During Yves’ tenure, Coople achieved key milestones. We significantly expanded our business in Switzerland and the UK, increased our customer base and the number of flexible workers (Cooplers), entered new industries, delivered meaningful social impact projects and developed innovative solutions to meet the evolving needs of our clients. As a result, we not only made Coople the leading digital staffing provider in Switzerland but also one of the largest and most influential players in the industry.

Over the past six years, we have tripled the business in size and laid the foundations for our next chapter. Today, Coople is well-positioned to achieve its ambitious goals and actively shape the future of flexible work.

Looking ahead, Daniel Staffelbach, Country Manager Switzerland, and Rufus Hood, Country Manager UK, will continue to drive local business development. Both will work closely with CEO Hadi Moussa and the leadership team to drive Coople’s growth and success in the next phase of its journey.

We thank Yves for his dedication, leadership and invaluable contributions. He leaves behind a strong, committed team and a business ready to reach new heights. We wish Yves well in his future endeavors and look forward to seeing the great things he will accomplish.

A background studded by a passion for technology and innovation

Hadi Moussa brings with him a wealth of leadership experience from some of the most dynamic and innovative digital marketplaces in the world. His career spans impactful roles at Meta (formerly Facebook), Airbnb, Deliveroo, and Coursera, where he demonstrated a consistent track record of driving growth and innovation.

At Meta, Moussa played a pivotal role in strategy, operations and business development to support revenue growth and expand the company’s footprint and penetration across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. During his tenure at Airbnb, he held senior leadership positions, overseeing operations in diverse regions including the UK, Northern Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Central Eastern Europe. His strategic and commercial acumen and his leadership in navigating complex regulatory landscapes were key in driving market penetration and growth across the markets.

For Deliveroo, Moussa served as Chief Business Officer, International, where he led the company’s expansion in more than 10 countries, doubling the international business amidst the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. He managed a large team and significantly scaled Deliveroo’s operations leading to its IPO, and subsequently managed the business on its path to profitability. Most recently, at Coursera, he served as VP and General Manager, where he led and expanded the global Consumer business. He also served as the General Manager of Europe, Middle East and Africa and drove the Enterprise business in the region to reinforce Coursera’s position as a leader in online education.

Hadi Moussa holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, an M.Sc. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, and a B.Eng. in Computer & Communications Engineering from the American University of Beirut.

Why Coople?

Expressing his enthusiasm about joining Coople, Moussa said, “Coople is a business with a great mission, a strong team and significant potential to grow with major opportunities in new verticals, products and markets. I see immense potential for Coople to create value for both customers and Cooplers by doubling down on its long-term vision and further differentiating itself in the market.”

When considering the future of Coople, the newly appointed CEO identifies several critical challenges and opportunities. Chief among these is navigating the competitive landscape of the staffing industry, where differentiation through a compelling value proposition is essential. “As we look ahead, our goal is to strengthen Coople’s position by refining our value proposition, enhancing our competitive edge and expanding into new markets,” Moussa said. “By focusing on strategic diversification and execution, we aim to capture new opportunities and deliver exceptional value to our clients, Cooplers and stakeholders.”

Moussa’s strategic vision for Coople underscores a commitment to driving meaningful growth while maintaining a steadfast dedication to excellence and innovation in the digital staffing sector. Viktor Calabrò, Coople Founder and Board member comments: “With Hadi joining our team, we are poised for an exciting new chapter. His exceptional technical expertise, coupled with a distinguished history of scaling businesses and visionary entrepreneurial spirit, will undoubtedly drive our company forward. We are confident in his ability to further advance our trajectory of growth and innovation.”

David Klein, Chairman of Coople’s Board and Co-Founder and Managing Partner of One Peak Partners, adds: “Hadi is a visionary leader with a proven track record of driving innovation and growth in leading global marketplace businesses. We are thrilled that he is joining Coople and look forward to working with him and the entire Coople team in continuing to build out Coople’s leadership position in digital recruitment.”

Coople, the leading platform for digital staffing, has set a record by reaching the milestone of 600,000 registered workers. This achievement reflects the company’s exponential growth over the past few years. Coople recognized the trend towards digital recruitment at an early stage, consistently followed this approach, and has now built Switzerland’s largest worker community. In just one year, the company has registered over 110,000 new users.

Yves Schneuwly, CCO of Coople, describes the success story as follows:

“Coople was born in 2009. Our digital platform was designed from the outset for temporary work. As a global pioneer and trailblazer in the field of staffing innovation, we open completely new perspectives for flexible workers. Our cutting-edge product features set the standard and are unparalleled. This takes us to a new level of understanding and application of technology that directly impacts the user experience. The fact that our workers appreciate this is evident from our growth figures. We are currently experiencing an increase of almost 10,000 new registrations per month.”

This impressive increase in popularity has attracted interest from a wide range of industries. As more and more companies from different sectors join the platform and independently use its innovative staffing solution, Coople continues to bridge the gap between qualified workers and companies, demonstrating its ongoing commitment to its core mission: matching talented workers with the right companies at the right time. For the seventh year in a row, Coople has received the highest rating in the category ” Best Recruiter for Temporary Work 2023″ from Handelszeitung, PME, and the statistical company Statista.

Flexible working remains popular

The international “Global Talent Study” of 2021 shows that 84% of employees in Switzerland would like to be able to benefit from flexible working hours. A recent survey by swissstaffing also shows that more and more people are consciously opting for temporary working models. According to the study, the meaning of work, autonomy, and work-life balance have become more important, while the desire for security remains constant. Temporary work serves as both a bridge to permanent employment and provides optimal conditions for workers seeking more flexibility. An internal survey conducted by Coople in June confirms the trend: 80% of respondents wish to work flexibly, at least partially.

Particularly in times of skills and labour shortages, the unlimited flexibility that Coople offers its employees is a vital tool in attracting, retaining, and even reintegrating people who want to return to work. Combined with its commitment to matching qualified workers with the right companies, the company has firmly established itself as a leader in the digital staffing industry. Since August 2011, the Coople Jobs app has been publicly and freely available. Workers can use it to find temporary jobs according to their preferences and flexibility.

On a European level, Coople is in the final stretch of the race to one million registered workers. The company is expected to reach the seven-digit user milestone before the end of the year.

About Coople

Since its founding in Zurich in 2009, Coople has developed into Europe’s largest digital
platform for staff leasing with over 950,000 registered workers and 30,000 companies. The
company places flexible workers for short- and long-term assignments in the areas of
healthcare, gastronomy, hotel business, retail, aviation, logistics, events and promotion as well
as in the commercial sector.

Coople has received the award “Best Recruiters for Temporary Work” for the 7th time running.

The annual survey to find the best staffing agencies in Switzerland is conducted by the Handelszeitung and the statistics company Statista. Coople received the highest rating in the category “Best Recruiter for Temporary Work”.

Yves Schneuwly, CCO of Coople,: “The seventh consecutive award as Best Recruiter for Temporary Work is a great success for Coople and underlines our commitment to keep improving every day. We have a unique growth story that has shown us that we now play in the same league as the big traditional competitors. As a digital-native, we are in a unique position to lead the candidates, the hiring companies, and the industry into digital staffing and we see its digitalisation as an opportunity to improve efficiency, quality, and transparency for all parties involved.”

Between the 11th of September and the 3rd of November 2023, Statista asked HR managers of companies, recruitment agencies, and candidates about their experience with staffing agencies. More than 7,000 HR managers and recruitment agencies received an invitation to participate in the online survey directly by email. These results were then used to identify the best recruiters.

The majority of COVID-19 measures in Switzerland have been lifted since February 17th, 2022. The hospitality industry in particular is benefitting from the removal of COVID-19 protection measures and expects good capacity utilisation, thanks to the increasing number of events and the impending arrival of spring. However, despite the upswing, it is worth taking a closer look at the current situation in the hospitality sector. Many companies were affected by staff shortages in the lead-up to the pandemic, and the landscape of work and recruitment in hospitality have undergone seismic changes since. To better understand worker sentiments, Coople conducted a survey with over 2’000 hospitality professionals who worked before and during the COVID-19 crisis. Once again, the results illustrate just how much one’s priorities and perception of work has changed for flexible staff.

The Swiss hospitality industry looks back on two years of lockdowns and multiple adjustments to coronavirus protection measures. One of the consequences of this is that medium to long-term planning of operational and staffing needs has become difficult. Recently, restaurants and hotels have been allowed to operate again at full capacity and without COVID-19 safety measures. The fear of another lockdown that prevailed last year will be replaced by operational uncertainty in 2022, which relates in particular to the threat of staff shortages and the expected rush of hotel and restaurant visitors in the coming months.

Only one third of the participants are fully convinced of a return to the hospitality industry

After Coople conducted a large survey among flexible workers in June 2021, 2’000 people were surveyed once again in February / March 2022. All respondents had worked in the hospitality sector before and during the pandemic, either on a full-time or part-time basis. The results show that the attractiveness of jobs in the hospitality industry continues to decline significantly in the eyes of many employees. 

When answering the question of whether or not flexible workers would like to return to the hospitality industry, only 35.7% were completely convinced that they would like to work in this sector again, compared to 45.3% in June 2021. Nevertheless, 44.5% answered that they can see themselves going back, while 19.7% consider a return to the hospitality sector uncertain to impossible.

When asked why a return to the hospitality industry was unlikely, the four most common answers in 2022 were: the desire for better pay (41%), more flexibility (29.5%), a job with better working hours (26.1%) or the desire for better jo security (23.1%).

Concerns about one’s professional future decrease

Much like in the 2021 survey, participants were asked to rate the extent to which their professional life has changed due to COVID-19 and whether they are worried about their professional future. Most respondents indicated that their professional life has changed at least moderately to very much (5.7 average value, 0 = no influence / 10 = strong influence). This average value decreased compared to 2021 (6.7 Ø value), which can be explained by a medium-term adaptation to the pandemic situation and a change in and adjustment to everyday life.

At the same time, the individual perception of one’s professional future among flexible workers in the hospitality industry has also changed: in 2022, just under 35.6% of respondents (values 0 to 2) state that they have little or no worries about their future career prospects (in 2021, only 21%). Compared to 2021 (5.5 Ø value), the distribution of respondents who are moderately to very worried about their future decreased noticeably (4.6 Ø value, 0 = not at all / 10 = very strongly).

Lack of skilled staff and uncertainty in personnel planning as the biggest challenge

When asked about the biggest challenge for businesses in the hospitality sector, 17.3% of respondents cited “lack of skilled staff”, closely followed by the associated uncertainty in staff planning (15.1%). 12.6% of respondents also consider fewer foreign tourists to be a noticeable challenge. As many as 11.2% still see financial bottlenecks as the main challenge for business in 2022.

The upcoming staff shortage can be counteracted with attractive pay and flexible working time models

Daniel Staffelbach, Country Manager at Coople (Switzerland): “Our latest survey shows that despite the lifting of the Coronavirus measures, it is currently difficult for hospitality businesses in Switzerland to fall back on their traditional, experienced staff in order to adequately cope with the expected rush in the coming weeks and months. The survey confirms that many employees in this sector would like to earn more and also have some flexibility in their working hours”.

Yves Schneuwly, CCO of Coople: “We see a recognisable trend here towards a “sustained loss of confidence” in the hospitality industry. We strongly advise that it is important to act now and that it is not enough to just indicate the demand for staff. There needs to be a strategic emphasis on responding to the wishes and demands of staff.”

Average wages are still comparatively low and significantly reduce the attractiveness factor of the industry. The industry and the employers themselves are in a real dilemma here, as many companies cannot (yet) afford to raise wage levels in the current situation.

The 2022 survey also confirms the trend towards greater flexibility and autonomy in the hospitality industry. This trend can not only be implemented by every company, but it can even help save money. Companies that respond to the growing demand for flexibility and systematically rely on a flexible workforce are laying the right foundations in the short and medium term. In order for this trend to be sustainable, companies should strategically build up a pool of flexible workers.

This enables them to react optimally to fluctuations in supply and demand, while positioning themselves as a flexible and attractive employer. Today, staff planning no longer has to be done from the top down, but can also be done from the bottom up with the help of a digital marketplace such as Coople. In this way, employees retain their autonomy in choosing the jobs that suit them and their motivation remains high.

View infographic

About Coople

Since its founding in Zurich in 2009, Coople has developed into Europe’s largest digital platform for staff leasing with over 650,000 registered employees and 20,000 companies. The company places flexible workers for short- and long-term assignments in the areas of healthcare, gastronomy, hotel business, retail, aviation, logistics, events and promotion as well as in the commercial sector.
www.coople.com

Survey/participants:

2,016 participants, not representative of all flexible workers in Swiss gastronomy.

All participants were active users of the Coople platform in the last 8 months.

Coople flexible workers in the restaurant/hospitality industry, e.g. barman/barmaid, receptionists, chefs, waiters or dishwashers