Number of participants in 2011: 3‘732 respondents
Field period: june 2011 to october 2011

In Switzerland, the employees having business background choose Nestlé professionals’ Ideal Employer of the year, followed by Google and Credit Suisse.

Alongside Nestlé’s victory, the Swiss-Swedish multinational corporation ABB, operating in power and automation technology, ranked no. 1 by Switzerland’s engineering professionals, followed by SBB and Siemens.

The rankings are presented according to the professionals’ background field of study.
Please use the link below, to see the rankings:
http://www.universumglobal.com/IDEAL-Employer-Rankings/Professional-Surveys/Switzerland

Trends in 2011:

- Swiss private banks won their reputation as  good employers back.

- The new comer CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) entered directly the TOP 20 employers by engineering professionals.

- Intellectual challenge and creativity – a goal across all fields.

- The average current annual salary is CHF 113’900.- (around 92’110 EUR). On average, women earn 17 % less than men.

- The most common personality profile among Swiss professionals is the Leader.

- The average satisfaction with the current employer is 7,2, on a scale from 1 to 10.

We knew already before that times of the life-long employent are gone for good. But three years is a very short time slot if you look at it from emplyoer perspective.

The Swiss Statistical offices announced less unemployment in the second quarter 2011, that is positive. Sure is, that without an academic degree it seems to be harder to find a job. On the other hand, talents with diploma and some experience easily find their ideal jobs. In this case we are speaking about an employee-driven market where the talents define where, with whom, for how much and how long they are planning to stay in a company! In Switzerland this is especially true in technical domains, where companies’ needs of coworkers are hard to cover.

Students in French speaking part of Switzerland will stay longer with their fist employer; a difference of mentality confirmed again!

Gen Y voices: People still working for their first employer.

Being aware about the fact that “one life – one career” have been true for the Baby Boomers but no more for this new generation, we should ask how young talents are dealing with their long term career expectations?

“Speaking about my own experience, I’m representing the Generation Y quite well. At the end of my studies I could not plan the next 6 months and had no problem with it.” says Lauriane Schuller; she entered her first job as a Project manager in marketing at Universum Switzerland, January 2010. “I was asking myself why I should limit my expectations and my career landscape in planning my life over the 10 next years. So I took one step after the other, being open for new experiences and learning as much as possible. Spontaneous, flexible and motivated! That is defining the Generation Y talents!” so Lauriane Schuller.

Is there a pressure to change employer for young professionals? “I have been asked once how long I have been working for Universum now. I replied that I already worked at the Basel office at the end of my studies. Surprisingly I have been asked WHEN I was planning to leave and also if I was not scared to drag my career evolution working for same company for so long time!” so Nelly Riggenbach Hasler, Director Europe at Universum since summer 2011.

639 students took part in the Communicating with Talent survey in Switzerland, the Universum Student Survey gathered 9 165 respondents in 2011.

The Digital Generation – also called Generation Y – does not use these networks for the same purpose. The following graphic shows how Swiss students use online networks and communities:

 
93% of them use Facebook, 25% have a profile on LinkedIn, 18% on Xing, 16% use Twitter and 15% StudiVZ. The other cited online networks/communities are used by 7 to 4 % of those students only.

The Universum Professional Survey, the worldwide biggest annual survey about career expectations is surveying Swiss professionals with academic background and a minimum of one year work experience.

As we are publishing national results on this blog, we thought it would be interesting for you to participate. Therefore, click on the following link and take part: http://survey.confirmit.com/wix/p1784923454.aspx?reid=42.

Why participate? You will automatically get for free a digital career guide called “Networking works” as well as your personal career profile based on on your answers powered by Springboardr.com. You will also get the possibility to win an iPad 2 in our national competition!

The Universum Professional Survey 2011 is completely independent and your response is anonymous.

Thank you very much for taking part!

Do you have any questions? Please send an email to ps11ch@universumeurope.com.

Swiss companies represented  in the Global TOP50 Ranking.

Based on the preferences of over 160,000 career seekers, with a business or engineering background from the world´s 12 largest economies (based on nominal GDP), Universum releases the global talent attraction index: “The World’s Most Attractive Employers 2011”. The index, split in the business category – preferences from business career seekers – and engineering category – preferences from engineering career seekers – reveals the current level of attractiveness that companies have as employers – and therefore their potential to lead the world of tomorrow.

“The power of the German, Swiss and Dutch industry is visible not only by the global market share that they have conquered but also in the high-quality talent they are able to attract. In fact, I dare to say that the German, Dutch and Swiss competitiveness are a combination of great talent, strong management and the focus on quality. Interesting to see that companies from both Switzerland and the Netherlands are represented despite the fact that these two markets are not part of
the world’s 12 largest economies – a sign that it doesn’t require big domestic markets to create global companies”, says Nelly Riggenbach-Hasler, Universum’s Director for Europe. Read more: http://www.universumglobal.com/top50

Female ideal employer ranking – Changes to 2010

• Nestlé and L’Oréal still remain top ideal employers for women for the over 1,500 female participants
• Google and Credit Suisse exchanged ranking position
• SWISS won one ranking position
• The Red Cross and the Federal Administration both won 8 ranking positions

Male ideal employer ranking – Changes to 2010

• Top 5 remain unchanged for the 1,800 male participants
• PwC won 2 ranking positions
• Swatch Group won 7 ranking positions
• SWISS won one ranking position
• Goldman Sachs lost two ranking positions

Trends & differences

Historically, banks have been a bit less popular within female population but after crisis something changed. Example of the Swiss big bank UBS: comparing the rankings since 2008 UBS have always been ranked in the TOP3 for men business students. Women instead sanctioned the employer during the crisis: 2008 women placed UBS at rank 2, 2009 during the crisis at rank 8, now for the second year at rank 7.

Impressive rise for Swatch among male participants might have been supoported by positive press echo about market success during the field period. Swatch was frequently mentioned in the media reporting good sales results in China and it`s growth in 2010.

Key facts Student Survey 2011, Switzerland

• Number of participants in 2011 9,165 respondents
• Number of universities 30 leading universities
• Number of employer evaluations 26,982
• Field period November 2010 to March 2011

Under following link you can find the complete Universum TOP100 rankings: http://www.universumglobal.com/IDEAL-Employer-Rankings/The-National-Editions/Swiss-Student-Survey

Metrics: In proportion, more women took the survey in the French speaking part. A majority of business students participated in the survey. In the French speaking part of Switzerland the Humanities/Liberal Arts/Education group is a bit over-represented in comparison to German speaking part.

Some key facts:

• French speaking part students are mostly harmonizers, after bachelor the majority wants to complete a master degree, their top career goal is to have a good work/life balance and they mostly want to have research/development functions.
• German speaking part students are mostly Leaders, after bachelor the majority wants to start working, their top career goal is to be competitively or intellectually challenged in their job, they mostly want to become project managers.

Ideal Employer ranking TOP 3:

• French speaking part students ideally want to work for Nestlé (1), Federal Administration (2), Red Cross (3).
• German speaking part students ideally want to work for Google (1), Credit Suisse (2), UBS (3).

Top Drivers of Employer Attractiveness:

Over 9,000 students took our survey, please click on this link to find the full report: Universum Swiss Target Report – German part vs. French part

The Universum Student Survey is a survey about students’ career expectations. In 2011 Universum asked 19,890 students in 16 countries what they expected to earn in their first job after their studies. The results show that Swiss students expect to earn the most (59,700 € per year), followed by the Norwegians (55,200 €), Danish (52,000 €), Germans (43,900 €) and Finns (38,800 €).

The results do not represent current salary levels per country, yet are an indication of graduates’ salary demands. Each respondent was specifically asked: “What is your expected annual salary before taxes at your first employer after graduation?”. All countries combined, the mean salary expectation was 33,300 € per year. Please note that cost of living expenses in the different countries hasn’t been considered in this analysis.

The students that expect to earn the least are from Poland (9,200 €), Russia (12,600 €), Spain (20,700 €), Italy (23,200€) and Belgium (29,600 €).

Students, whose salary expectations were in the middle-range, from highest to lowest, were: French (38,000 €), Swedish (38,000 €), Dutch (33,200 €), Austrian (31,500 €), Irish (30,900 €) and students from UK (30,800 €).

Compared to last year, most students expect a higher salary for their first job. The biggest increase in expectations have been noticed in Switzerland (+6,500 € per year), then in Sweden (+ 3,000 €) and in the Netherland (+2,500 €).

Nelly Riggenbach Hasler, Director DACH at Universum explained, “Following the recession, graduates weren’t expecting big pay checks and accepting to make concessions, so long as they got work experience” but now they revised their position and are expecting “to get paid accordingly to their califications” so Riggenbach. The most important career goal for the generation Y students is the work-life-balance but getting fair payment for their activity still remain a sensitive issue.

How important is to be competitively or intellectually challenged on the job? What do students say?

Take a look at the heat map to see how cultural and regional differences play a part in what new talent want.

Austria is the country where it is the most important for students to be competitively and intellectually challenged by their employer, followed by Switzerland and Spain.

Please find the TOP20 Swiss marketing student’s Ideal Employers:

Biggest progression since last year have been registered for the Federal Admnistration (+14 ranking positions) and the Swiss Red Cross (+9 ranking positions).

Information about the survey and more rankings at http://www.universumglobal.com/IDEAL-Employer-Rankings/The-National-Editions/Swiss-Student-Survey