Written by: Elsa Marie Gogniat, Office Manager AIMS International Switzerland 

In Switzerland, since 2001, the number of people who work – at least partly – from home on a regular basis has more than quadrupled, with 138’000 people working more than 50% of their work time from home in 2018 (source: OFS)

Working from home has a big number of benefits, for the employer, the employee but also for the environment. It allows for reduced office space, electricity and heat consumption and it also reduces waste, as people are not buying to-go lunches or coffee cups, for example.

Our consultant, Mohamed, particularly enjoys this way of working:

“I have been privileged, as I’ve been working for global organisations that truly foster work/life balance and flexible work arrangements. It has an amazing impact on what people can accomplish, knowing that they are backed by their workplace. Today I continue to be agile, enjoy downtime and achieve success by working from a home-office, using public transportation to visit clients and consume efficient minimal resources that save energy and waste material”.

As he mentions, working from home also has the consequence of reducing commuting time between home and the workplace. This means less gasoline used, but also less cars on the road. At AIMS International Switzerland, we also use public transportation for more than 80% of our traveling and we support our consultants in doing so by providing them with GA travelcards as much as possible. We use videoconferencing with candidates and clients instead of physical meetings whenever possible and, when physical meetings are a clear plus, we can also rent meeting rooms where it is most convenient for all participants, thus minimising travel.

“Recently, I have been able to conduct a video conference with our Partners from South Africa and Mexico, from the train. It’s really amazing to be able to do this. The new tools offer us the possibility to do global business from our homes or on the go. I think that despite what some might say, it actually allows us to form more bonds and to strengthen them, be it across the world or across Switzerland.”, says Grégoire.

Catherine also enjoys working from home and has actually been doing it for 20 years now, since she did her degree in Psychology via correspondence. The online tools allowed her to do group assignments and still be present for her children. She says that it has allowed her to be “at home and everywhere at the same time”.

However, it is also very important that we meet our Partners face-to-face regularly, this is why we often have meetings amongst the Swiss team, why Elsa, the Office Manager, moved from Geneva to Fribourg. It’s always a pleasure to have coffee all together and know more about each other. This is also why we value attending the global or regional meetings, like the ones that took place this year in Marrakech or Munich. We know all of our Partners personally and it is one of our greatest strengths.

To conclude, we can say that working from home allows us to reduce our environmental impact and be more productive at the same time while reinforcing our connections with colleagues, clients and candidates worldwide.

About AIMS International Switzerland:

We are the Swiss entity of AIMS International, a global organisation, active in Executive Search and Leadership Development, with several hundred consultants spread over 50+countries. Thanks to seamless cross-border cooperation and efficient industry practice teams, we are able to serve efficiently a great number of multinational clients.

AIMS SWITZERLAND