Talents for Implenia

The shortage of skilled workers is getting worse, and in the medium term it is becoming a big challenge for the success of our projects. The situation is set to deteriorate further over the next few years in many parts of the Group, as older employees reach retirement age. When they go, we’ll lose not only their labour but also their know-how. The issue couldn’t be clearer: attracting and retaining “Talents for Implenia” is a top priority. How are we tackling this challenge?

Focus on recruitment

The answer is: on multiple fronts! One of these fronts is recruitment. We do whatever we can to be visible in the labour market, and we use a variety of tools to reach potential new colleagues. Social media plays an increasingly important role here. “LinkedIn is the most important channel for recruitment,” explains Silvan Merki, Head Marketing/Communications. “Meanwhile, TikTok is being used more and more widely. We’re getting a lot of positive reactions to videos of employees and our fantastic projects. What is more, once the videos have been published, we often receive good applications.” Social media thrives on networking. Help us find new employees by sharing Implenia posts on your social networks and forwarding them to people you think might be interested.

One channel that Implenia wants to use much more intensively is word-of-mouth. Good people often know other good people. Now’s the time to bring these friends and acquaintances to Implenia. “The ‘Employees recruit employees’ programme has been running for years,” explains Chief Human Resources Officer Claudia Bidwell. “Now we all need to step up: Take a regular look at our situations vacant and actively get in touch with people you know if you think they could be a good fit. In most cases, there are rewards for anyone who manages to find new employees for Implenia. So it could be worth your while financially as well.”

An attractive environment

But Implenia doesn’t just need new employees. It’s just as important to hold on to existing colleagues for the long term. In many cases, we can do this by continually winning attractive projects and offering exciting jobs and responsibilities. In fact, many – especially young – colleagues say that their main motivation for working at Implenia is the opportunity to learn on exciting projects.

In addition to the actual job, people’s decision to join or stay with Implenia is also influenced by the working environment. Our ambition here is to be a diverse, fair and inclusive company and to offer all employees a modern working environment in which they feel they belong and where they can do their best every day. To this end, Implenia published its first Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Policy (DEI Policy) in May. This should help ensure equal opportunities for each individual, reduce discrimination and prejudice, and make the working environment more attractive for all employees.

Issues such as achieving a good balance between work and family life, for example, affect both mothers and fathers, and are gaining in importance. Flexible working hours and opportunities to work from home make life easier in many places. However, this is not always easy to do in the hectic project business or on construction sites. Our challenge here is to work on finding solutions.

As well as young employees, it is becoming increasingly important to hold on to experienced workers for longer – sometimes even beyond retirement age. This works very well in some cases. Initiatives such as the “Senior Expert Pool” aim to institutionalise this model.

These are just a few of the ways in which Implenia is seeking to ensure that we have enough employees in future to keep implementing our exciting projects. Do you have any suggestions or ideas how we could make our work environment even more attractive? Then get involved in an interest group or contact us via the Kickbox platform.