By Richard Delaye-Habermacher, Director of Academic Affairs and Research – IMSG
As more than one-third of Switzerland’s working population now works from home at least occasionally (FSO, 2023), remote work and hybrid models have become lasting features of the professional landscape. At the same time, 34% of employees in France are reported to be experiencing burnout, including 13% suffering severe burnout (OpinionWay–Empreinte Humaine, 2022) — a sign of mounting tension between performance demands and mental health. In this context, continuing to treat working conditions as a mere cost or regulatory obligation means ignoring a major driver of attractiveness, engagement and competitiveness. For Swiss companies, the challenge is no longer simply to manage work well, but to turn quality of life and working conditions into a genuine strategic investment in order to secure human capital and long-term performance.
In Switzerland, 36.7% of the working population worked from home at least occasionally in 2023 (FSO, 2023). Across Europe, the share of employees working sometimes or usually from home rose from 14.4% in 2019 to 22.4% in 2022 (Eurostat, 2023). Far from being incidental, these figures illustrate a profound transformation in the relationship to work.
Companies are no longer competing only on their products or prices, but on the quality of work they offer.
Switzerland nevertheless starts from a distinctive position: a protective social framework, generally constructive social dialogue, and many companies already attentive to employee well-being. Even so, current momentum shows that this is no longer sufficient. Working conditions are becoming a field for managerial innovation and a factor of strategic differentiation, even for Switzerland’s most advanced employers. Yet this transformation is not without ambiguity: while remote work and flexibility improve certain working conditions, they can also weaken collective ties, dilute corporate culture and make managerial oversight more difficult.
Working conditions have long been relegated to the realm of “social” matters or compliance, often confined to the HR department. This Taylorist legacy — which separates design from execution and prioritises process optimisation over employees’ subjective experience — has helped minimise their strategic significance.
The 2024 Qualisocial–IPSOS QVCT Barometer is revealing: nearly nine in ten employees consider quality of life and working conditions a priority or an important issue, yet fewer than half believe their employer truly takes it into account. In other words, the topic is still too often viewed as a cost centre rather than a value-creating investment.
Nearly nine in ten employees consider quality of life and working conditions a priority or important.
Beyond direct costs — absenteeism, turnover, health insurance — the impact on productivity, innovation and employer brand is substantial, including for Swiss subsidiaries of international groups exposed to the same dynamics. In Switzerland, where many companies have already launched well-being initiatives, the issue is no longer whether action is needed, but how to continue shifting from a largely defensive logic (risk management) towards a more proactive one, making well-being and engagement genuine levers of value creation.
These shifts do not all point in the same direction: they create both performance opportunities and new organisational risks that companies must learn to balance.
First, hybrid remote work has become the new norm. In Switzerland, more than one-third of the working population works from home at least occasionally, a figure that has stabilised since the pandemic. This model is no longer merely a logistical issue; it is reshaping managerial trust and employees’ sense of belonging.
Second, the search for meaning has moved from a generational concern to a strategic one. Millennials and Gen Z are no longer looking only for competitive pay: they want an employer aligned with their social and environmental values. In the Swiss market, where competition for talent is particularly intense, ignoring this imperative means losing access to top profiles.
Third, greater flexibility in working hours is advancing alongside a new requirement: the right to disconnect. Without explicit rules on availability, remote work leads to a silent extension of working hours — a documented risk that neither companies nor legislators can now afford to ignore.
Fourth, younger generations’ expectations are redefining the employer value proposition. Workload, mental well-being, diversity, environmental impact: these are now the criteria that differentiate employers in the race for talent, more than salary alone.
Fifth, mental health is the most underestimated emergency. Chronic stress, lack of recognition, financial pressure: around 40% of Gen Z report being permanently stressed. Companies that invest in listening and psychological support gain a measurable advantage in engagement — those that downplay the issue entrench disengagement over the long term.
It is no longer HR that tells the company’s story: employees themselves have become its first ambassadors — or its first critics.
Contrary to a common misconception, the companies furthest ahead on working conditions are not the most “socially minded”, but often the most demanding: they use quality of life at work not as a comfort feature, but as a structured lever for performance and accountability. The 2024 Qualisocial–IPSOS Barometer quantifies this unequivocally: organisations committed to a structured approach to quality of life at work have 4.6 times more engaged employees, and 71% of them are deemed high-performing. Flexibility, mental health, continuous training, supportive leadership: these levers are no longer a perk granted to employees, but a systemic investment with measurable returns in productivity, creativity and organisational resilience.
The challenge now extends beyond internal performance alone. At a time when ESG criteria shape access to financing, and employer rankings — based on tens of thousands of employee assessments — influence candidates’ choices, working conditions have become a pillar of reputation and attractiveness.
In Switzerland, the best-rated companies are precisely those that combine competitive pay, a high-quality environment and genuine development opportunities. It is no longer HR that tells the company’s story: employees themselves have become its first ambassadors — or its first critics.
The transformations reshaping work — digitalisation, hybrid models, the search for meaning, shifting generational expectations, mental health concerns and a more demanding employer brand — point to one clear conclusion: working conditions have become a central lever of competitiveness and sustainability, including for Swiss companies already at the forefront of these issues. Those that choose to invest in well-being, engagement and purpose — drawing on academic partners such as IMSG and demanding frameworks such as B Corp — are not merely responding to employee expectations; they are equipping themselves to remain competitive and attractive over the long term.
The question is therefore no longer whether a company can afford to invest in working conditions, but how it can concretely turn them into a decisive advantage for its teams, its employer brand and its standing in the market. Working conditions are no longer a social benefit: they have become a strategic management tool. Companies that grasp this are moving ahead. Others, without always realising it, risk systematically eroding their own attractiveness.
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