On Tuesday 14th June, we hosted CFOs, Heads of Finance and Finance Directors in Geneva for a drinks and networking event, before joining those in the Deutschschweiz region on Wednesday 15th June. 

As we enter the second half of 2022, the one thing that we can be sure of is that we are going to see continued change and challenges, which the Finance profession is used to dealing with after COVID-19.

Whether it is rising inflation (3.4% in Switzerland in June, but still well below the Eurozone rate of 8.6%), supply chain challenges, rising fuel costs or other impacts from the ongoing situation in Ukraine, the ability to quickly adapt to market conditions and deliver real time financial information and accurate forecasts will be of paramount importance.

The Finance recruitment market remained resilient in Q2, with high volumes of vacancies available and, after many discussions about the need for data visualisation skills, we are finally seeing increased requests for skills in Power BI, Tableau or other similar products.

What are clients and candidates saying?

One of the main topics of conversation at these networking events was how quickly Finance recruitment has changed, moving from vacancy-led during COVID to candidate-led in the current climate, and how attracting the desired candidates is proving increasingly difficult.

From our discussions with candidates, an increasing number who are currently in permanent jobs have confirmed that they prefer to secure their career moves through a recruitment partner. Reasons include:

• A more informative process, with a better likelihood of the right fit in terms of role, company culture and career development
• Greater clarity about salaries, ensuring roles are within the desired range - the lack of salary information on direct advertisements is the biggest source of frustration amongst candidates
• Structured job searching is time-consuming alongside a current role - these individuals want to ensure their time is well spent on relevant opportunities
• Greater chance of success – “Why would I apply for a role that I can see has had 150 applications on LinkedIn?”

These are just some of the reasons why companies relying on advertising roles are unlikely to draw interest from their target audience.

If you're interested in joining us at future events in either Geneva or Zurich, please reach out to Mark Robinson, who leads our Finance & Accountancy recruitment team in Switzerland: mark.robinson@emearecruitment.com 

On Thursday 12^th May 2022, the EMEA Recruitment team attended the Zug 2022: Competitive Advantage conference in Switzerland.

The CIPS Switzerland Conference is hosted annually by CIPS Switzerland, CSCMP Roundtable Switzerland and Kanton Zug.

EMEA Recruitment was proud to sponsor the event for the seventh consecutive year, with John Byrne, CH Country Director, Neil Cope, Manager of Procurement & Supply Chain, Charlotte Cruise, Senior Consultant, Sienna Grey, Senior Consultant, and Sasha Gill, Consultant, of our Procurement & Supply Chain recruitment team in attendance.

This year, the conference explored how to secure competitive advantage by linking Procurement and Supply to corporate direction, top-level strategy and executive decisions.

We were pleased to hear from a range of brilliant panellists, who shared their career experiences and challenged attendees with their personal opinions:

• Arnd Franz, CEO at LKQ Europe
• Alexandra Tarmo, Head of Partnerships & Social Procurement at Unilever
• Werner Lieberherr, CEO at Landis+Gyr
• Barbara Stolle-Amedick, Head of Supply Chain, BU Transformers at Hitachi Energy

The hybrid event was fully booked for in-person tickets, but guests could also join virtually.

CIPS and CSCMP conferences are typically attended by more than 200 Procurement & Supply Chain professionals in Zug.

Last year’s conference focused on Carbon + Circularity, exploring the consequences of business activity on others.

We are proud to continue our partnership with CIPS Switzerland and CSCMP Roundtable Switzerland, and look forward to joining future events.

In June, we co-hosted Procurement Perma-Crisis – Leading the Way? in Zurich with CIPS Switzerland, which explored how long-term strategic, solution-led, business impact/value stream approaches that centre around partnerships and wider business initiatives are crucial to survive and thrive in the current environment.

If you are interested in attending future Procurement & Supply Chain events in Switzerland, please reach out to Neil Cope, Associate Director, who will ensure you receive any upcoming information: neil.cope@emearecruitment.com

On Thursday 10^th February 2022, EMEA Recruitment was proud to host a CFO & CPO virtual Roundtable, in partnership with Philips and Accenture.

This exclusive event, Finance & Procurement Join Forces – Digital Transformation to Unlock Value, explored how Philips and Accenture are strategically combining Finance and Procurement to capture the next value unlock for the C suite.

We were delighted to host the following leaders in this area, who also took audience questions during the roundtable:

Alexander Visser - Global Head of Indirect Procurement at Philips

Alexander is the Head of Indirect Procurement and Head of Spend Management at Philips. He explored the opportunities that bringing Finance and Procurement together can create.

Alwin Tulner - Spend Management Strategy and Performance Director - Digitization Lead Indirect Procurement at Philips

As the Digitization Lead Indirect Procurement at Philips, Alwin is overseeing the company’s digital transformation to merge Finance and Procurement.

René Van Heijningen - Lead of the CFO & Enterprise Value practice for Accenture Netherlands

René is the Lead of the CFO & Enterprise Value practice for Accenture Netherlands. He spoke about how to optimize the Source-to-Pay process through digital enabled transformation.

Martijn Van Den Nieuwenhof - Lead of Sourcing & Procurement Transformation at Accenture

Martijn Van Den Nieuwenhof is the Lead of Sourcing & Procuremenr Transformation. He talked about how digital enabled Procurement can support in achieving quartile zero performance.

To register your interest in similar future events, please email Hannah Mallia, our Director – Finance in the Netherlands: hannah.mallia@emearecruitment.com

Thank you to those who attended the CFO & CPO Roundtable on 10th February. 

On Tuesday 8^th February 2022, EMEA Recruitment hosted a virtual Q&A with Talent Acquisition leaders from Danone and Upfield.

Talent Acquisition functions are experiencing a time like never before, fuelled by the competition for top talent and the great resignation.

Katie Insley, our Associate Director of Human Resources recruitment in the Netherlands, was joined by Koos Wurzer, Global Head of Employer Branding and Candidate Experience at Danone, and Bianca Eder, Global Head of Talent Acquisition at Upfield, to discuss some of the key topics in the world at TA at present, as well as addressing some audience questions.

Bianca explored how technology is changing the recruitment role, but insisted that the fundamentals of Talent Acquisition remain the same and will stand the test of tech.

Koos went on to explain the impact of a good candidate experience during the recruitment process on employer brand. He believes that candidates look for an atmosphere that they can grow and belong in.

Katie also asked both Bianca and Koos for their advice to TA professionals hoping to move into leadership roles; while Bianca focussed on the soft skills needed, Koos insisted the importance of putting in hard work.

The Q&A finished with a question around how Bianca and Koos like to work with recruitment agencies.

Thank you to all those who attended this virtual Talent Acquisition Q&A, hosted in partnership with Danone and Upfield.

If you are interested in attending similar events in the future, please get in touch with Katie, who will ensure you stay up to date: katie.insley@emearecruitment.com

Alternatively, if you work in the Swiss market, please contact Keely Straw, Associate Director, who will be happy to help: keely.straw@emearecruitment.com

Thank you to Koos Wurzer and Bianca Eder for offering their valuable insights to our network and for a truly engaging discussion on the evolving world of Talent Acquisition.

EMEA Recruitment was proud to host an exclusive, virtual Procurement & Supply Chain Roundtable discussing Women in Leadership on Tuesday 30^th November 2021.

Charlotte Cruise, one of our Senior Consultants in Procurement & Supply Chain recruitment, was joined by key leaders from across Switzerland to host an open discussion between our guests.

We hope to build a Procurement & Supply Chain community within Switzerland that is committed to supporting and advancing women within these departments and functions.

To ensure a confidential and sensitive environment, the group split off into three breakout rooms to discuss the following questions in more detail, before bringing their different points of view back to the main group:

1. What are the main challenges you can identify to creating a diverse workforce and supporting women into leadership roles?
2. What are you doing to provide women with opportunities within Procurement & Supply Chain to progress into senior leadership? 

Helping lead this discussion were:

Alejandra Garcia, VP Global Procurement at DSM

Pauline King, Swiss Country Partner at the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply

Varsha Asarpota, Women Leadership – Core Team Member at CIPS Switzerland

We are committed to creating a supportive environment for senior departmental leaders, motivated on this topic, to connect and network. In order to continue this important conversation after the event, we shared attendee details with the rest of the group.

Charlotte hopes to host Procurement & Supply Chain roundtables once a quarter for our network, to discuss some of these topics in further detail. If you are interested in either attending as a guest or a speaker, please let us know. 

If you have any questions about this event or would like to register your interest in future roundtables, please contact Charlotte: charlotte.cruise@emearecruitment.com

Following his lecture on Career Consultancy in May 2021, John Bower was invited back to the American University in Switzerland (AUS), to deliver a corresponding seminar.

In May, John, our Director – Finance in Switzerland, hosted a virtual lecture on Career Consultancy for AUS students. He has a personal passion for career planning, as he felt that he missed out on this level of insight while at school and university.

At the end of the lecture, students were given a task to go away and complete before October’s seminar. Using John’s guidance and an example provided by EMEA Recruitment, students were asked to write down their proposed career plan to bring to the seminar.

On Tuesday 12^th October 2021, John returned to conduct a virtual seminar, giving an overview of the previous session and hearing feedback from students on how they found the task.

One student asked John for some advice on how to get into companies in the first instance, while another asked for words of wisdom on gaining employer feedback when unsuccessful with a job application.

Those who had completed work experience or internships were asked to share with the group how the reality of working in an organisation compared with their expectations, before John conducted a poll on whether the students would prefer to go down the corporate or entrepreneurial route.

With most of the students stating that they’d rather work in an entrepreneurial capacity, John suggested some tasks and reading material that can help with finding one’s own path. For those looking for a corporate career, John presented a range of entry level roles across multiple disciplines, which highlight the variety of positions within a company.

He was also asked if it’s okay to not know what you want to do in your career. John left the students with a range of recommended reading to help them with developing a career plan and setting off on the right path.

One suggestion was the Executive Interview that John completed with Claire Bramley, then Regional Head of Finance EMEA at HP Inc. Her career advice may be simple, but John reminded the students that putting your learnings into practice is the best step that you can take.

He also advised the students to listen to the EMEA Recruitment podcast episode with Cornell Thomas – Making Your Dream Happen, which explores the concept of life mapping in further detail.

If you’re interested in learning more about developing a career plan, reach out to John: john.bower@emearecruitment.com