Perception of the WIR Bank as an Employer

Attracting suitable potential employees is a key issue for SMEs in highly competitive industries. This project was commissioned to identify the existing employer attractiveness of a company and ways to enhance its competitiveness on the labour market for talents with limited resources.

Starting point

Intending to expand its business activities in Switzerland, one of the company's main challenges is to find and hire suitable employees in the respective fields in order to successfully match the growing clientele's needs. However, due to high competitiveness on the labour market in the industry in question, many talents tend to be employed by larger companies.
Therefore, by means of comparing the self and public-perception, the attractiveness of the employer was evaluated and additionally, measures which may contribute to attracting more potential employees were developed.

Procedure

A literature review on key theoretical concepts served as the basis for establishing the necessary theoretical framework. Furthermore, in order to gain an external perspective on the employer attractiveness, a survey among students at the FHNW, banking employees and current applicants of the company has been conducted. The internal perception consists of internal interviews with current employees as well as an existing internal employee survey.
With the information gathered by the means stated above, a SWOT Analysis and subsequently, the development of required measures has been enabled.

Results

Findings suggest that the company is generally perceived as an attractive employer and that only little deviation exists between the self and public-perception. Main strengths would include a pleasant working atmosphere, an accessible location, positive corporate values and a favourable work-life balance. In contrast, primary weaknesses contain limited career development opportunities, a slight negative product image impact and the fact that salaries are from the public expected to be very high due to the industry image.
The most relevant suggested measures are the implementation of a structured career development plan as well as various methods concerning the efficient communication of corporate values and the working environment.
Even though the company has been identified as an attractive employer in general, it is advised that existing strengths are kept being subject to continuous evaluation and enforcement. Recognised weaknesses and threats in turn, should draw heightened attention.

Authors: Dominic Lohberger, Kevin Lehmann, Martin Schaffner, International Management