Cross-Cultural Work Environment in Swiss Companies

As wished by one of my readers of my first blog post, for once I will steer away from the overall topic of this blog, job hunting in Switzerland, and dedicate this post to cultural diversity and inclusion in the work place in Switzerland. We all  grew up in a certain culture. Bringing them all  together at work,  is a challenge and an opportunity.  The latter provided, everyone in the company has a basic understanding of intercultural communication. Above all, the leadership.

In the video below I will show you five things companies in Switzerland should take into consideration when creating a multicultural workplace where cultural differences are a driver for success rather than a challenge. The tips are from weka.ch, a Swiss Consulting Agency which among other things offers leadership seminars.  After this, I will show you the work culture in Switzerland, or better said why people in Switzerland go to work, so you know what to expect when working in a Swiss Company. Moreover, we will look at the things that you can do as a single employee to make sure others feel at ease despite cultural differences.

So let’s get started!  

https://youtu.be/IKj_Jv2ABoc

Now you know what leadership can do to make people feel at easy no matter where they are from. The list below will show you, whether people working in Swiss Companies feel that those ideas are implemented at their workplace. 

Why People in Switzerland go to Work 

The Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences did a survey in 2019, asking people in Switzerland about values and culture in the workplace which they presented at the 3. St. Galler New Work Forum. Those are their conclusions: 

1. Workplace Values: Not all the people share the same workplace values at the same time. Most often, however, people at work strive for development, self-actualization and community.These values must be lived out credibly at all levels.
2. Workplace Culture: Most people participating in the survey perceive work culture in Switzerland as follows: modern, rule-oriented, result-oriented, security-oriented, centralized, market-oriented and most importantly: top-down. Moreover, they would like the work culture to be more flexible, participative, innovative and bottom-up and would like to have a culture in which mistakes are dealt with constructively. 
3. Leadership Culture: Competency-based role models (shared leadership) and inspirational leadership pay off in motivation and productivity of employees.
   
4. Action required: Every third to fifth employee stated that they are not motivated to go to work, 10 to 25 percent of all respondents said that they do not use their full potential (they still have productivity reserves, every fourth employee does not identify with the company, only two out of three employees feel that there is room for self-development.
5. How to Develop Workplace Culture the Most Efficient Way: Pay attention to the values of the future employee in the recruitment process, set an example and demand it! 

Want to know which companies are the best places to work in Switzerland 2021? There you go! 

https://youtu.be/l4oMBP6AV08

As we all know, the workplace culture is only as good as all the individuals of it. So let’s have a look at…

What Employees Can Do for an Inclusive Multicultural Work Environment 

In general, I would say it all comes down to three major rules that apply here:

• Put yourself in the other person’s shoes
• Confront prejudices of yourself and others
• And most importantly: Communicate openly

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