“We should not underestimate the psychological consequences of the Covid crisis”

Jean-Christophe Deslarzes is a kind of super-Swiss: de Romand has Valais roots, was born in Fribourg, grew up in Thun, was a ski instructor in Verbier and a student in Bern and Fribourg.

He then also made a career abroad, in international business. This is evident from the English expressions that repeatedly break through his Bernese German in the interview. And his name: The president of human resources services company Adecco is simply “JC” to his colleagues and friends.

Mr. Deslarzes, Switzerland currently has approximately 260,000 vacancies. The local economy is suffering, but you can cheer, right?
Jean-Christophe Deslarzes: Naturally, the shortage of skilled workers is an opportunity for the Adecco Group. But expectations are also high.

What do you mean? Because employees have higher demands?
In fact, they have become picky. Companies also place higher demands on us. They expect us as experts to be better able to find talent and retain it within the company in the longer term.

Companies announce their vacancies digitally, bosses post them directly on Linkedin. Why do we still need employment agencies like Adecco?
We are professionals in using our expertise to find the perfect match between the job profile and that of the job seeker. When it works, we create magic!

Magic?
Yes. In this case everything is right, it is perfect for the employee, the employer and, moreover, for society as a whole. We are talking about a social impact: if you are happy at work, you come home happy, and that has a positive effect on the children, who find work cool again.

Too good to be true: 40 percent of employees feel exhausted after work, according to a recent survey.
The geopolitical situation is extremely unstable and the economic prospects are uncertain. This affects people’s morale – and also their work ethic.

At the same time, the labor market is stable and it is relatively easy to find a new job if you need one.
It’s paradoxical. We also see this in our international studies outside the Adecco Group with around 30,000 people. Perceived well-being has decreased: 65 percent of respondents say they have had a burnout or what they experience as a burnout. In Switzerland this is as high as 76 percent. That is extremely high.

Where is it from?
There are the geopolitical uncertainties mentioned, and then we should not underestimate the psychological consequences of the Covid crisis.

In Switzerland we had few restrictions.
Yes, they were relatively mild, but in themselves they had a major impact. For example, at Christmas 2021 we were allowed to sit at the family table with no more than ten people. It’s alright! That was less than two years ago. And that still has an impact.

So wars and Covid are the reasons for the depressed mood at work?
Then there is the job losses we have seen during and after the Covid crisis. This meant that many employees and especially managers had to take on additional tasks. That is why many feel tired.

There is limited sympathy for the managers, as they are usually well paid.
I am mainly talking about middle management, team leaders, the golden mean, which is very important for the functioning of a company. This group is neglected, but it forms the link between strategy and implementation. Our research shows that in Switzerland, 44 percent of managers have experienced burnout because they were burdened with more responsibilities after their dismissal.

But whether they are managers or employees, couldn’t they just find a new job in this tight labor market if they feel so stressed?
Yes, in theory it is an employee market. But in the current situation, people have become more cautious. More than 70 percent want to stay with their employer, compared to more than 60 percent a year ago. In Switzerland, the decline in the number of people wanting to leave their company is even greater: from 32 to 19 percent.

So company loyalty is back?
Maybe it’s more of an assumption that the grass isn’t greener on the other side of the fence. During the Covid crisis or shortly afterwards, everyone talked about the ‘big layoff’, about the big wave of layoffs. But the phenomenon is now largely over.

An achievement of the Covid era is the home office. How do you assess that?
In the future, half of office work will be done on location and half from home or anywhere else. Generation Z, i.e. everyone born around 2000, and also Millennials born after 1985 want to do half of their working hours from anywhere.

Is the office still needed?
Yes, because this is the only place where company culture can be promoted. Because that is the only place where creativity can arise, because that is the only place where innovation is stimulated. And because it is also fun to work together as a team. And as I said, our research clearly shows that people are feeling more stressed than in the past. And I suspect some of this also comes from working from home.

Home office means more stress?
Yes, at least we noticed that at the Adecco Group: we had to be careful that people didn’t work too much because they had this freedom. But fundamentally one can say about the home office issue: both are wrong, both 100 percent home office and absolute office mandatory.

You once said that bosses need to become more empathetic. Have they become that?
This doesn’t happen overnight, it takes time. But this is not a new finding. It is the empathetic bosses who trusted us, who listened to us, who will still be remembered ten or twenty years later as the best bosses. But the situation has worsened because we are now in this high-tech environment. Now it is especially important to show humanity.

So more humanity versus artificial intelligence (AI)?
62 percent of employees worldwide and 76 percent in Switzerland see artificial intelligence as something positive, as something that will change their jobs for the better. But at the same time, around 60 percent of respondents assume that human skills will be more important than digital insights.

There are thousands of vacancies, but even in economically strong Switzerland, many employees are afraid of the future. Could this also be due to migration: every employee knows that his or her position can also be filled by an EU employee?
Mobility and flexibility are part of the Swiss economy and also shape our labor market. That’s why I don’t think the free movement of people scares workers. On the contrary, we know that it contributes to the prosperity of our economy. Without foreign workers, companies would not be able to fill all their vacancies.

Your predecessor as chairman of Adecco, Rolf Dörig, had different opinions on this issue: he questioned the free movement of people.
It is clear to both of us that the Swiss economy needs foreign skilled workers.

Is the Swiss labor market and location in general still as attractive as it used to be?
Yes, I even see that Covid has made Switzerland even more attractive compared to other countries where the crisis has left deep scars. We were privileged at the time, not just because there were less severe political restrictions, but fundamentally: we have forests nearby where we can walk almost everywhere, we can drive to the mountains, we generally have good purchasing power… That everything remains healthy for an entire society.

Companies often complain about additional government burdens and growing bureaucracy.
Everything is relative. For example, the much-vaunted Silicon Valley in the US is often much more bureaucratic for companies than Switzerland. The best proof of Switzerland’s attractiveness is that many highly educated people want to work here. I also experience time and time again that expats who originally only wanted to work here for a certain period of time no longer want to return to their home country.

Switzerland a paradise where nothing can get better?
On an international scale it is a paradise. Yet she must be careful: politicians must refrain from intervening. Because nothing is more social than a company that functions and can trade freely. We are doing so well thanks to the strong companies.

They have four children. What advice have you given them when it comes to education and career choice?
I believe in the power of passion: if you get up in the morning and look forward to what you are doing, then it is the right thing, and then fulfillment and success will come naturally. Whether it’s an internship or a diploma doesn’t matter.’ It doesn’t matter Roll. My kids have walked very different, but all great, paths

(aargauerzeitung.ch)