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 Recruiter 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 19th of September and the 4th of November 2022, Statista asked HR managers of companies, recruitment agencies, and candidates about their experience with staffing agencies. More than 6,300 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

Since May 31st, Swiss restaurants are allowed to open indoors again. That should be good news, but many venues are unable to increase their capacity as planned. Some are even staying closed. This is all due to a lack of staff, both front of house and in the kitchen. In a recent survey, Coople asked over 1,300 flexible workers, who worked in the hospitality sector before COVID, how they assess their current career prospects compared to before, and whether their career goals have changed.

The Swiss hospitality industry has been more or less closed for months. Amongst other things, this led to foreign professionals returning to their home countries and Swiss hospitality staff finding jobs in other sectors. Even though restaurants and hotels can open both indoors and outdoors again there is still uncertainty, and many fear another lockdown.

More than one in eight could turn their back on the hospitality industry

At the end of May, Coople conducted a large survey with more than 1,300 flexible workers* who used to work in hospitality either part- or full-time before COVID. Results show that many workers find hospitality jobs less attractive than before.

When asked whether they would like to continue working in the hospitality industry, 45.3% (597 people) of 1,319 flexible workers ‘can’t wait’ to work in the hospitality industry again. 41.3% answered that they ‘can see themselves going back’, while 13.5% were not sure or ‘can’t really imagine’ going back. This means that around one in eight flex workers with experience in the hospitality sector could turn their backs on the industry, temporarily or permanently.

When asked why they are unsure or can’t see themselves returning to the hospitality sector, the four most common answers were: Desire for better pay (20.8%), better job security (20.2%), more flexibility (16%) or better working hours (12.8%).

Concerns about career prospects

The survey also asked participants how COVID and restaurant closures affected their professional situation and their expectations for the future. Most respondents (77.19%) indicated that Corona has impacted their career moderately to very much (6.7 Ø value, 0 = not at all / 10 = very much).

Corona’s impact also influences hospitality workers’ assessment of their career prospects: Only 21.8% of survey participants are not worried about their career prospects (“Are you worried about your future career prospects?”; 5.5 Ø-value, 0 = not at all / 10 = very much). On the other hand, 8 out of 10 survey participants are worried or very worried about their career prospects.

Job losses in hospitality often result in a career change

When asked about their current employment, 29.2% of respondents stated that they lost their job and are looking for work. 23% receive short-time work compensation. 13.6% had lost their job but have since found a new one. Out of this group of 159 people, the majority (63.7%) said that they have changed to another industry and no longer work in hospitality.

Attractive working conditions could help to mitigate the loss of hospitality staff

Yves Schneuwly, Managing Director of Coople (Schweiz) AG says:

“Our survey clearly shows that it is currently difficult for hospitality businesses in Switzerland to bring back their experienced staff. This can slow down their recovery after the crisis or, in the worst case, make it impossible. On the one hand, this has to do with a change in workers’ attitudes. On the other hand, it could be at least partially mitigated by improved working conditions. The question is whether businesses are financially and organisationally able to do so following the long lockdowns.”

The survey shows that many hospitality workers would like better pay. Average wages in this sector are comparatively low today. However, many companies cannot afford to raise wage levels in the current situation. Additional incentives such as bonuses or commission, which could counteract the lack of staff, are also difficult to implement in this case.

However, the survey also shows that increased flexibility and adjusted working hours could keep at least some of the hospitality staff in the industry. The option to return to work at one’s own pace and to have a say in the length of jobs, workload, working days or even work locations are all attractive to many workers.

The future of work will be characterised by flexibility and autonomy. This is no different in the hospitality sector. Companies that meet the increasing demand for flexibility and consistently rely on a high proportion of flexible workers set themselves up for long-term success. With digital marketplaces like Coople, personnel planning can be done bottom up. Done this way, workers can select the jobs that suit them and motivation remains high as a result.

View infographic

* Survey participants:

1‘319 participants, not representative for all flexible workers in the Swiss hospitality sector

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

They have completed flexible shifts as bartenders, front of house staff, chefs, waiters, kitchen porters, and more

Average age: 37.3 years

On average, they have worked 257 hours on the Coople platform

Largest number of participants comes from the Canton of ZH, followed by BE, GE, AG, VD, SG