by Content Manager | 9 Jul 2025 | Corporate Training, HR, Management innovation, recruitment best practices, talent acquisition
How do you evaluate what you cannot see? In today’s job market, recruiting for invisible skills—like adaptability, discernment, and emotional intelligence—has become a central challenge. Traditional credentials no longer guarantee a fit. So how can HR and hiring managers identify what truly matters?
This article explores how recruitment must evolve—methodologically, ethically, and strategically—to meet the demands of today’s fragmented careers and rising expectations.
The end of standard career paths?
Traditional indicators—degrees, years of experience, employer prestige—are losing predictive value. In SMEs, startups, and innovation-driven sectors, candidates bring diverse and unconventional profiles.
Rather than filter out non-traditional candidates, smart hiring practices recognize the value of hybrid experiences. For instance, long-term NGO professionals or self-taught developers often demonstrate key traits: problem-solving, adaptability, contextual intelligence.
Behavioral skills: the new benchmark
The World Economic Forum highlights emotional intelligence, complex problem-solving, and cognitive flexibility as essential future skills. Yet few recruitment tools reliably assess these in structured ways.
Key challenges:
- Defining soft skills tailored to organizational context
- Measuring them without standardized tests
Some Swiss companies have adapted interview protocols post-COVID to focus more on emotional resilience, remote communication, and fast iteration capacity—behavioral traits now essential for performance.
Recruiting: an art or a skill ?
Many hiring decisions are still made on instinct—“I had a good feeling.” But biases (halo effect, similarity bias) often cloud judgment. Neuroscience and behavioral science advise structured methods instead.
How to professionalize recruitment:
- Define and isolate behavioral from hard skills
- Use shared evaluation grids between HR and managers
- Ask targeted, open-ended questions
- Train teams on cognitive bias
- Implement post-interview reflection protocols
Filmed role-play interviews, used in recruiter training, help professionals see unconscious behaviors—revealing how posture, tone, or question framing can distort evaluation.
Interviews as tools for qualitative evaluation
A well-structured interview isn’t just procedural—it’s diagnostic. Using unexpected or ambiguous scenarios reveals more than rehearsed answers.
Recommended practices (Harvard Business Review, 2021):
- Semi-structured interviews with open scenarios
- Focus on how candidates think and adapt, not just what they know
- Observe stress responses and reasoning pathways
This approach—validated by Levashina et al. (Journal of Applied Psychology, 2014)—improves predictive accuracy without dehumanizing the process.
Training hiring managers: a strategic gap
Too often, final hiring decisions fall to operational managers without structured interview training. This undermines consistency, fairness, and legal compliance.
Why this matters:
- Untrained managers often default to “gut feeling”
- They risk asking inappropriate questions
- Candidate experience suffers
Workshops using simulations, shared evaluation grids, and role-play interviews can build capacity fast—without overburdening teams. It’s about enabling discernment, not turning managers into HR experts.
Recruiting with fairness: a strategic and ethical duty
Every recruitment decision reflects your employer brand and ethical posture. Inclusive, behavior-aware hiring builds both equity and long-term success.
As HR professionals, the role is not to enforce compliance alone, but to enable high-quality human connections. The invisible skills that matter most require careful attention, structured tools, and genuine curiosity.
Between uncertainty and discernment lies the new frontier of recruiting.
FAQ – invisible skills in recruitment
What are “invisible skills”?
They include adaptability, emotional intelligence, collaborative mindset, and contextual reasoning—traits not visible on a resume but essential in complex environments.
Can behavioral traits be measured?
Not with precision, but they can be revealed through scenario-based interviews, structured observations, and manager training programs.
Why train hiring managers?
Because most hiring errors come from unstructured evaluations. Training reduces bias, improves consistency, and enhances decision quality.
What’s the ROI of better hiring?
Avoiding one poor hire can save 1–1.5x annual salary. It also improves team cohesion, reduces attrition, and strengthens employer brand.
Hiring as discernment, not just selection
Recruiting today requires more than screening. It requires observation, curiosity, and clarity of need. Invisible skills can be surfaced—with the right structure and mindset.
As we rethink hiring, let’s embrace this complexity—not as a burden, but as a strategic opportunity for deeper alignment between people and purpose.
by Content Manager | 7 Jul 2025 | business strategy, Corporate Training, Digital Transformation, Human resources, Leadership
Recruitment, training, generational shifts, soft skills, digitalization… The challenges are many, but Human Resources today have the opportunity to reinvent their strategic role. In Switzerland, this transformation is already underway — and it often begins with constructive self-reflection. A better-equipped, more conscious HR function can become a decisive lever for organizational growth.
An HR Role in Full Redefinition
For a long time, HR was seen as a support service — ensuring administrative processes and compliance with labor laws. Today, that model is reaching its limits. Current challenges go far beyond compliance: it’s about building a culture, supporting transformation, and bringing a vision to life through talent.
In Switzerland, faced with a shortage of qualified labor, digital transformation, and evolving social expectations, HR must become strategic partners. This requires a new posture: more proactive, more influential, and more connected to human realities.
Recruiting in the Era of Invisible Skills
Recruiting today means navigating uncertainty. Career paths are no longer linear, experiences go beyond resumes, and behavioral competencies often outweigh technical skills.
But how do you detect emotional intelligence, adaptability, or resilience in an interview? How do you avoid confirmation bias? Many recruiters feel alone facing these issues.
A structured approach — based on observation, role plays, and the right questions — helps secure hires while respecting each candidate’s uniqueness. This expertise doesn’t come by chance: it’s developed through practical, directly applicable training.
Teaching Is No Longer Improvised
Technical knowledge alone is no longer enough. In a constantly changing world, effective knowledge transfer is a strategic challenge — to quickly onboard new employees, retain critical know-how, and support internal change.
Yet many experts are suddenly made trainers without pedagogical tools or guidance. The result: uninspiring training sessions where attention drops quickly and real impact is hard to measure.
Learning to become a trainer means acquiring concrete methods to structure a session, engage an audience, and assess learning outcomes. It also requires a mindset shift: more learner-focused, more impact-oriented. In a learning culture, this is a powerful lever for Swiss HR teams.
Generations Y and Z: Challenge or Opportunity?
Intergenerational dialogue can be tricky in the workplace. Younger employees expect flexibility, feedback, autonomy, and purpose. Older colleagues value stability, expertise, and long-term loyalty. Each often thinks the other “doesn’t understand the world of work.”
Rather than oppose these views, we can build an inclusive culture that values complementarities. But this requires deep insight into generational behaviors, needs, and motivational drivers.
Targeted training can help decode these differences, adapt management styles, and foster trust. After all, every generation seeks recognition and usefulness — just in different ways.
Can Digital Tools Support the Human?
HR automation is progressing rapidly: AI-powered sourcing, digital onboarding, performance platforms, LMS for training… These tools are not neutral. Poorly used, they dehumanize; properly integrated, they free time for what really matters.
Yet many HR professionals are still poorly supported in adopting these solutions — or they experience them top-down, through a technocratic lens.
Learning about HR digitalization doesn’t mean becoming a technician. It means understanding the stakes behind the tools, choosing the right ones, and integrating them into a people-centered strategic vision. In Switzerland, where management culture still values human connection, this hybridization is crucial.
Equipping HR Is Equipping the Business
HR training is not an end in itself — it’s a lever for transformation. It gives professionals the tools to navigate uncertainty, better understand the people they support, and contribute actively to business strategy.
In Switzerland, companies that invest in upskilling their HR teams also invest in the sustainability of their culture, the quality of their recruitment, and the smoothness of their internal transitions.
by Content Manager | 23 Jun 2025 | business strategy, customer experience, Human resources, Training & Development
Why do so many companies struggle to build genuine customer loyalty, even with solid products and experienced salespeople?
Because they overlook a critical factor: the quality of human interaction at every level of the organisation. Client relationships are not just about calls and meetings — they’re rooted in company culture, the way people are trained, how skills are managed, and the role HR plays as a strategic driver.
Why do customers leave?
This is the question that haunts leadership teams. They revise sales scripts, switch CRM systems, redesign offerings. Yet despite all the effort, customers still churn. In a world ruled by immediacy, loyalty has become a kind of holy grail — and a source of constant anxiety.
But loyalty doesn’t hinge solely on the product or the salesperson. It’s built through small gestures, thoughtful experiences, consistency. And that requires far more than just a sales department. It involves the entire organisation.
So the real question becomes: Is your company truly listening to its clients — or is it hoping that one team will do that work alone?
Customer relationships are not just the sales team’s job
In Swiss companies — especially SMEs and decentralised structures — sales teams are often under pressure: to acquire, convince, close. But selling today is no longer a one-off transaction. It’s a continuous process where every touchpoint matters.
A field technician, a back-office assistant replying to an invoice request, a trainer delivering a service — each one, in their own way, shapes the customer experience. And, ultimately, customer loyalty.
Customer relationship training should not be reserved for sales roles. It’s a cross-functional issue. One that HR can and must lead.
Human skills first
Sales skills in the 21st century are no longer just about persuasion. They’re grounded in human abilities: empathy, listening, assertiveness, relationship-building, anticipating needs.
These capabilities are often found in unexpected profiles — project managers, quality leads, customer support reps, internal consultants. But they must be identified, valued, and developed. That calls for serious investment in skills mapping, learning strategies, and leadership culture.
Internal engagement drives external loyalty
One often overlooked truth: customer loyalty starts with employee loyalty. A company that cannot retain and engage its own people is unlikely to build lasting relationships with its clients. High turnover, psychological fatigue, and lack of recognition all erode the customer experience.
On the other hand, companies that focus on collective intelligence, continuous learning, and employee empowerment naturally deliver better client interactions — not by force, but through alignment. Through consistency.
Towards a relationship-driven culture
The best training programmes in customer acquisition and retention don’t just teach how to sell. They help embed a relationship-driven culture across the organisation. One that crosses silos, encourages listening, and turns client feedback into a driver of innovation.
For HR, this means moving beyond targeted workshops to leading genuine transformation: mapping relationship skills, redesigning learning journeys, developing hybrid roles, and building bridges across departments.
HR at a strategic crossroads
The question is no longer whether HR should support commercial performance. The real question is: can we still separate the two?
In a service economy, where trust is scarce and relationships define value, customer acquisition and retention are deeply human challenges. And therefore, fundamentally, HR responsibilities.
The most successful companies of tomorrow won’t be the ones that simply sell better — but the ones that train their teams to embody the company’s promise, every day.
by Swissnova | 2 Jun 2025 | Digital Skills, Leadership, Personal Development, Professional Communication
We talk a lot about digital transformation, agility, and artificial intelligence. But we talk less and less… about how we talk. Literally. Public speaking — this fundamental human capacity to structure and convey ideas to a group — seems to have disappeared from the list of professional priorities. Should we be concerned?
Orality, sidelined by digital writing
The proliferation of written communication tools (emails, instant messaging, collaboration platforms) has pushed live speaking into the background. Most workplace interactions now take place through interfaces where the voice is absent. Even meetings, often held over video calls, reduce oral expression to the bare minimum: we speak to “walk through slides,” not to embody ideas.
This evolution raises questions. Orality is not just one communication channel among others: it’s a mode of thinking, a way to build connection, exercise authority, and keep a culture alive. What isn’t expressed through speech often remains abstract, cold, or inert.
Public speaking: the benefits beyond expression
Teaching professionals to speak in public is not about crafting a “great speech.” It’s about helping them structure their thoughts, clarify their intentions, and find their place within a group.
The benefits are many:
- Stronger leadership: managers who express themselves clearly create a presence that fosters trust.
- Strategic alignment: a well-articulated idea is more easily understood — and more effectively implemented.
- Team cohesion: shared speech creates bonds where written communication can divide.
- Personal development: overcoming the fear of public speaking builds confidence and assertiveness across many aspects of work.
Why is this skill in decline?
Several factors explain this erosion:
- Tech-based interaction: digital tools reduce the need for direct, in-person communication.
- Time pressure and efficiency culture: it’s perceived as quicker to write an email than to prepare a clear, impactful talk.
- Lack of structured training: many organizations still see orality as an innate talent or a soft skill, not something to be rigorously developed.
- Personal discomfort: fear of public exposure remains high, even among experienced professionals.
The return of presence in a world of avatars
As communication becomes more virtual, embodied, spontaneous, vibrant speech paradoxically gains value. In a world flooded with AI-generated or templated content, hearing someone speak “for real” — with pauses, hesitations, emotion — becomes rare and powerful.
Some companies have understood this: they are bringing oral formats back — internal talks, participative seminars, team forums — and are training employees in these new rituals. Not to “perform,” but to create meaning, direction, and engagement.
A new kind of leadership — through a voice?
Speech is not merely a communication tool. It is a gesture of thought, a lever of influence. In a world increasingly dominated by fragmented messages and standardized content, it is essential to restore orality to its rightful place in professional life. The point is not to oppose speaking and digital tools, but to recognize — with clarity — that public speaking remains a powerful vector of meaning, clarity, and leadership.
At Swissnova, we see public speaking not as an accessory skill, but as a core lever for transmission, clarity, and impact. Training this ability isn’t about reassuring or freeing up expression — it’s about helping professionals master their influence with intention and purpose.
Our approach avoids communication tricks. Instead, it focuses on deeper work: refining intention, adjusting posture, articulating thought. It’s not about “speaking well,” but about making ideas move — in a living, structured, engaging way that resonates with others.
So the question isn’t just “How do we speak better?” but:
“What becomes of an organization where no one speaks anymore?”
by Swissnova | 26 May 2025 | Artificial Intelligence, Corporate Culture, Corporate Training, Digital Transformation, Management & Leadership
Artificial intelligence is reshaping business: why training is no longer optional ?
Artificial intelligence is not a technological revolution on the horizon. It is already here, quietly transforming practices, tools, and professions — sometimes before decision-makers have had time to step back. It is disrupting skill hierarchies, redefining the notion of human added value, and reshuffling the cards of leadership.
Yet in most organizations, the response to this transformation remains largely technical. Solutions are implemented. Tools are tested. But the essential is often overlooked: educating, creating a shared culture, offering support.
And this is not just an issue for developers. AI affects marketing, HR, finance, strategy, middle management… Training becomes a condition for operational clarity, organizational agility, and intellectual sovereignty.
The companies that will survive are not those who adopt AI the fastest, but those who truly understand what it changes — and adapt their skills accordingly.
The blind spots of inaction: what is at stake for companies that don’t support their teams?
Adopting AI without training is like giving a Formula 1 car to an untrained driver: you may go fast, but you don’t know where or how to stop.
Here’s what we observe on the ground in companies moving blindly forward:
- Poor use of tools: illusory time savings, loss of control, lack of critical thinking. The tool performs, but the disengaged human delegates without understanding.
- Flawed managerial judgments: trend-driven strategies, over-equipped but under-analyzed decisions. Without a strong framework, even top leadership loses its bearings.
- Ethical deficits: AI replicates data biases. If no one sees them, discriminatory practices are validated.
- Legal and compliance risks: GDPR, confidentiality, algorithmic responsibility… Training is also protection.
- Demotivation and resistance to change: fear replaces understanding. AI becomes a source of tension instead of a driver for transformation.
Training is not a “nice-to-have.” It’s organizational insurance in the face of systemic shock.
What AI training for which profiles? Building a 21st-century business culture
If we agree that training is essential, the next question is: who should be trained, in what, and how?
AI now affects all employees, regardless of hierarchy or function. Beyond professional use, it also shapes our daily lives: how we manage information, relate to work, perceive truth, and navigate digital autonomy. Training in AI also means reinforcing each person’s employability and autonomy in a changing world.
- Executives: strategy and governance
They must understand AI’s impact on business models, value chains, and the role of humans. It’s not about coding — it’s about leading with clarity.
- Managers: use cases and team support
Middle management is key to transformation. They must learn to identify the right tools, create dialogue, and provide reassurance without holding back progress.
- Operational roles: autonomy and frameworks
Tools exist, but without training, usage is often erratic. We need to teach critical skills, ethical reflexes, and concrete best practices.
- Employees from all backgrounds: digital culture and civic literacy
Understanding AI isn’t just about optimizing work. It’s also about talking about it, using it wisely, and integrating it into everyday life. Digital inclusion is a social issue as much as an HR opportunity.
A company ready for AI isn’t one that bought the latest software. It’s an organization where every level understands its role in relation to the machine.
Rather than following the current tech enthusiasm, we must take a step back. The challenge of AI isn’t just technical — it’s about shared understanding, the ability to make sense of complex and ambiguous systems.
It’s no longer enough to follow the movement — we must bring mastery, critical distance, and human responsibility to it.
Artificial intelligence is first and foremost a question of organizational culture, not just a technical decision. It’s not a topic for experts alone, but a cross-cutting, societal, and sustainable challenge.
Training today means building a company that can dialogue with its time — staying an actor, not a spectator, of the transformation.
Training, workshops, coaching, simulations: every company has its own path — but all must begin drawing it. So that technology serves culture, and not the other way around.
Want to start the conversation in your organization? Let’s talk.
by Swissnova | 19 May 2025 | Business transformation, Human resources, Leadership & Governance, Management & Organization, Management innovation
Why Current Models Are Showing Their Limits
As companies emerge—albeit unevenly—from years of turbulence—pandemic, inflation, supply chain disruptions, and digital transitions—a deeper challenge is taking shape: that of management.
Traditional categories—leader, manager, executive—seem increasingly ill-suited to today’s challenges. Behind the proliferation of discourse on “agility,” “well-being at work,” or “inspirational leadership,” a fundamental question is emerging: what if it’s the structures of power themselves, more than individuals, that need rethinking?
Leadership or Collective Coordination?
The 20th century produced a managerial imaginary centered on the figure of the leader: charismatic, visionary, a driver of transformation. This model remains prominent in professional literature, HR seminars, and MBA programs.
But in a world now marked by permanent uncertainty and systemic complexity, this paradigm is showing its limits.
Researchers like Henry Mintzberg and Frédéric Laloux advocate for a different approach: distributed leadership, where organizational performance depends less on one individual and more on the collective’s ability to self-organize, make decisions, and learn.
This implies a cultural shift—from management based on control to a logic of trust and subsidiarity.
Managerial Malaise: A systemic symptom
Studies keep pointing to the same issues: increased burnout among executives, silent resignations, and a crisis of meaning among middle managers.
They are expected to be strategists, coaches, team cohesion guarantors, and performance drivers—all at once. This role overload reflects less a lack of competence than a structural imbalance.
Management becomes a space of tension, where short-term economic objectives clash with human, ethical, and environmental expectations.
Rethinking Managerial Functions: an organizational urgency
Many organizations are trying to adapt their practices: holacracy, “teal” models, co-development, team coaching, collective intelligence… These attempts reveal one thing: the need to explore new configurations of power, authority, and decision-making.
But this is not just a technical adjustment. It’s deep work, involving cultural choices, political trade-offs, and often a change in posture from the leadership itself.
What Now?
The transformation of management will not come through a new miracle method or a proliferation of “soft skills” trainings. It requires a reflective, collective, and iterative effort on what it means today to “lead,” “coordinate,” and “mobilize.”
It’s time to ask the real questions:
- What constitutes legitimate power in an organization?
- What space is there for voice, disagreement, and initiative?
- How can responsibility be redefined without being diluted?
Want to go deeper?
Some institutions—research centers, practitioner collectives, training organizations—support this kind of reflection without imposing a specific model. For instance, Swissnova offers spaces for discussion and experimentation around new forms of management. Their approach is less prescriptive and more participative, favoring questions over ready-made answers.
This article is part of a series of reflections on the evolution of contemporary management. Its goal is not to promote a single model, but to open avenues for thought, based on the tensions observed in current practices.
by Swissnova | 13 May 2025 | ergonomics, health, HR, life, Manager, prevention, quality, risk
In Switzerland, as in other European countries, MSDs (musculoskeletal disorders) are the leading cause of occupational illness..
Back, shoulders, wrists, neck — certain pains can become a lasting part of the workday, affect performance, and lead to fatigue, absenteeism, or even long-term incapacity.
The causes? Repetitive movements, poor posture, constant pressure, and poorly adapted workstations that fail to support the body’s overall balance.
Why is this a critical issue for HR?
Because poorly addressed MSDs are costly:
- repeated absenteeism,
- replacement time,
- moral wear and tear and a sense of injustice.
But also because they often carry an invisible load: organizational stress, cognitive overload, and inattentive management that overlooks early warning signs. Yet, a few targeted adjustments can often prevent these risks in a sustainable way.
Concrete levers to activate within the organization
It is possible (and necessary) to co-build an integrated prevention approach through:
- Ergonomic analysis of workstations.
- Training in proper movements and posture.
- Regular assessments of risky behaviors.
- A culture of shared vigilance among HR, managers, and employees.
At pioneering companies, MSD prevention is embedded in a broader Quality of Work Life (QWL) and Quality of Work and Working Conditions (QWLC) strategy.
Training: a foundation for behavioral change
Training in MSD prevention helps to:
- Raise awareness of risk factors,
- Change ingrained yet ineffective behaviors,
- Sustain long-term performance while protecting health.
These training sessions combine theory, real-life field situations, physical exercises, and targeted microlearning modules. They are designed for everyone: physical jobs, screen-based roles, logistics, office staff, and managers, etc.,s.
And now… who takes care of the body at work?
At a time when ecological transition, CSR, and responsible performance are top priorities, why is the question of the body at work still so overlooked?
How can we integrate physical and mental prevention efforts?
And above all: who leads these internal health transitions within organizations? HR, QHSE, senior management — or all of them together?
These are fundamental questions for establishing a sustainable approach to well-being and performance.
by Swissnova | 7 May 2025 | feedback, HR, knowledge, Manager
Beyond the traditional annual evaluation, feedback is now recognized as a key tool for development, motivation, and agility. Yet, it remains insufficiently integrated into day-to-day managerial practices.
According to Gallup (2019), employees who receive regular and constructive feedback are 3.6 times more engaged than others. Conversely, the absence of concrete feedback can lead to confusion, frustration, loss of trust — and ultimately, disengagement.
Why is this relational dimension a strategic issue?
Because feedback is not just an individual reflex. It is an integral part of collective dynamics, a team’s ability to adjust quickly, and a culture of continuous improvement.
A well-formulated feedback supports three essential dimensions:
- Learning: drawing clear lessons from one’s actions,
- Motivation: feeling recognized in one’s role,
- Agility: quickly adjusting attitude, communication, and organization.
But without clear intent, a method, or structure, feedback can become clumsy or even harmful — hence the need for vigilance.
Establishing a sustainable feedback culture
Several structured approaches exist to professionalize feedback practices:
- The SBI model (Situation, Behavior, Impact),
- The DESC method (Describe, Express, Specify, Conclude) for managing tensions,
- 360° feedback to create a virtuous circle of reciprocal listening.
Scheduling feedback rituals (weekly, post-project, etc.), clarifying mutual expectations, and developing active listening: all are simple levers to deploy, provided they are based on the right mindset.
Training as an Anchor Point
Implementing a true feedback culture requires time and consistency. But also, at certain key moments, structured training and alignment sessions that allow:
- Acquiring a common language around feedback,
- Practicing managerial postures in various contexts (success / error / tension),
- Identifying individual or cultural barriers to regular feedback.
Well-designed training acts as a catalyst for collective evolution, provided it is followed by real implementation.
And now… Can feedback really be natural?
Is it possible, in some teams, to spontaneously foster a feedback culture without it feeling artificial or top-down?
Should the practice be standardized, or should the desire emerge naturally?
And above all: how can we learn to give feedback that is free of judgment, yet not complacent?
These are questions every organization — including HR and managers — should ask, to professionalize an act too often perceived as “intuitive.”
References:
London, M. & Smither, J.W. (2002). Feedback orientation, feedback culture, and the performance management process, Human Resource Management Review
Gallup (2019). State of the Global Workplace
by Swissnova | 14 Apr 2025 | HR, Learning, workplace conflict
As work speeds accelerate, profiles diversify within organizations, and intergenerational expectations grow increasingly distinct, tensions within teams have become nearly unavoidable.
In Switzerland and beyond, HR teams report a growing wave of interpersonal conflict in organizations, clearly impacting morale, engagement, and productivity.
According to CPP Global (2008), 85% of employees have already experienced conflict at work; one in three faces it regularly. Still, few employees are truly equipped to recognize, understand, and defuse these complex situations.
Why is this a critical issue?
Because unmanaged conflicts lead to concrete consequences: demotivation, stress, withdrawal, high turnover, and operational inefficiency.
Often, these tensions are handled informally—or not at all—until they escalate. Yet conflict is not always destructive: when properly addressed, it can become a source of transformation, clarification, or innovation.
As highlighted by De Dreu & Gelfand (2008), conflicts might destabilize short-term team dynamics but also offer a valuable opportunity to redefine roles, reopen communication, or reevaluate practices.
Establishing a culture of active regulation
Companies looking to professionalize internal conflict management can activate several levers:
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Define a clear framework for team dialogue
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Rely on internal or external mediators
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Implement transparent feedback rituals
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Experiment with tools such as the Thomas-Kilmann model, Nonviolent Communication (NVC), or dialogue circles
The goal is not to eliminate disagreement—which would be unrealistic—but to develop a collective capacity to navigate it and emerge stronger.
Training as a foundation, not a magic fix
Skill-building in relational dynamics is essential. But training doesn’t mean resolving everything. It should instead:
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Provide keys to understanding value, method, or role-based conflicts
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Introduce emotional regulation and cooperative behaviors
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Build a shared language to support daily mediation
These trainings address both managers and teams, and can be part of a broader HR-led vision of workplace climate regulation.
So…what role will each person play in tension prevention?
As work environments become more hybrid, multicultural, and uncertain, conflict management can no longer be a niche topic for a select few.
But then, who should remain alert? Who takes initiative? How far can a team self-regulate?
These questions encourage organizations to redefine shared responsibilities—among HR, managers, employees, and internal mediation bodies.
Maybe it’s time to collectively rethink the space of disagreement within workplace culture?
References:
De Dreu, C. K. W. & Gelfand, M. J. (2008). Conflict in the Workplace: Sources, Functions, and Dynamics across Multiple Levels of Analysis. Annual Review of Psychology
CPP Global (2008). Workplace Conflict and How Businesses Can Harness It to Thrive
Rosenberg, M. (1999). Nonviolent Communication, PuddleDancer Press
by Swissnova | 2 Apr 2025 | knowledge, strategic, transfer
As the workforce ages, the world of work is undergoing an unprecedented transformation. In Switzerland—as in the rest of Europe—this shift is particularly significant: by 2030, more than a quarter of workers will be over 55 (OECD, 2022).
The retirement of the baby boomers—i.e. those born between 1946 and 1964—is expected to result in a massive loss of expertise, operational know-how, and organizational memory. According to the Swiss Federal Statistical Office (FSO), this demographic wave may lead to the simultaneous exit of hundreds of thousands of experienced employees.
Yet in most companies, there are few—if any—structured systems in place to ensure effective transmission of critical knowledge. It’s a concerning reality for any HR professional managing strategic skills.
Why is this transition a critical challenge?
Most of the knowledge mobilized daily within companies is tacit—it escapes manuals, job descriptions, or procedural documents. It includes gestures, practical nuances, learned reflexes, and weak signals detected over years of experience.
According to Nonaka & Takeuchi (1995), these tacit forms of knowledge may represent up to 90% of actual on-the-job know-how. The unprepared departure of these “silent pillars” directly threatens operational continuity and the transfer of essential professional expertise.
The departure of senior staff, without an anticipated process, creates a major and often irreversible loss. It is therefore essential to set up a true knowledge transfer plan as part of a larger skills management strategy to anticipate this transition proactively.
Implementing knowledge capitalization strategies
Several levers can be activated to meet this challenge: reverse mentoring, intergenerational coaching, structured debrief interviews, junior-senior pairings, and well-documented workflows. These practices contribute to the capitalization of knowledge and secure business-critical expertise over time.
But this type of system can only succeed if it’s considered holistically—as a long-term pillar of sustainable competence management, not just a one-off succession project. It requires tight collaboration between HR, operational managers, and key contributors.
Training as a transmission catalyst
Implementing a knowledge transfer plan also relies on dedicated pedagogical support. Targeted training helps:
- identify which critical knowledge is at risk,
- document and structure transmission materials,
- and most importantly, train experts to effectively pass on their know-how.
Because transferring knowledge isn’t just “saying what you know”—it requires adapting your message, making experience tangible, and creating conditions for mutual learning.
Working on knowledge transfer through applied training makes the invisible visible—and secures strategic skills across your organization.
And now… Who holds responsibility for knowledge transfer?
As retirements accelerate and jobs continue to grow in complexity, the question of structured knowledge transfer becomes unavoidable.
But how do we determine what should—or should not—be transferred? Can we formalize everything? At what level?
Most importantly: who, within the organization, is responsible?
HR? Managers? Senior employees? Or does this call for a new, organizational governance of knowledge?
The debate is open.
And maybe now is the perfect time to reassess your company’s intangible value.
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References:
OECD (2022), A Silver Economy to Drive Future Growth
Swiss Federal Statistical Office – Population & Labour Market Data
Nonaka, I. & Takeuchi, H. (1995). The Knowledge-Creating Company, Oxford University Press
