02.2026 - Women in Leadership 2026: How Gi Group Switzerland anchors gender equality – and what three female leaders say about it
Retaining professional talent now requires more than competitive hiring. Employers need to understand how career expectations change over time and adapt their talent retention strategy to reflect the new progression needs from their professionals.
Key Takeaways
- A strong talent retention strategy needs to reflect the fact that careers are becoming longer, less linear and more influenced by changing life circumstances.
- Switzerland’s labour market is under growing pressure, making the retention of specialist skills and experience increasingly important for employers.
- Gi Group Holding’s “More than Work” themes, Nurture, Care and Heritage, highlight how retention risks can emerge at different points in a professional career.
- Effective employee retention strategies should combine continuous development, flexible career paths and a more individual understanding of what professionals value.
- Retaining specialist talent can help organisations preserve critical knowledge, reduce replacement risk and strengthen long-term workforce resilience.
Recent Swiss labour-market data highlights how difficult access to qualified talent has become. In the end of last year, 36.2% of Swiss companies reported difficulties recruiting qualified personnel.
When specialist talent is already difficult to find, losing experienced professionals becomes an even greater business risk. A strong talent retention strategy therefore needs to address not only what attracts people to an organisation, but also how their expectations and circumstances can change throughout their careers.
Gi Group Holding’s “More than Work” report explores theses shifts through three themes: Nurture, Care and Heritage. Together, they show how priorities can change across the career lifecycle. These changes are also reflected in the transformation currently taking place in the Swiss labour market.
As a result, employers need to understand where retention risks can emerge and adapt their strategies before valuable skills and experience are lost.
Why talent retention strategy needs to evolve
The recruitment pressure facing Swiss employers is not only a short-term hiring challenge. It also raises a longer-term question: how easily will organisations be able to replace specialist skills and experience when employees leave?
A Swiss National Bank Economic Note estimates that, based on the current age structure, around 400,000 more people could leave the Swiss workforce than enter it over the next ten years.
Furthermore, a KOF Swiss Economic Institute survey of economists points in the same direction: 87% of respondents identified demographic change as one of the main factors behind potential structural labour shortages in Switzerland.
What Nurture, Care and Heritage reveal about talent retention
These labour-market pressures make talent retention strategies more important, but they do not explain when or why professionals may disengage from an employer.
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Nurture |
Care |
Heritage |
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Early-career professionals need to see where a role can lead. It is important to have visible progression pathways and structured development. Without them, employers risk losing talent before people can build long-term careers within the organisation. |
Retention can become vulnerable when personal responsibilities change, but career structures do not. Flexibility, role redesign and supportive workplace cultures can help professionals remain engaged during periods of increased caregiving responsibility. |
Longer careers require employers to keep investing in experienced professionals. When development opportunities narrow with age, organisations risk losing both talent and institutional knowledge that may be difficult to replace. |
“More than promotions or titles, they ask for relevance, for their experience to be used well, and for clarity about where they fit in a fast-changing workplace. Ignore that, and experience walks out the door. Act on it, and longevity becomes an asset rather than a liability.” - “More than Work” report
What should employers rethink about their talent retention strategy?
If professional priorities change over time, employee retention strategies need to evolve with them. Rather than relying on one fixed employee value proposition (EVP), they should consider how development, flexibility and career design can support professionals at different points in their careers and lives.
Career development as a retention tool at every age
Development should not be concentrated at the beginning of working life. The “More than Work” report found that 44% of senior candidates identify limited career progression as a challenge, compared with 23% of HR leaders, while 40% point to limited professional development opportunities.
At the same time, younger professionals place strong value on training and guidance: 88% consider training important or very important to their careers, yet 40% say they feel unsupported by their current employer.
Build flexibility into career paths, not only working hours
Flexibility is often understood as control over where and when people work. However, professionals may also need flexibility in how their careers progress when personal circumstances change.
The report highlights options such as temporary role adjustments, job sharing and other arrangements that can help people remain professionally active during periods of greater caregiving responsibility.
This broader approach also aligns with KOF’s survey of economists, in which 94% of respondents considered improved secondary working conditions an effective way for companies to respond to labour shortages.
Make retention more individual
Career stage can influence what professionals need, but it does not determine individual ambition. An experience professional may still want progression and new challenges, while someone balancing work with caregiving may remain highly career focused.
As a result, employers need to understand what individual professionals value, what may cause them to leave and what could encourage them to stay. For organisations competing for specialist skills, this means looking beyond job requirements create their talent retention strategy.
Retaining specialist talent can strengthen long-term workforce resilience
When specialist skills are difficult to replace, retention becomes part of long-term workforce planning rather than a short-term Human Resources objective. The Swiss labour market already shows signs of pressure, while demographic change is expected to reduce the number of people available to replace those leaving the workforce.
For employers, this makes it increasingly important to:
- Retain experience;
- Continue developing specialist capabilities;
- Support professionals through changing career and life stages.
A well-designed talent retention strategy can therefore help protect business continuity while reducing the risk of losing hard-to-replace knowledge and expertise.
For organisations reviewing how they attract and retain specialist professionals, Grafton combines Search & Selection expertise with market insight to help employers understand changing candidate expectations and talent availability.
FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)
What barriers do younger workers face when entering the workforce?
Younger workers can face several barriers beyond simply finding a job. In More than Work, respondents point to challenges including lack of relevant experience, pressure to adapt quickly, difficulty building credibility and limited access to mentorship or leadership opportunities.
What types of training do younger professionals prefer?
Younger professionals tend to favour practical and guided forms of learning. According to the report, nearly half prefer on-the-job learning, followed by in-person workshops at 42% and live instructor-led online courses at 29%.
How can employers make entry-level career pathways clearer?
Employers can make early career pathways more visible by showing how entry-level roles connect to longer-term opportunities. Tools such as clear progression maps, transparent pay ranges, defined skill requirements and structured routes including apprenticeships, traineeships and paid work placements are important.
Why can caregiving responsibilities affect career visibility?
Employers can make early career pathways more visible by showing how entry-level roles connect to longer-term opportunities. More than Work recommends tools such as clear progression maps, transparent pay ranges, defined skill requirements and structured routes including apprenticeships, traineeships and paid work placements.
How common is age-related discrimination in the workplace?
Age-related discrimination was the most commonly reported form of workplace discrimination among candidates in the report’s Global Candidate Survey. Around 34.5% of candidates said they had witnessed or experienced it, compared with 28.6% of HR professionals.
