EMEA Recruitment is honoured to announce our official sponsorship of CSCMP Switzerland Roundtable.  

The Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals is an organisation that has organically grown to become a leader in Supply Chain networking, predominantly for Swiss-based Logistics and Supply Chain Management professionals.

Its mission is to connect like-minded Supply Chain professionals, develop their leadership and management skills, and further educate those looking to learn more about the Supply Chain discipline.

We have proudly sponsored six CIPS (Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply) Switzerland events, the latter ones in partnership with CSCMP Switzerland Roundtable. We are delighted to be continuing our professional networking within the local market.

Most recently, we sponsored the Competitive Advantage conference in Zug, back in May 2022, exploring how to link Procurement and Supply to corporate direction, top-level strategy and executive decisions.

The annual event brings together top P&SC professionals from prestigious organisations, such as Biogen, Unilever and Hitachi Energy.

Neil Cope, Director of our Procurement & Supply Chain recruitment team in Switzerland, said: “We are delighted to be sponsoring and work in collaboration with the CSCMP Switzerland Roundtable.

“Our Procurement & Supply Chain recruitment division has gone from strength to strength in the Swiss market. A core component of that has been the networking collaborations we have built – the CSCMP organisation has organically grown and is a leader in the Supply Chain network.”

He added: “We look forward to working with them and assisting in the hosting of future events held in Switzerland.”

To hear more about attending future events, please reach out to Neil: [email protected]

In December 2022, Neil conducted an Executive Interview with Helmut Leitner, Board Member of CSCMP Switzerland Roundtable and Founder of Heliblick, a management consultancy that developed the iBsing framework.

You can read the full interview on our website: https://www.emearecruitment.com/executive-interviews/helmut-leitner-founder-of-heliblick/150

To find out more about CSCMP Switzerland Roundtable, including membership options and future events, please visit its website: https://cscmp.ch/

Keely Straw, Associate Director, discusses the relevance of an EDI strategy and offers an insight into the ED&I Roundtable we held in Zurich.

In October, EMEA Recruitment partnered with Rubén Ramirez, Group Head Diversity and Inclusion at Syngenta, for our first ED&I Roundtable in Zurich.  

This was an exclusive group, where leaders in ED&I across Switzerland gathered to discuss:

• Identifying your momentum and stage in your ED&I journey
• How to design an ED&I global strategy – identify needs for each population and engaging that population
• How to engage leaders and the employee community
• How to identify and measure progress

The session was very engaging, leading to further questions and topics of conversation. The main takeaways from some our participants were:

“There was never a better time to bring EDI to the forefront of strategic business discussions: social and economic change, ESG requirements, and creating a strong sense of belonging are boosting EDI conversations.
 

“To deliver a strong EDI agenda, we need courageous leaders and sponsorship. EDI also needs to be structurally embedded in our business processes. And no one size fits all: the EDI journey will need to start somewhere - and to be learned step-by-step along the way.”

Michaela Dedic - Diversity & Inclusion Leader at Novartis.

“Hints and insights on how to improve a DEI strategy, how to set up a good measurement system and appropriate metrics, and how to build the narrative of it… and show it to the key stakeholders.”

Piera Marongiu – DE&I Leader - Integrate Include Engage

“An open dialogue around values and needs is key at all levels of the company, as well as strong support from leadership to foster a culture of engagement and trust.

“Progress needs to be measured regularly with the right KPIs to check EDI strategy adapts and also takes business, as well as local, needs into account. This takes time, ongoing commitment, and a long-term perspective.”

Simon Kernahan – DE&I Consultant – Thriving Talent

I have seen in the market that candidates are wanting to work for organisations that align to their values, which includes robust ED&I strategies and polices, as well as sustainability and ESG. But how do you align those values across multiple generations within one workplace? Slight differences in work ethics and priorities can create tension.

We will continue to discuss ED&I topics and look forward to sharing more details of our next event with you soon.  

Last quarter was extremely busy across all HR disciplines for EMEA Recruitment. Despite this being a busy time for HR, focusing on end of year/New Year budget reviews, hiring freezes, planning new headcounts, role creation and projects for 2023, we had one of the best quarters in relation to successfully completed assignments. 

I would be keen to hear your thoughts across the market and understand if you would be interested in future roundtable events, either dedicated to ED&I or broader HR topics. In addition, I would welcome the opportunity to hear how diverse your employee lifecycle is and how this compares with the general market consensus.

Please feel free to contact me directly to see how we can support you: [email protected]

To celebrate World Smile Day 2022, we’re sharing the heart-warming responses to the question, “what was the last thing that made you smile?” on the EMEA Recruitment podcast.

The podcast is produced in partnership with Operation Smile, an international medical charity that provides life-changing surgery and support to children and adults with cleft lip and palate.

It’s a cause close to our Founder, Paul Toms’ heart, as he was born with a cleft lip and palate himself. When interviewing guests on the EMEA Recruitment podcast, Paul asks them to explain the last thing that made them smile.

You can listen to some of the answers from our guests below:

Thank you to Dorie Clark, Markus Graf, Francesca Gino and Marco Aspesi, for sharing such lovely stories! Be sure to check out their full episodes: https://www.emearecruitment.com/podcasts

Throughout our partnership, we’re hoping to create 100 new smiles. It costs just €180/182CHF/£150 and takes as little as 45 minutes to provide cleft surgery on an Operation Smile medical mission.

If you can donate anything to help us reach our goal, please visit: https://www.operationsmile.org.uk/donate-to-operation-smile/donate-to-operation-smile-emea-recruitment/

Recently, we also welcomed Operation Smile UK’s new Executive Director, Mairead O’Callaghan, onto the EMEA Recruitment podcast to discuss her 11 years with the charity.

She also explained the charity’s goals for the next decade, as it celebrates its 40^th anniversary in 2022.

Find the episode on your podcast app or watch on YouTube below:

Paul explains his connection to Operation Smile: “I can’t compare the challenges I faced with those of the young children Operation Smile help. All I can say is that, from my experience over the years, I changed from being afraid my uniqueness would define me, to embracing the fact that it defined me.”

Operation Smile is the official partner of the EMEA Recruitment podcast. If you’d like to find out more about our partnership, visit: https://www.emearecruitment.com/operation-smile

Operation Smile United Kingdom is incorporated as a company limited by guarantee in the UK (No.04317039) and is a registered charity in England and Wales (No. 1091316).

The whole team at EMEA Recruitment recently took part in Equity vs. Equality training, delivered by our Ambassador, Valentina Coco.

“At the end, the key objective is to have someone on the recruiting panel who can empathise.”

Last year, Valentina conducted two in-house D&I training sessions – one on the topic of bias, the other on how to speak to our clients about D&I.

In July, Valentina explored the issue of equity versus equality, particularly from the standpoint of ethnic diversity. Globally, we still lack diverse ethnical representation in business; just 8% of managers and 4% of CEOs in Fortune 500 companies are from minority ethnic backgrounds.

Valentina explained how the pipeline for getting to senior management positions is broken for those from minority backgrounds, due partly to highly unemployment rates and lack of access to education. Even when minority candidates are hired, they can feel that they’re alienating the majority in the workplace. This is why an equitable hiring process is essential.

We looked at the difference between nationality, ethnicity and race, as well as some common and less well-known words and phrases that we may feel uncomfortable using at times.

Exploring equity and equality in more detail, we discussed why workplace policies are bad for equity and how standardised testing in the recruitment process still discriminates against marginalised groups.

To help us understand the biggest hurdles in recruiting, Valentina presented us with four challenges: societal access, bias and tokenism, the pipeline gap, and the impact of COVID-19.

Societal access refers to the lack of opportunities that minority groups may have to education, internships, entry level jobs and promotions, due to potential financial barriers and a shortage of connections.

Bias and tokenism is the objective of hiring someone based on the diversity they can bring to the team, which can damage inclusivity and retention in the long-term.

The pipeline gap must be addressed by stakeholders who are empathetic and invest in D&I, as well as through the wider culture of the business.

Minority groups and women faced a significant impact of COVID-19, for example, with a higher care load, anti-Asian sentiment and career breaks.

We ended the session by analysing three specific case studies, as well as asking Valentina our own questions and sharing our thoughts.

As always, all ideas were shared in a safe and confidential environment.

Valentina Coco is an Ambassador of EMEA Recruitment, as well as the CEO and Founder of Coco Consulting & Coaching. She trains teams to develop an inclusive working environment.

EMEA Recruitment is proud to be launching Women in Leadership initiatives for Procurement & Supply Chain functions in Switzerland.

Q4 2021 saw us host our first Roundtable within Procurement & Supply Chain, focusing on Women in Leadership. We explored the gender gap in Switzerland in the context of Procurement & Supply Chain leadership specifically.

Women represent only 30% of leadership roles in Switzerland, and under 5% of roles at VP level and above. We looked at statistics that demonstrated which industries and roles were more greatly affected, and discussed the main challenges to creating a diverse workforce and supporting women into leadership roles. We also explored the steps that can be taken to provide women with opportunities that will allow them to move into senior leadership positions.

Interesting topics ranged from:

• Country and company cultures
• Top-down vs. bottom-up approaches
• Leadership traits and responsibilities
• Imposter syndrome
• Visibility of female leaders
• Sponsorship vs. mentorship
• Un-conscious bias

We had some incredible feedback from the participants, and we would like to extend a thank you to all of those who joined us and a special thanks to our co-hosts, Alejandra Garcia (VP Procurement at DSM), and Pauline King and Varsha Asarpota (CIPS Switzerland).

In this initial session, there was an interest to further explore the topic of inclusive language and techniques to attract and retain women. We will therefore be rolling out some coaching sessions on this subject.

Diversity & Inclusion is high on our agenda at EMEA Recruitment; we would love for you to engage with us further in this area.

Please contact Charlotte Cruise, Senior Consultant, directly if you would like a full breakdown of the initial Roundtable, or to be included on the invites for the linguistics training or future events centred around Diversity & Inclusion and women’s careers: [email protected]

As the EMEA Recruitment team participated in a Miles for Smiles challenge to raise money for Operation Smile, we hosted a range of wellbeing activities to help them achieve their goal.

During October, EMEA Recruitment committed to virtually travelling 3,000km/1,900 miles to raise money for Operation Smile, the official partner of the EMEA Recruitment podcast. The route covers our key locations in the UK, Netherlands and Switzerland.

The team supported one another in hitting the group target, by organising running clubs, boxing classes and weekend walks. As everyone rallied together to log their miles, we felt it important to increase our focus on wellbeing during the challenge.

Throughout the month of October, we hosted a wide range of activities to encourage the team to prioritise their wellbeing and engage with colleagues after a difficult year.

We’re proud to boast a wealth of talent among our team – our Office Administrator, Sarah James, taught a group how to crochet, Anna Moizio, shared her native language, Italian, with us, and we showed off our culinary skills with a potluck lunch.

As well as our weekly yoga sessions, some groups visited a comedy club for an evening of laughs and we invited therapists into the office to conduct chair massages for the team.

To encourage our employees to look after themselves and their loved ones, we were joined by two fantastic charities, Oddballs and Coppafeel, to raise awareness of testicular cancer and breast cancer respectively.

We were also honoured to introduce Cornell Thomas, an international motivator who has been recommended by Tony Robbins, to the EMEA team. Cornell previously appeared on the EMEA Recruitment podcast, where he discussed overcoming fear and learning from failure.

Although October has come to an end, our focus on wellbeing will continue. We have received great feedback from our colleagues, who would like to see certain activities hosted on a regular basis.

We’re proud to provide a wide range of wellbeing activities for all EMEA Recruitment employees. You can find out more about what it’s like to work for us: https://www.emearecruitment.com/work-for-us