We were delighted to provide the first virtual lecture in the American University in Switzerland’s Speaker Series on 12th November 2020.

Our Director – Finance, John Bower, hosted the inaugural session on Career Control for AUS’s students.

“We have to be in the driver’s seat for our career.”

Thanks to his strong relationship with AUS’s Dean of Academics, David Larson, John was able to share his passion for recruitment and inform students on what skills they need for post-university life.

John is well-connected within the Swiss Finance & Accountancy community, particularly among C level leaders. He therefore has a deep understanding of what industries are looking for in talent today and, more importantly, in the future.

With the world changing at a rapid pace, managing your career is essential if you want to make a difference.

John discussed what might have happened in his own career if he’d been consulted in this unique way between the ages of 15-25. He feels a personal commitment to delivering this information as early as possible in someone’s career, making AUS’s students a perfect audience.

The model John went through focussed on Finance, his area of expertise. However, the same structure can be used for practically all other disciplines.

He explored the subject of globalisation and how companies now have more competition; whereas previously they may have employed professionals from within their canton or, at least, the country they’re based in, the world now works on a more international level.

You can watch a short clip on this subject here:

John also described how the adapt or die approach now applies to people’s skillsets, and the reasons why millennials want more control over the direction of their careers.

For those seeking the highest level positions within businesses, John explained the importance of being able to talk about every level of the career pyramid.

John was pleased to take questions from the students, who are looking to take their first steps into the world of work.

We look forward to working with the American University in Switzerland on future events.

If you would like to discuss John’s Career Control lecture, please get in touch with him at: [email protected].

In mid-October, we were proud to partner with The Future of Work Unconference in Switzerland, which was hosted by Shake Up The Workplace.

This unconference-style event took place on Monday 19th October 2020, at Kunsthaus, Zurich.

The Future of Work unconference brought together human-centric leaders, the C-suite, entrepreneurs, NGOs, government, start-ups and academia to sit at the same table and leave with an action plan.

Shake Up The Workplace’s English-speaking event was one that Zurich had not seen before.

Breakout sessions took place in the art galleries of Kunsthaus. A list of the fantastic line-up of speakers is below:

• Henriette Wendt – Microsoft
• Réginald Bien-Aimé – Master of the Ceremony
• Daniela Landherr – Google
• Heiko Fischer – Resourceful Humans
• Simon Brown – Novartis

As a Network Partner of the event, we were pleased to offer a 15% discount on tickets.

Shake Up The Workplace’s mission is to create a Swiss Future of Work ecosystem that facilitates collaboration, experimentation and co-creation.

Unlike traditional conferences, the unconference is a participant-oriented gathering where the attendees decide on the agenda elements, discussion topics and workshops.

The event welcomed everyone who wants to co-create the Future of Work ecosystem in Switzerland. If you are intrested in attending similar events in the future, please contact our Marketing Manager, Rose Jinks, at [email protected].

We were delighted to host a virtual event, How to Get a Career you Love and Negotiate the Heck out of it, with Wies Bratby.

Wies is the Chief Enthusiasm Officer for Women in Negotiation (WIN). She launched WIN to help women across the world realise their worth, communicate it, and get them the positions and salaries they want. WIN is consistently successful, with an average salary increase of 49.1% for promotions or new roles.

Wies’ long-term passion for negotiation led her to begin her career as a lawyer in the Netherlands, before moving on to become a HR Director, setting up human resources across the globe. Upon moving to Switzerland, she recognised that women around the world were struggling to find their dream jobs and negotiate fitting salaries for their hard work.

On Friday 16^th October 2020, we partnered with Wies to host her How to Get a Career you Love and Negotiate the Heck out of it webinar session with women from our Dutch network.

In the session, Wies shared tips and insights into how women can transform their careers by finding their dream job and negotiating a salary that truly reflects their hard work.

We held a similar event for women in our Swiss network back in June.

In May, we welcomed Wies to the EMEA Recruitment podcast, in which she outlined how it is her life mission to help women negotiate their worth and gave an overview of WIN. You can listen to it by clicking here.

If there are any future events you're interested in attending, please let Rose Jinks know at [email protected] 

We were delighted to welcome back Dr. Laura Penn, of The Leadership Speaking School, for another virtual workshop on elevating your virtual conversations.

“How the average person shows up online is not working – people get tired and don’t pay attention.”

As many of us continue to conduct lots of work online, her Leadership Speaking Online: Elevate Your Virtual Conversations workshop couldn’t have come at a better time. We hosted Dr. Laura Penn for a 40-minute session, followed by a 20-minute Q&A with our Swiss Country Director.

She went through her leadership speaking toolbox, giving some fantastic pieces of advice to our network. Whether you’re taking part in a virtual conversation or are presenting live face-to-face, Dr. Penn teaches an elevated form of public speaking.

The workshop aimed to disrupt our thinking and the status quo, to make us think about our intention today, and to make a conscious effort to connect with our audience.

Through some helpful steps and tips, followed by individual exercises, Dr. Penn engaged with the group to deliver an energetic and inspiring conversation.

In fact, some members of the group had some interesting questions on how they can apply this advice to their everyday lives – especially when dreaded technical issues disrupt online calls!

Dr. Penn’s focus on creating a culture of good habits is something that all of us can bring into our personal and professional lives. It’s especially important in these disturbing times, as we try to communicate with our networks in different ways.

We were pleased to welcome Dr. Penn back to the EMEA Recruitment network, after hosting her workshop back in May.

We have further virtual events coming up soon, including Wies Bratby’s How to Get a Career you Love and Negotiate the Heck out of it for women in our Dutch network, and the CIPS and CSCMP Procurement & Supply Chain conference.  

If you’re interested in attending any of these events or would like more information, please contact Sarah James at [email protected]

In September, we were proud to sponsor the fifth joint Procurement & Supply Chain (P&SC) event, organised by CIPS (Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply) and CSCMP (Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals).

With a slightly different format to previous years, our aim was to continue the same momentum enjoyed by so many P&SC professionals annually.

"The future is shaped by our response to events, not by the events themselves."

At this year’s conference, business leaders in Zug questioned what ‘robust’ means in the world of Procurement & Supply Chain today.

Having just experienced the most unsettled peace-time period in modern history, speakers explored how our response to events – rather than the events themselves – shape the future.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, production was altered overnight, factories were repurposed within weeks, goods have been held at borders through confusion about emergency legislation, and countries have faced urgent demands for critical supplies.

Amidst this operational turbulence, we still face an enormous question: what will the world look like afterwards?

On Tuesday 22nd September 2020, 17:30-19:00 CET, CIPS and CSCMP brought together top Procurement & Supply Chain leaders:

• Stephane Guelat – General Manager Global Supply Chain, GrafTech International
• Oliver King – Global Lead, Distribution & Logistics, Biogen
• Miriam Meeuwissen – Global Head Life Cycle Management, Biogen
• David Hauxwell – Global Head of Procurement, Anheuser-Busch InBev

We’re proud to have sponsored this virtual event for Procurement & Supply Chain professionals in our Swiss network. 

For your Procurement & Supply Chain needs, please contact Neil Cope via email: [email protected]

As we continue to adapt to a ‘new normal’ in our daily home lives and work lives, video calls via Zoom, Skype, Teams and other services have become central to team meetings, job interviews, networking, social events and so much more.

Recently, our co-founder Paul Toms started discussions amongst his connections to find ways of how EMEA Recruitment could really help people during this crisis.

A common theme during these discussions was that many people had a desire to up-skill not just generally, but particularly in the area of how they can present themselves in a better way online, in order to communicate more effectively and have a greater online presence.

Therefore, on Friday, 8th May, 2020, EMEA Recruitment invited Dr. Laura Penn to host her fantastic ‘Leadership Speaking Online: Elevate Your Virtual Conversations’ workshop via Zoom, attended by a number of our partners from both the Netherlands and Switzerland.

Laura started her career in environmental conservation communication before reinventing herself as the founder of a public speaking coaching business based in Switzerland. Since then, she has won multiple high-level awards, published her book and hosted three TEDX talks.

Following this success, she renamed her business to The Leadership Speaking School, with the aim of empowering people with the skills necessary in order to make their public speaking matter.

In the workshop on Friday, Laura shared tips and strategies from her extensive breadth of knowledge, with ideas such as using your own presence to make your message clear, ensuring your set up is congruent with your presence. 

She also included interactive exercises with the attendees, all with the goal to ‘disrupt their status quo’, become more self-aware in virtual meeting rooms and set them on their way to changing their mindset and becoming empowered, meaningful online communicators.

EMEA Recruitment would like to place on record our thanks to Dr. Laura Penn for hosting such an insightful and inspiring workshop.

If you’re interested in developing your own online leadership speaking skills, we highly encourage you to visit The Leadership Speaking School here for in-depth advice and strategies to help you become a talented public speaker, both online and in person.

We hope all of our partners, readers and their families are all keeping safe during the current period. If you have any ideas of further virtual workshops or events you’d like to see us run, don’t hesitate to contact Paul Toms or any of our consultants through our Meet The Team page.

Want to read more? Last month, we summarised the key benefits of working from home and looked at how it may benefit our overall health in the long term.