Older employees and women: Potential is underutilized

The shortage of skilled workers in Switzerland is still acute. This is shown by a new, representative SME labor market study conducted by AXA Switzerland in collaboration with the Sotomo research institute. According to the study, 78 percent of the companies surveyed that were looking for new workers in 2021 had some problems filling their positions. Almost two-thirds of them put this down to a shortage of skilled workers. The situation appears particularly precarious in the skilled trades and construction sector. There, as many as 80 percent of the companies looking for employees had difficulty filling their positions - in the area of production and repair, the figure was 74 percent. And also in the areas of technology, information technology, consulting and sales, about half had problems finding a job. Only in the area of administration and organization was the situation more relaxed: Here, suitable workers were lacking in only 10 percent of cases.

Large corporations take away skilled workers from SMEs

On the one hand, the labor market has virtually dried up. On the other hand, almost one-third of SMEs also see themselves competing with large companies on the labor market: 20 percent of those surveyed justified the difficulties in filling positions with fewer career opportunities compared to larger companies, and 17 percent consider their own company to be less competitive due to lower wage levels. "SMEs therefore face the dual challenge of a very tight labor market and competition from powerful large corporations when it comes to the issue of a shortage of skilled workers," says Michael Hermann.

High motivation of the employees

Even though many companies are constantly looking for skilled workers, they are mostly satisfied with the commitment and loyalty of their existing employees. However, there are clear differences in assessment: Small SMEs are mostly very satisfied with the qualities of their employees, while the assessment of larger ones is more mixed. For example, 51 percent of small companies with 2 to 9 employees rate their employees as very willing to perform, while only 19 percent of larger companies with 50 to 250 employees do so. And when it comes to resilience, there are also big differences in the assessment: 75 percent of small SMEs rate the psychological robustness of their employees as rather or very good, but only 47 percent of large ones. Conversely, this means that slightly more than half of the large SMEs see significant deficits in the resilience of their employees. "The manageability of the company evidently not only contributes to mutual identification and mutual understanding between employers and employees, but also supports the psychological robustness of the employees," Michael Hermann, Managing Director of Sotomo, concludes.

Older employees: Popular - and yet not hired

It is striking that older employees are generally rated very positively by SME managers: 67 percent rate both the loyalty and the willingness to take responsibility of the over-50s as better than the rest of the workforce. At first glance, this may not seem surprising, since older employees have usually been working in the company for a long time and know the processes; they are seen as having a correspondingly high level of identification. However, it is particularly noteworthy that they are also rated by their employers as more willing to perform (55 %) and more resilient (54 %) than the rest of the workforce.

This positive picture contrasts sharply with the low willingness to consider older employees for vacancies, as the study shows: although a total of three-quarters of SMEs were unable to fill all vacancies as desired in 2021, most companies have a formal or informal age limit when it comes to hiring new employees: around one in ten companies generally do not hire people who are 45 or older, and in 29 percent of the SMEs surveyed the age limit is between 45 and 54. "In view of the prevailing shortage of skilled workers, but also in view of the challenges posed by retirement provisions, there is great potential here that is not being exploited," says entrepreneur and political scientist Michael Hermann.

Female labor force participation is hardly actively promoted

Only just 5 percent of the SMEs surveyed with a gender imbalance in the workforce implement targeted support programs for women, only 13 percent support part-time work and job sharing, and only 22 percent rely on flexible working hours. While nearly nine out of ten of the large SMEs still take at least one measure to promote gender equality, for one in two SMEs with fewer than ten employees, promoting gender equality is not an issue at all. "This shows that the potential of female employees is often not actively tapped by Swiss SMEs," explains Michael Hermann.

Many SMEs cautiously positive about four-day week

Increasing female participation in the workforce would therefore be one way of combating the acute shortage of skilled workers. The study concludes that hiring older employees would also help to combat the shortage of skilled workers. As a possible further measure against the shortage of skilled workers, a four-day week is increasingly being introduced in various countries to improve the compatibility of family and career. The four-day week is also being discussed in Switzerland. The AXA SME study shows that a remarkable 38 percent of Swiss SMEs are basically in favor of a four-day week - among large SMEs, the figure is as high as 43 percent. "The widespread shortage of skilled workers may have helped break down mental barriers here and foster openness to new approaches in the SME sector as well," says Michael Hermann.

Mental illness a challenge especially for large SMEs

In addition to recruiting new employees, the well-being of their own workforce is also a challenge for Swiss SMEs: 76 percent of those surveyed stated that their own company faces particular challenges with regard to the health of their employees - among large SMEs, the figure is as high as 97 percent. SMEs most frequently struggle with physically-related absences of their employees; 38 percent of small and medium-sized SMEs and 45 percent of large SMEs see this as a particular challenge.

By contrast, absences due to mental illness primarily affect large SMEs. While only 11 percent of small SMEs see mental health-related absences as a major challenge, 42 percent of large SMEs do. Mental illness is thus just as big a problem for large SMEs as physical illness. Large SMEs are not only particularly frequently affected by mental health-related absences, they also perceive the development more negatively. 38 percent of all SMEs with 50 or more employees report an overall increase in such incidents over the last five years.

Source and further information: AXA Switzerland