“Offshoring” with the approval of the Federal Council: Almost a fifth of Swisscom employees work abroad

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Swisscom presents itself as a dream employer in Latvia’s capital Riga: “Bad weather? “No problem, work from home,” the telecommunications company promises in advertisements. It is also possible to work from a holiday island. In addition, young IT professionals are trapped with a home office allowance of 500 euros, flat fees for mobile and internet, a fitness subscription and a birthday without work.

Swisscom is also hiring information and communications technology experts in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam. The first developers were hired in 2019, and today more than 500 IT professionals work at both locations.

Approximately 20,000 jobs abroad

Across the entire group, almost a fifth of Swisscom employees are now based abroad, as can be seen from the 2023 annual report. Of the 19,729 jobs, 18.6 percent were located outside Switzerland; five years ago this rate was 13.6 percent.

The establishment of IT teams in Rotterdam and Riga, as well as the strong growth of the Italian subsidiary Fastweb, were the main drivers of this development. Fastweb currently has more than 3,000 employees.

These statistics do not even include call center employees who work abroad and deal with Swisscom customers by phone. They are not mentioned in the annual report because they are employed by third-party companies.

In 2022, Swisscom’s partner company opened a call center in Kosovo. Since the current year, additional locations in Poland and Bulgaria have been tested, as “20 Minutes” revealed a few weeks ago.

“How much is Switzerland on Swisscom?”

In an interview with Blick, Swisscom CEO Christoph Aeschlimann (46) confirmed these plans but tried to put them in perspective: “The dimensions of this outsourcing are quite manageable. There are currently only 45 people in Kosovo dealing with Swisscom customers.”

For comparison: In total, approximately 1,500 call center employees are tasked with answering Swisscom customers’ questions and concerns. Aeschlimann: “About half are Swisscom employees in Switzerland, the other half work in partner companies.”

Politicians are also interested in the “offshoring” strategy. Since the telecommunications company is majority-owned by the Confederation, National Assembly Member Greta Gysin (40, Greens) wanted to know from the Federal Council at the end of 2023: “How much Switzerland is still in Swisscom?” The Ticino native wrote in the interpellation that Swisscom, the country’s largest IT company, had “a special responsibility as an employer.” “Swisscom’s increasing offshore projects show that this responsibility is diminishing,” says Gysin.

No giving up on strategy

The state government sees it differently. He backed Swisscom management in a statement two weeks ago: “The creation of positions abroad is compatible with strategic objectives, especially if it serves the recruitment of IT talent in the international job market.”

Aeschlimann certainly does not accept the criticism: “There is almost full employment in Switzerland,” he says, emphasizing that Swisscom created around 300 jobs in this country last year. It makes deviation from CEO strategy unlikely. On the contrary, it announces that it will expand further abroad: “In the medium term, we will probably employ 700 IT experts in Rotterdam and Riga.”

Low wages in Latvia

However, Swisscom leadership does not want this outsourcing to be seen as cost-cutting practices. Aeschlimann: “The main reason for this is that we can hardly find specialized IT experts in Switzerland.”

However, lower wage levels abroad should at least be a welcome side effect. As already mentioned, a lot of gifts are offered to a “software developer” in Riga, but the gross monthly wage is between 2,000 and 3,300 euros. IT experts in Switzerland won’t even start the computer for this money.

Source :Blick