Chain Tesla as well as Daniel Wiegand, Co-Founder and CEO of the airline Lilium, shared case studies, best practices and engaged with the audience through Q&A sessions. Marcel Stalder, CEO EY Switzerland and member of the digitalswtizerland Executive Committee: “The programme was designed in such a way that top people from politics and business could exchange ideas with major technology companies. We must face up to the digital transformation in Switzerland and actively accompany the change there.”
The programme covered topics like Industry 4.0, Digital Competitiveness, Education, E-Commerce and Mobility. Christos Cabolis, Chief Economist and Head of Operations at IMD shared findings from the IMD World Digital Competitiveness Ranking 2018, where Switzerland ranks 5th, highlighting the country’s strengths and potential challenges. Patrick Warnking, Country Director Google Switzerland and member of the digitalswtizerland Executive Committee highlighted the importance of education, and more particularly lifelong education. He underlined the value of supporting Swiss SMEs in their digital transformation; for this digitalswitzerland has developed the Adapt programme. He talked about fostering passion for STEM and ICT subjects through digitalswitzerland’s Next Generation. Furthermore, he underlined the role of lifelong learning in staying competitive on the labour market, notably by leveraging platforms like Education Digital.
Following this successful first edition of the Digital Gipfel Schweiz, it will be on our agenda again next year in November 2019.
The Matterhorn Programme has been launched! During the Digital Day on 25 October, the first three Matterhorn Programmes were presented on the main stage in Zurich.
The aim is to establish Switzerland as a global leader and game-changer in smart farming, generate value for society and open new economic opportunities.
One of the most urgent challenges for our society is the production of sufficient and sustainable food. Rising global population, climate change and unsustainable farming practices create enormous pressure to find paradigm-shifting ways to produce food in the near future. The ETHZ, as one of the leading research institutions in the field of Robotics and Autonomous Systems, Microsoft, as well as other partners have committed to move the dial forward in this field. This can only be achieved if everyone is pulling at the same rope.
Would you like to make a contribution on this topic? Then get in touch with the Swiss Smart Farming Team!
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Mobility is becoming more personal, more intermodal and easier.
The aim is to check in, drive and enjoy. You can travel from Luzern to Ascona or any other place in Switzerland without a ticket. You can use your phone to book a Publibike to ride to the station, reserve a seat on the train, board the train without buying a ticket, and book a Mobility car on arrival to get to even the remotest parts of Switzerland. Using a smartphone and other wearable devices, travellers will have mobility on demand across Switzerland and be able to pay for it later. No need to consult timetables or search for information as you will receive personalized information at any time: avoid delays and crowded trains: you will get updates ensuring a more comfortable ride. It’s about getting seamlessly from A to B.
Below the clip in German (and here in French)
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The vision is to create an electronic identity. Most online service providers require an account to use their services, which results in countless usernames and passwords to remember. If you want to order something from an online store, you have to create an account and log in. Need to fill out your tax return but are always on the road? Signing and submitting your tax documents online would be a great relief. Sound familiar?
With SwissID, these problems no longer exist. Instead of managing countless usernames and passwords, SwissID gives you secure access to a wide range of online services with a single login. You not only log in simply and securely to Swiss online services, you can also identify yourself and sign documents online in the future. If you want to make your account even more secure, you can simply set up a two-factor authentication.
SwissSign protects your data according to the highest security standards and keeps it in Switzerland.
Are you new to SwissID? Check out our website for more information or create your personal SwissID account in just a few minutes.
What next for these Matterhorn Programmes? As Federal Councilor Johannes Schneider-Ammann says: “Gring abe, und chrampfe” (Get your head down and start working). We are happy to report regularly on these Matterhorn Programmes and look forward to sharing the next milestones with you in the near future!
On 25 October we hosted Digital Day in Switzerland. Isn’t every day a digital day, with smartphones, laptops, tablets, etc…? Yes and no – it was THE Digital Day and everything in Switzerland revolved around digitalisation. We offered countless activities in over 12 cities across the country and in Vaduz (Liechtenstein) to enable the public to learn, explore and experience digitalisation in all its facets. Over 70 partners from business, science, politics and education showcased innovations, new technologies and what the future might look like.
I am so happy about the engagement and interest of all the people who came by, asked questions and immersed themselves into this digital adventure. I would like to thank the population for their open dialogue and great interest. This dialogue should not be limited to one day, but continue and we also see the Digital Day as a trigger for each and every individual to reflect on the significance and impact of digitalisation for their everyday life.
Federal President Alain Berset opened the Digital Day with the words: “With digitisation, the human being must always be at the centre.” Society needs to find answers to questions such as how to prevent a drift between winners and losers of digitisation and how to protect privacy. The Swiss Digital Day was a good opportunity to reflect on these political issues as well.
Digital Day was a time of dialogue. More than 100 experts made it possible to experience digitalisation locally and personally. The public was able to share concerns and questions with data specialists and exchange views on various aspects of digitisation at numerous discussions and roundtables in various Swiss cities. Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis called on the citizens to see above all the opportunities of digitisation: “Those who see the opportunities of digitisation can also better control the risks”.
This year’s Digital Day increasingly focused on a decentralised location concept. This made it possible to demonstrate Switzerland’s innovative strength in a variety of ways, locally and throughout Switzerland. National and international companies, educational institutions, SMEs and start-ups formed the backbone of the digital presence that engaged with the public.
During the day, digitalswitzerland launched the Computational Thinking Initiative (CTI), a public-private partnership, which is jointly supported by various public educational institutions and industries. It is also under the patronage of Federal Councillor Johann Schneider-Ammann. Computational thinking requires skills such as creative problem-solving and programming and is therefore a crucial core competence for future generations. Primary schools are an ideal place to teach these basic skills. With the teaching robot Thymio, the initiative uses a proven, simple and easily accessible tool that was developed in Switzerland under the leadership of the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) by Prof. Francesco Mondada. The initiative was jointly initiated by digitalswitzerland and the EPFL.
We are happy to share a guest blog from one of our Digital Day partner organizations, Karin Mateu from Ernst & Young AG, addressing one of the Digital Day themes: Work 4.0
Digitalisation is changing the workforce. To plan your career today, you need to gather as much experience as possible. In the future, adaptability will determine professional success.
Digitalisation is often portrayed as a job killer. In fact, over a million jobs in Switzerland could be threatened if digitalisation leads to massive automation: part of the workforce might be replaced by machines taking over certain tasks.
A far more desirable outcome would be that digitalisation develops in a different direction. It has the potential to add value to certain activities. This is often called augmentation or computer-aided improvement. Digital tools can relieve employees from repetitive and cumbersome tasks, allowing them to make better use of their human potential.
In nursing, for example, one could imagine robots performing physically demanding tasks and freeing up time for more patient-caregiver dialogue. Technology would not drive people out of the job market, but change existing jobs for the better.
Whatever the scenario may be, challenges are great for the millennials (the generation born in the early 1980s to early 2000s) that is currently entering the labour market. One thing is certain, digitalisation demands flexibility and openness. The willingness to embrace new things. Those who are adaptable will find it easier to navigate a work environment that is constantly evolving.
Your career path used to be guided by fulfilling the educational requirements to enter the profession you wanted. Today the motto is “lifelong learning” – through continuous training, but above all, through “learning on the job”. Employees should try a wide variety of career paths and industries after entering the workforce and acquire the most diverse skills possible through frequent job changes. This is how they can remain flexible enough to adapt to structural changes. This also requires companies to reconsider their recruiting criteria and give applicants with little professional or industry experience a chance.
Companies will have to be more open to horizontal entrants, as digitalisation also changes job requirements. As many activities will be automated in the future, capabilities that machines cannot do will gain in importance. This includes empathy, creativity, networked thinking and the ability to inspire. Knowledge from outside the business world is becoming more and more important, especially for managers. Understanding philosophy, history and psychology can enable them to make better decisions in increasingly complex contexts.
A detour from your training can pay off when looking for a job: those who look beyond their specialties have a better chance to land one of the new jobs being created by high-growth sectors. In the coming years, for example, the convergence of the pharmaceutical and IT sectors should ensure that more and more technology experts will work in the life science sector.
Agility and adaptability will be crucial for success in tomorrow’s labour market. Employees must be prepared to change professions and adapt to a new environment – like chameleons.
We are happy to share a guest blog from one of our Digital Day partner organizations, Isabelle Vautravers from Sanitas Health Insurance Foundation, addressing one of the Digital Day themes: My Data
Fitness apps, health trackers, nutrition programs: in recent years, the ways of collecting, evaluating and comparing personal data have virtually exploded. How does this influence our behaviour and what does it mean for social cohesion? A Swiss survey shows astonishing results.
Half the adults in Switzerland track their activities and statuses on smartphones or other portable devices. Two out of three respondents feel this does not go far enough: they would like more data collected automatically – as long as this is not done by a third party. Though 70 percent of respondents use free email and instant messaging services, only 14 percent think it’s okay for their data to be used in exchange for these free services. These results come from a survey of the Swiss population conducted by the Sotomo Research Centre on behalf of the Sanitas Foundation.
Despite the openness towards digital data collection, respondents view critically the social consequences of digitalisation. You can see this through the buzzwords they selected in this context: from the suggested options, the terms they most frequently chose were “control and surveillance”, followed by “loss of individuality”.
Six out of ten respondents believe that the advancing collection of digital data has a negative impact on solidarity in our society. They associate a world of data collecting with control, efficiency and pressure to perform. For them, this puts solidarity and personal responsibility under pressure. Countermeasures should be established to strengthen the community and personal responsibility. Most believe that neither the state nor companies are ultimately responsible for these countermeasures, but that responsibility lies with each individual.
The Sanitas Health Insurance Foundation works on important social issues in the fields of insurance, health and digitalisation. The debate should not only be led by experts, politicians and business representatives, but include the voice of the public. To achieve greater inclusion, the Foundation has initiated a series of surveys in collaboration with the Sotomo Research Centre to ask the Swiss public about digital data collection in their daily activities.
Part of digitalswitzerland’s nextgeneration initiative,TEENformatiCAMP is one of the few opportunities in Ticino to spend the summertime coding. The one-week session of TEENformatiCAMP in Manno (TI) last summer was a huge success and shows that there is a need to provide youngsters with opportunities to learn more about computers and coding. The purpose of the camp is to introduce and excite young people to the world of computer science in a simple, fun and constructive way. Some 25 youngsters (6 girls and 19 boys) attended the week, with great enthusiasm and interest.
“We arrived at the course without knowing what was waiting for us. Almost nobody knew the others, but already after lunch the atmosphere had changed. First of all, we heard a presentation on computer security, which we went into in depth in the afternoon thanks to some interesting exercises on cryptography and steganography. We also tried hacking, listening to conversations about VoIP,” says Aurora, one of the six girls present.
The second day was devoted to the various parts of a computer, such as the motherboard, the processor, the RAM, and to the binary language of computers. “Then we started a task in groups of 5: within the group we divided the roles, each had to perform a task that normally performs the computer, simulating the work of the CPU. We finished and the final code was right! In the afternoon, we did some programming. The task was to create and edit a web page with the html language. I had fun, even if you had to think a lot and things didn’t always come out right… Even today, of course, I liked it very much, almost more than yesterday, because I love programming and then I had never done such activities. Long live TEENformatiCAMP! “ says Luisa.
The third day was devoted to graphics, a topic closely related to the binary system and the hexadecimal system. The youngsters learned to use a programme called GIMP, which enables the editing of photos in various ways and the creation of animated GIFs. The last two days were devoted to programming itself, and to robotics using Lego Mindstorms. This generated a lot of enthusiasm: “It was an experience I really enjoyed,” writes Andreas, sad that the short week was already ending.
The camp is organised by SUPSI team Michela Papandrea, Sandra Bernaschina, Amos Brocco, and has been running for seven years.
South Summit truly does not disappoint as a global innovation platform that connects top innovators from Southern Europe and Latin America to the world´s most powerful investors and corporates looking for the next big thing.
There were over 650 investors, 3’500 start-ups and an astonishing 1.4 bn raised by all the finalists. A few exciting start-ups that caught our attention were onTruck, a Madrid-based on-demand logistics platform that connects businesses to road freight carriers, Spotahome, a platform for mid- to long-term rentals of fully-furnished rooms, and the pitch winner, Amadix ColoFast, inventor of an innovative blood-based test for early colorectal cancer detection.
In addition to exploring the latest technologies, the connections made at such a leading conference offer great opportunities to nurture and grow relationships with key international players, start-ups, investors and corporates alike.
With big players like the US and China, Europe sometimes gets forgotten. The heterogenous and comparatively small domestic markets of European countries make early growth more challenging. However, it is exactly this struggle that pushes European start-ups to think global early in their existence. This, with the cross-cultural understanding gathered through a shared European history enables entrepreneurial teams to be particularly successful in managing diverse teams, and growing in more complex market conditions.
Lukasz Gadowski, founder of Delivery Hero (€ 4.4bn IPO, Jun 2017) explained during a panel on “Building Companies of Scale from Europe” that not only is scalability of the business model the most important aspect for growth, but that it’s time to transform this weakness of fractured and small domestic markets, and start using it as an advantage. European start-ups are born to scale and go global early. If we embrace this, and become fast and effective at international scaling, we are optimistic that Europe will provide its fair share of future unicorns.
The Spanish ecosystem is a gateway to Latin America’s market of 626 million people (2018) with not only inspiringly energetic, positive and creative talent, but also great innovation, start-ups and investment opportunities.
In 2017 alone, investment in Spain’s Tech start-ups grew by 45%[1]. After London, Berlin and Paris, Barcelona is ranked 4thas Europe’s biggest start-up and innovation hub, ahead of Stockholm[2].
It is increasingly clear how maturing start-up ecosystems evolve into start-up and innovation hubs. Collaboration between start-ups, corporates, investors and academia is key to the further development, power and success of a hub. In Switzerland, we can, for example, see Kickstart Accelerator and digitalswitzerland pushing the boundaries of Start-up – Corporate collaboration, increasing the potential for innovation, accelerating POC-to-market, investment and venture scaling. It is clear why for many start-ups in Spain and other countries, Switzerland offers very attractive possibilities. The quality of Swiss products (and chocolate!), a highly skilled workforce, a reliable legal and political environment, growing VC/CVC money in the market and ever easier processes make it particularly attractive to establish an HQ or operations in Switzerland. Not to mention favorable corporate and individual taxation.
In addition, for Swiss start-ups, expanding abroad, and scaling globally from Europe is a key for growth and success. This creates very attractive possibilities for investors and corporates to partner with, and invest in acceleration and scale-up ventures. We expect to see many more in the future.
One of our main takeaways from South Summit was definitely Europe’s secret sauce. Our heterogenous and cross-cultural understanding, combined with the need to go international and scale globally early on, truly gives us a unique advantage. Instead of trying to become the next Silicon Valley, we should rather focus on how to turn this competitive advantage into growth and sustainable impact.
What are we waiting for? Let’s go global, together!
To learn more about the latest in strategic #innovation and #collaboration, #DeepTech, #Startup, #Corporate Acceleration and #Investments, follow our activities on @digitalswitzerland
Daniel Ginter, Senior Director Corporate Enablement @digitalswitzerland
Matthias Zwingli, Project Manager Startup Enablement @digitalswitzerland
[1]https://novobrief.com/investment-spain-startups/6108/
[2]https://apiumhub.com/tech-blog-barcelona/barcelona-makes-top-innovation-hubs/
We are happy to share a guest blog from one of our Digital Day partner organizations, Gioia da Silva from ABB Switzerland, addressing one of the Digital Day themes: Lifestyle
They use an app to order their lunch and a smartphone to programme the heating when they’re on holidays: these aren’t “digital natives”, these are retirees. The Berners, a retired couple, give us a glimpse of their daily life in a digitally networked home.
Daniel and Marianne Berner moved into their new home at the end of 2017: a light-filled condo in a mixed-generation bonacasa-development in the canton Bern – a state-of-the-art, digitally networked, smart home.
“We love it here; we are independent and don’t need any support. But we’re thinking ahead to a time when we may no longer be able to cope with our home on our own, we’re glad to know that we can count on support,” Marianne Berner explains. The couple lives in an ideal place for this: a smart living bonacasa-development that makes it easier for older people to stay independent.
What Daniel Berner is most enthusiastic about at the moment is the smart home control system that allows him to configure the lighting, blinds and heating for the entire apartment. He demonstrates the functionalities on his smartphone: Light on, blinds down – without getting up from the sofa. “The biggest advantage of our smart home is comfort. For example, we can control each room individually – our preferred temperature in the bedroom is a few degrees lower than in the living room,” Berner explains.
The retired engineer believes that technology will be of great support when physical fitness declines as people age. Cranking up sun blinds on large balcony doors requires strength. Berner now does this by tapping on the screen of his smartphone. Brains instead of biceps? “Oh no, the configuration wasn’t that difficult,” says Berner modestly. He adds, however, that he noticed a certain reticence, especially among older generations. Some neighbors wouldn’t know how to configure the smart home control system with an app or a computer and would most likely shy away from this option. “That’s why it’s so user-friendly,” says Berner.
The smart home control system in the Berner apartment is a good example of smart home solutions: “Digitally networked devices and systems reduce the energy consumption of buildings, increase the comfort of residents and increase the time in which a person can live independently in their apartment,” explains Christian Ebneter, Sales Manager Building Automation at ABB Switzerland.
Used properly, smart home technology can help older people live where they feel most at home for as long as possible.
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