“Swiss businesses are really open, if you bring the right skills and make some effort to adapt to the place you are working for then you will be accepted,” Jim Pulcrano, executive director at the Lausanne-based IMD business school, told swissinfo.ch. Thousands to take highly skilled work – including management positions. The opening of borders to European Union workers, starting in 2002, has helped plug the shortfall, with Germans in particular arriving in their
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In addition, the growth of Swiss companies abroad also generates jobs in Switzerland and many manufacturers complain that the local workforce cannot fill enough highly skilled new positions.
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Entrance and expansion to new markets requires multinational knowledge and expertise. With such a small domestic market, Swiss firms are forced to seek revenues and growth abroad to remain competitive. The economic arguments behind filling so many top positions with foreigners also appears compelling. Switzerland is no stranger to hiring foreign talent with such illustrious names as the German Henri Nestlé and Lebanese immigrant Nicolas Hayek (Swatch) hailed as having made enormous contributions to the economy.
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Within the next couple of years, about one in every two top managers in Swiss companies is expected to hail from overseas – a situation that has led to a growing backlash against the influence of foreigners.Ī report by recruitment firm Guido Schilling estimates that 45 per cent of all executives currently at Swiss firms comes from abroad, and this will jump to 50 per cent by 2015.