Due to employee shortage: Migros is breaking new ground

Finding new employees is one thing, retaining them is another: Migros, the largest private employer in Switzerland, is facing tough challenges in the labour market. HR manager Reto Parolini is working to master the difficult task.

The variety of jobs on offer is great: logisticians, app designers, accountants, cashiers, specialist sales assistants for the cheese counter and many more are sought. A total of 1,895 jobs are currently advertised in the Migros universe throughout Switzerland. And only a very few can be easily filled. "There’s a lack of people everywhere, never before have so many professions been affected," says Migros personnel manager Reto Parolini. "There’s a lack of butchers, bicycle mechanics and service personnel."

The balance on the labour market is unlikely to be rebalanced so quickly – quite the contrary: according to the calculations of the Employers' Association (Arbeitgeberverband), there will be a shortage of 500,000 employees in Switzerland in ten years' time, and this could even amount to 1.3 million by 2050.

Because: In the future, many more people will retire than new people arrive to take their place. "We no longer suffer from a shortage of skilled workers, but from a shortage of workers in general," says Reto Parolini, who is responsible for personnel at Migros, Switzerland's largest private employer, with 97,500 employees.

Three quarters of the jobs are ‘blue collar’
For the first time since data collection began almost 20 years ago, the federal government has reported more vacancies than unemployed persons. And this hits Migros particularly hard, as Reto Parolini emphasizes. "Three quarters of our employees are blue collar", i.e. manual workers, craftsmen, people who apparently can’t work in a cosy office, but have to put up with working conditions that are generally perceived as unattractive. These are jobs involving shift work, physically demanding jobs, and work that sometimes has to be carried out in unfriendly working environments, such as cold stores.

Desperately wanted: cashiers at Migros.                                Photo: Michael Buholzer
Reto Parolini is Head of Human Resources at Migros.        Photo: Markus Bertschi
Warehouse management suffers from staff shortages.    Photo: Gaëtan Bally
The distribution company in Neuendorf, Aargau, is a major employer in the region. But here, too, finding employees is difficult.               Photo: Bruno Kissling

Not so long ago, filling vacancies was not a problem, and Migros could afford to not even consider unsolicited applications in the first place. But that’s no longer possible. "Times have changed, and it has become a workers' market," says the Migros personnel manager.

New recruitment methods are needed
The demographic problem was abruptly exacerbated by the rapid build-up of the economy after the corona shock. The Migros personnel manager is now forced to go over the books. In a first step, he and his team assessed which jobs had a particularly high shortage of workers. In a second step, it was evaluated which measures could have the greatest effect on job attractiveness and the needs of the workforce.

Above all, Reto Parolini sees an urgent need for action in those fields of activity where the shortage is acute and the consequences for Migros are particularly severe. And he particularly mentioned logistics, and specifically warehouse management. Here, Migros is now testing new approaches to its personnel policy – and this from the initial employment, through the time working for the company and until leaving. The goal of all efforts: to attract more new people, to lose none where possible, and to bring back as many as possible who may have moved on.

For example, his HR department is now reviewing unsolicited applications when recruiting warehouse clerks, is making use of WhatsApp campaigns and has launched a recommendation programme for employees: Migros employees who find people to fill vacancies receive a reward.

Generations Y and Z have completely different demands
And it's then about keeping people on board, which is an ongoing task, as Reto Parolini points out. "Today, people no longer simply remain tied to the company over the long term: we have to convince them to stay, again and again." For example, with individually designed working hours and sometimes without shift work or weekend assignments, with more training and transfers to other companies and jobs within the extensive Migros universe.

These questions are gaining in importance – especially in negotiations with generations Y and Z, i.e. those born between 1980 and 1994 and between 1995 and 2009. These generations are much more demanding than the older generations, says Reto Parolini. "If they don't get what they want, they look for it somewhere else."

Retirement age 64: a reform is foreseeable
The shortage of staff is further exacerbated by the Migros retirement age of 64 for men and women. And as some employees of the retail group, as everywhere else, prefer to retire sooner rather than later, the actual retirement age is even at the comparatively low age of 62. A regulation that will have to be discussed as a result of the adopted AHV reform and in view of the worsening labour problem, as Reto Parolini emphasizes. The retirement age of 64 is also on the agenda at the next meetings of the Board of Trustees of the Migros Pension Fund.

The discussion is inevitable, although it will not be easy. "We have to find new solutions to employ employees longer and with a higher work percentage, without harming their health," says Reto Parolini, referring to the corresponding part-time models. Only with creativity can the proportion of employed persons who want to work beyond the official retirement age be increased. Only 8% of women and 15% of men do this in Switzerland today.

Compatibility is a problem
Working longer is ultimately one of the three recipes against labour shortages. The second is to increase the level of employment of households. Reto Parolini sees two levers here:

"On the one hand, child care must become cheaper, because trying to combine work and family life in Switzerland is simply still too expensive today."

On the other hand, a more holistic approach is needed. "The pure focus on the advancement of women falls short. The bottom line is that it doesn’t help if the mother increases her level of employment, but the father reduces his by the same amount at the same time."

The third recipe is the one that Switzerland has used over the past 20 years – and with success: immigration. But the influx of people is faltering, because firstly, the neighbouring European countries are also suffering from the same demographic development as Switzerland, and secondly, because this is no longer opportune, at the latest since the adoption of the mass immigration initiative in spring 2014, or at least that is what politicians are saying – much to the annoyance of the economy. Reto Parolini also advocates a relaxation of third-country quotas. "These should be examined, at least temporarily," he says.

Reto Parolini himself wants to continue working on solutions to the labour shortage, but no longer at Migros. After four and a half years, he will leave the largest private employer at the end of January 2023. Until then, he wants to contribute as much as possible to filling the 1,895 vacancies.