This interactive evening program provides insights into how Switzerland ticks, from deeply held cultural values to tips for navigating everyday life. We explore how to show respect, the importance of rules, how to make friends and the magic of an apéro. Culture is like water for fish: it is the medium we live in, yet we rarely step back and reflect on it. Understanding the culture you are living in is crucial to making the most of your sojourn. This informational evening program is designed to help not only newcomers to Basel but also anyone interested, including locals, better under-stand... mehr
Procrastination is action! (Author: Paula Naeff, www.timthisisme.com) “The action of delaying or postponing something”, as the dictionary says. Sometimes procrastination is also referred to as inaction, which also points to the word ‘action’. Whichever way you look at it, it points to some form of action. Not standing still. Movement. Most of us have probably at some point in our lives left something to the last minute. Remember that paper you had to write in school or the test you had to study for? The late nights right before a deadline? Why is procrastination or inaction dreadful to some and... mehr
You won’t get the results you were hoping for. The process of posting job openings online, online personnel recruitment, job exchanges, job portals or electronic job ads – they all have changed fundamentally due to technological advancements and new possibilities. PKS Personal AG identified this development at a very early stage and consequently used the new possibilities for the benefit of their customers. Systematic E-Recruiting is our daily business. What are the advantages of online personnel recruiting? Considerably reduced costs per enlistment. The recruitment process is clearly streamlined, shorter and faster. The posting can be viewed worldwide and is available... mehr
They are the essential instrument for managing and controlling a business. Even the ancient Greek mathematician Pythagoras believed that the universe was based on the power of numbers. Finance and accounting, controlling, bookkeeping and billing are essential instruments for managing and controlling a business. The determination of new strategies, the conquest of new markets or the acquisition of new business opportunities – they all require conclusive facts that support existentially important decisions. Only very well qualified professionals in the respective areas of expertise are able to meet those requirements. We have been finding the right specialized personnel on all levels... mehr
The commercial world of work has changed. Due to the unstoppable technological advancement and the strong internationalization of the commercial environment, many job descriptions have changed significantly, have been newly created or disappeared altogether. However, the attractiveness of the variety of commercial jobs remains unchanged. Without commercial experts and executives, the economy would stagnate. The drastic, fundamental changes in the commercial world cannot be overlooked and are unstoppable. There is not one day that goes by without showing a new technological possibility to perform commercial tasks even faster, more efficiently and effectively. Productivity, effectiveness and efficiency have changed dramatically in... mehr
It is a city which attracts highly qualified individuals from all over the world. The city of Basel is the centre of North West Switzerland. This unique border city has Germany and France as direct neighbours and is located in the midst of Central Europe. It offers interesting job opportunities for well-qualified High Potentials. Basel’s reputation as a cultured, ecological, progressive, international and integrative cultural, educational and economic metropolis extends well beyond Europe. It combines small town advantages such as manageability and familiarity with city benefits like amplitude, depth of choice and diversity. The city of Basel, located on the... mehr
Definitely not! But it does have a lot to do with trust, relationships, discretion, knowledge and sector skills. PKS Personal AG has been playing a focussed, active role in the field of executive search, management consultancy and management selection since 1992. Our name is our mission. When did executive search start? The cradle of executive search is to be found in the USA where the oldest executive search company was founded in New York in 1926. This form of business was largely unknown in Europe until the end of the 1960s/the start of the 1970s when the first companies specialising... mehr
From electric tooth brushes, flywheels in machines or washing machines – the basic principles of mathematics, physics and logic, which represent the essence of engineering, can be found in everything. Engineering is usually considered an applied science. Of course, it includes comprehensive fundamental research. However, the declared main focus and core competence clearly lie in the practical implementation of scientific findings and in methods for the realization of technically mature products. Engineering also plays an important role in the industrial community of Northwestern Switzerland. The invention of high-capacity computers fundamentally renewed the versatile engineering technologies. Due to constructive assumptions, for... mehr
Human beings have become obsolete as mere production units. They have rather turned into guiding spirits of modern work processes with sustained added value and appreciations. The corporate and economic significance of HR departments is often heavily disputed. Many HR managers are not part of either the extended or the actual general management. However, a strategically smart, competent orientation of personnel recruitment and a future-oriented human resources management are critical key factors for assuring a company’s existence. The complexity of interpersonal interactions increases steadily. It is not enough anymore to simply find the right professionals that meet the hard factors.... mehr
During the last few years, data processing, computer sciences, IT and business technology have undergone a turbulent development beyond comparison. The complexity of the demands of the specialists is ever increasing. Things that once were ’state of the art‘, may be completely obsolete today. Applications and the required software, too, change very rapidly. The innovation cadence and the international competition are overwhelming. Long gone are the days of chaotic garage companies and thrown-together spaghetti programs. Since 1992, PKS Personal AG has successfully recruited those experts. When did the computer age begin anyway? In 1614, John Napier published his famous table... mehr
It would not be possible to carry out or bridge many projects, unexpected, large-volume orders, maternity leaves or employee shortages due to accidents or sickness without temporary employment contracts. There is a clear trend towards complementing full-time salaried employees (core) more and more with flexible ancillary employees (periphery). The fast-paced market and the constantly changing basic conditions due to strong influences by global economic developments are obvious and have an impact on local circumstances. Rational planning and the ability to anticipate business developments are important requirements for a successful management. The ephemerality of economic processes and the many imponderabilities of... mehr
Fair selection procedures and transparent applications are the reflection of the own view of humankind. The more accurately and effectively a tried and tested selection method is used to predict future professional success, the higher its prognostic validity and reliability remain and the more sense it makes to use it during personnel selection. Structured interviews are essential for the reliable recruitment and selection of personnel. Application documents are very often the first impression of an applicant and too often the most important source of information. Therefore, it is obvious that application portfolios and dossiers possess only limited informative value. Even... mehr
A statement that got us thinking. Too often, the truth is closer to reality than we prefer. Present-day personnel consulting is more and more subject to a new quality standard. The requirements increase. The wheat is separated from the chaff. And that is a good thing. The more competent and committed your personnel service provider is, the fewer costs you will incur. Personnel consulting, quo vadis? ‘Do personnel service providers offer a verifiable economic benefit?’, is a question that is asked quite often. ‘With all the technological possibilities that are available now and will be available in the future, isn’t... mehr
In the 17th century, the famous German “etiquette guru”, Adolph Freiherr von Knigge, coined the phrase: “Never end a conversation without giving your counterpart the opportunity to remember the conversation with gratitude”. Right potentials usually decide during an interview, whether they want to pursue an offer. Remember, they are highly sought-after and you are probably not the only one to invite them to a job interview. Members of the Human Resources management (HRM), in particular the recruiters, are increasingly confronted with competition situations regarding their interviewing skills. The race for professional excellence, highly qualified niche skills and experts is becoming... mehr
2018 has arrived ! Improving your overall quality of life, happiness, and health is never a bad idea — regardless of what date on the calendar jumpstarts your inclination. Difficult to define what the future holds…the one certainty about the future is the pace of change will only quicken. While our world has always experienced change, the rate of change in our modern world is speeding up. Forces as diverse as automation, the sharing economy, and online labor markets are redefining work. There are new drivers that are shaping our working lanscape in which each of our skills emerges. Are you... mehr
Boosting career transition advice and more (Author: Diana Bocskai Stäger) When hearing about change, the concept of inertia comes to mind. Imagine a hockey puck and the level of force it takes to make it move initially. Then imagine the level of force it takes to stop one that’s coming fast. Contrast both of those scenarios to the effort it takes to keep a puck moving or to keep it still. Therein lies the difficulty of change. Well, human behaviour is not too much different. As a social psychologist, I was always highly concerned about change in all aspcets of... mehr
Whether you are unemployed or currently working, networking will give you a competitive edge in your job search. The power of networking can work for you! Surely your success should be based on your strengths and experience, not on who you know. Actually, most jobs are filled via word of mouth, so your next job is most likely going to come to you from a lead or someone you know. It is crucial to do the research and gather all the information you can via contacts with those within the profession you’re interested in. Career experts state, and so do... mehr
Your career mindset, the mental image of your career path and patterns starts to shape in your childhood, when you ask what you want to do as a grown up. It is strongly related to early childhood socialization where norms and values are formed. The traditional way of our mindset fix to a 3 step phases. Go to school, work and get ritered. As you climb the career ladder, you will automatically face resistance that can cause changes in progressing forward. It is a normal psychological reaction to adjust our behaviour and attitude to change as it is not possible... mehr
When it comes to being successful in one’s career, many of us think that those who have a proven track record, the best educational background and international working experience are likely to achieve success easily. I often face at working with individuals in transition that many other factors can influence their job search when entering a new culture and job market (written by: Diana Bocskai, Professional Certified Career and Transition Coach, www.dbcoaching.ch) I often see that my clients have a fixed mindset what they believe their dream job can be or how they can get fast to their goals. No... mehr
Which HR function ranks No.1 with the highest impacts on two critical business success indexes – revenue growth and profit margins? The Boston Consulting Group researched the answer to this question conducting a study interviewing 4’288 respondents from 102 countries across a broad range of industries. The report of this study entitled: „Realizing the Value of People Management: From Capability to Profitability“ was released in July 2012.One of its conclusions reveals that recruiting is the most impactful HR function on companies‘ profit growth. In many years, only a few HR leaders quantified the business impacts of recruiting, except for Google,... mehr
Despite a great diversity in corporate businesses, objectives and cultures, recruitment challenges tend to standardize. Indeed social networks, mobile recruitment, employer branding and candidate sourcing belong to the most addressed topics of events and conferences which are dedicated to recruitment. To what extent can we assert that these topics are part of the current recruitment trends? What are their causes? How will they evolve? 1. A „Mobile“ Visibility on Social and Professional Networks Our access to information has deeply changed with state-of-the-art 3rd Generation mobile devices. Beside a fast on-the-go access to our mail and the news, we can now... mehr
As reported in our previous article “Understanding the importance of passive candidates and identifying them successfully” passive candidates who already have a job but remain open to other opportunities represent a major part of the population to consider when recruiting. After having identified a potential passive candidate, there are several rules to follow in order to establish a relationship based on trust. 1. Don’t contact him at work The first contact is always very important. Try to get his personal contact data connecting with him on social networks. A first phone call when he is at work can be fatal.... mehr
Kürzlich hat successfactors eine interessante Studie auf Englisch mit dem Titel ‚Der Pulsschlag der globalen Belegschaft – eine Umfrage’ publiziert. Darin wird mitgeteilt, dass die Personalverantwortlichen aufgrund der globalen wirtschaftlichen Veränderungen und den vielen damit einhergehenden Unsicherheiten besonders stark gefordert sind. Ehrlich gedacht ist das nun wirklich nicht neu. Allen Wirtschaftsbewussten ist das in der Zwischenzeit glasklar geworden. Des Weiteren nehmen die internationalen Hürden der globalen Rekrutierung grundlegend ab, da nationale Grenzen gut ausgebildete Arbeitsnomaden nicht mehr aufhalten. Auch das ist nicht wirklich eine neue Erkenntnis, die Personaler aus den Socken haut. Nichtsdestotrotz ist die Studie lesenswert, weil sie folgendes... mehr
Most organizations looking for ways to strengthen their competitive advantage are rethinking their approach to recruitment. They aim at creating greater efficiencies, making better decisions around talent acquisition strategies and applying them in the long run. Recruitment Process Outsourcing helps companies enhance the efficiency of their recruitment, improving quality of hire, reducing time-to-hire and recruitment spending. Previously considered as a last minute solution in the scope of recruitment projects, the perception towards RPO has now changed. RPO is more seen as a strategic solution: identifying key skills which are essential within an organization, RPO is now tightly connected to its... mehr
Such as the business world has changed over the past decades, talent has also evolved. Let us see how: 1. Talent is free: it changes employers several times in the course of its career. In the 50’s – 60’s white collars used to work within the same company during their entire career. „Company men“ were corporate and shared the company’s values and long term vision. In the 70’s – 80’s workers tended to be more ladder driven. „Ladder climbers“ did not hesitate to resign after 8 to 10 years in average, if the company for which they were working did... mehr
The phenomenon of „passive candidates“ is still an enigma for many recruiters. They do not consider them as potential candidates and generally do not master communication tools to engage dialogue with them. This is unfortunate, since passive candidates are often the key to many open positions. The rise of passive candidates is partly due to the economic slowdown and to the increasing unemployment in many countries. A large majority of employees prefer staying in their current position even though it does no longer entirely match their expectations. Seven employees out of ten declare being satisfied with their job. 82 %... mehr
Talent is a term used to define highly skilled workers. These individuals possess significant job experience in their functional areas and a strong knowledge of the industry they work in. Talent management is a set of entrepreneurial human resources processes and practices ensuring the sustainable effectiveness of the most skilled workers within an organization. Talent management is highly strategic. It aims at maintaining the company’s innovation and performances relying on the long term capacity of its human resources. An effective talent management is one of the highest valuable assets an organization can have. If talent management is performed professionally it... mehr
Know-how, innovation and experience constitute the main advantages that organizations can have over their competitors. The most talented employees drive these advantages. Therefore talent management should focus on the organization’s talent: the most skilled and experienced individuals. Attracting, developing and retaining talent is fundamental to a company remaining ahead of its competition. Many studies* are forecasting a shortage of talents for the near future. One of the main reasons is the demographical trend happening in the developed countries. The World Economic Forum has researched this in depth: „To sustain economical growth, by 2030 the United States will need to add... mehr
If talent management is executed correctly it can have a strategic impact on an organization. Good talent management involves much more than simply „attracting, developing and retaining“ talent. The Human Resources function is a patchwork of several specialty functional areas of expertise each requiring a solid understanding and discipline. These functional areas are typically considered to be: Workforce & Succession Planning (Talent Attraction & Recruiting) Performance Management (Learning & Development) Compensation & Benefits To manage talent successfully, all theses silos need to be fully integrated and have to work together. At first Workforce and Succession Planning defines future talent needs... mehr
Employee on-boarding is the very last step of most of the organizations’ recruitment processes. Knowing that the first 18 months of work is the most vulnerable period to leave for new hires and a third of the newly hired managers fail at their job or role*, employee on-boarding should not be underestimated. It has indeed, many positive impacts on the following: new hire performance on the job employee engagement and satisfaction speed to competency As a matter of fact, on-boarding programs also help increase the visibility of new hires, as well as internal communication with them. Moreover due to enhanced... mehr
More and more companies invest in online communication tools to trigger candidates‘ attention and to ease their application process. However, demands of user candidates are high and internet techniques constantly progressing. Potentialpark, the research institute specialized in employer branding, HR communication and application processes, has published the results of its 2011 research conducted in Germany through the response of 3,064 graduate students and young professionals (representing top business schools, universities and technical institutions). This enabled the gathering of many relevant data. It has been revealed that applying online is common but not necessarily enjoyable. Few companies offer an application system... mehr
Measuring the quality of hire has gained in importance over the last few months. Well, this is not a surprise, as investments in recruitment are significantly growing due to the talent shortage. However defining the right metrics to measure the long term success of a recruitment campaign is hard. It really depends on what the company is trying to measure and what is defined as important. Is having an increased retention in the first 12 months of new employees a sign of an improved quality of hire? If time to productivity decreases, are you improving the quality of hire? Is... mehr
The affiliation with the association of personnel service providers, swissstaffing, gives the guaranty that personnel services strictly comply with the minimum standards of personnel consulting, personnel recruiting, human resources management and temporary work. An ethically correct provision of services and a positive view of humankind are important. swissstaffing – a good cause. An important partnership between employees, economy and politics. The Association of Personnel Service Providers of Switzerland was founded in 1968 as the Association of Businesses for Temporary Work, SVUTA. The goal of the new employers‘ association was the representation of the industry’s interests, but also the ensurance of... mehr
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