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Interim manager for risk and crisis management, by Tanja Biel, Managing Partner

As interim managers, we often take on the role of sparring partner for management and suddenly bear a great deal of responsibility for sensitive business issues. For example, interim managers (executives) are often called in for crisis or risk management. We regularly encounter risks that could cost companies a lot of money.

As interim managers, we see risk management as a valuable opportunity management tool and point this out to our clients accordingly. This consideration is not only about image damage, financial losses due to fraud or compliance with regulations, but also about a general consideration of possible future risks. After all, risk management is basically nothing other than future-oriented decision management. Risks are set against possible opportunities and can also have a positive influence on corporate goals. Every management decision can trigger opportunities as well as risks.

Risk management illuminates decision-making processes from a specific perspective. In our daily work as HR interim managers, we regularly encounter the following risk areas: qualification risks, performance risks, shortage of skilled employees, departure risks, crime risks, compliance and many more.

Companies are well advised to set and implement appropriate guidelines. Organizational guidelines also promote your employer branding and the positive image of your company. The most important thing is to minimize or, at best, avert dangers and risks for the company that arise from non-compliant actions and breaches of rules by employees.

It is in the interest of every company to keep its risks and susceptibility to damage as low as possible. A loss of image can very quickly affect the economic situation of companies and, in the worst case, jeopardize their existence, as this is often accompanied by a massive loss of trust on the part of stakeholders.

Talk to us, we will be happy to support you!

HR Unlimited GmbH, www.hr-unlimited.com, is an owner-managed company specializing in interim management, based in Glattpark Opfikon, Switzerland, and has been offering corresponding assignments at home and abroad for more than 21 years. HR Unlimited GmbH is Andreas Biel, Tanja Biel, Balz Schlittler, Marcel Brader, Christian Hobi, Martin Hegglin, Christoph Müller, Georg Boos, Daniel R. Brunner, Andreas Gnepf, Monika Wälty, Dr. Thomas Pimpl and a large, qualified pool of Interim Managers we know personally.

Healthcare in transition by Christoph Müller, Partner

It is well known that the Swiss healthcare system is undergoing significant structural change. Many hospitals and other health care facilities have been privatized by the cantons without providing them with sustainable structures and financial cushions for a post-cantonal future. This has now, in difficult staffing times post Corona, led to most of the large hospitals being dependent on state (post-) aid.

In terms of personnel, the hospitals are currently exposed to growing pressure on the labor market and thus to very tough competition. Here, temporary recruiters often play a shady role, raising the prices for temporary nursing staff many times over and motivating qualified nursing staff to give up their permanent positions for a temporary assignment. Sure, this is the free market economy in which hospitals now have to compete, but in the wake of the discussion about healthcare costs in general, this ‘spiral’ upward, leading to even higher costs.

HR departments of these hospitals do their utmost to counteract this development. For example, they introduce employer branding measures and try to position themselves as well as possible. However, we often see during our assignments in hospitals that they are not yet developed enough in the HR area to successfully manage such developments.

Neither do they have sufficiently defined HR processes, nor the tools to handle these processes digitally. Digitization is often only in its infancy and must be driven forward with all its might.

This is where we at HR-Unlimited can provide valuable services, in the alignment and management of an HR department, but also in HR business partner roles. Recruiting and service center deployments are also among our proven strengths.

If we optimize and further professionalize HR functions in hospitals, they will also become less dependent on recruitment agencies, which are currently doing very good business, and strengthen their own employer attractiveness.

Talk to us, we will be happy to support you !

HR Unlimited Ltd., www.hr-unlimited.com, is an owner-managed company specializing in interim management, based in Glattpark Opfikon, Switzerland, and has been offering corresponding assignments in Switzerland and abroad for more than 21 years. HR Unlimited Ltd. is Andreas Biel, Tanja Biel, Balz Schlittler, Marcel Brader, Christian Hobi, Martin Hegglin, Christoph Müller, Georg Boos, Daniel R. Brunner, Andreas Gnepf, Monika Wälty and a large, qualified pool of interim managers we know personally.

Andy Gnepf – our interim manager presents himself!

Andy is a proven HR generalist with experience in the IT industry, banking, insurance, live marketing services and cantonal administrations. Due to his many years of experience, he is able to communicate at the appropriate level up to C-Level and the Board of Directors.

Respectful interaction with all stakeholders as well as trust and tolerance are important to him in leadership and cooperation. One of Andy’s distinctive strengths is that he actively tackles difficult situations and seeks constructive solutions with those affected. Thanks to his empathy and obvious pleasure in working with colleagues, he finds it easy to exchange ideas at eye level.

Andy handles business activities pragmatically, solution-oriented and precisely. He likes to organize things efficiently and effectively, avoids activities just for the “gallery” and always keeps an eye on the big picture. Factual problem solving, a strong goal orientation and the balancing of effort and return guide him in his work. A good understanding of IT rounds off his profile.

He has gained many years of experience as an IT and HR project manager, HR business partner and as Head HR. His in-depth knowledge covers in particular the management of IT projects, restructurings and the development and implementation of social plans, the outsourcing of various (corporate) functions, the management of pension funds and the transformation in culture changes. He is familiar with processes and tools for solving difficult management and personnel situations.

He started his professional career at Zürcher Kantonalbank as an investment advisor and subsequently attended the HWV. Afterwards, his path led back to ZKB, first in IT and then in HR, where he worked as Head of Staff and later as Head of HR Systems. With the change to IBM Switzerland, he initially concentrated on project and department manager tasks and the introduction of HR software at larger companies and various administrations of cantonal authorities in Switzerland. Through various positions, he joined the Human Resource Department of IBM Switzerland, where he worked as HR Business Partner and later as Head HR of an international IBM Unit and finally as Head HR IBM Switzerland. He then moved to MCH Group AG as Head HR, where he worked until the end of 2022.

Andy has been married for many years and is the father of two grown-up daughters. He enjoys being outdoors, jogging regularly and is devoted to finding interesting wines. In the near future, learning various methods of mental training is on the agenda.

Recruiting – speed is essential!

We are facing a shortage of skilled workers in many areas, nothing new so far.

As a Recruiting Specialist, you are challenged accordingly. The pond, our job market, with potential employees is not getting any bigger – but more and more bait is being thrown out, the selection for the active and increasingly passive job seekers is correspondingly large.  Sought-after specialists are currently inundated with offers!

The challenges for recruiting are manifold. But one thing is fundamentally important – speed and short reaction time in the process! As clear as it is, as simple as it sounds. It is always surprising how long applicants have to wait for a response or contact.

Companies have to be aware that recruiters are the first figurehead, the first business card for applicants. If you spoil the first impression with a (too) long response time, you are already starting with a handicap when it comes to recruiting good specialists. According to the motto: “You have no second chance for the first impression”! A motto that applies not only to job seekers, but also to companies! Due to demographic shifts and the current economic situation, we are moving in a distinct employee market.

Great employer branding, exciting development opportunities, attractive goodies and incentives, modern forms of work – all this is of no use if you as a recruiter do not hit the first important peg. Speed is essential.

Do you currently have a bottleneck in recruiting? Are you looking for a recruitment professional who can fill this gap quickly, professionally, competently and with passion in your company? To knock down those important pegs and with his experience, knowledge of human nature and the right intuition to fill the gaps in your teams with the right employees?

The interim managers of HR Unlimited are also recruiting professionals and are waiting in the wings for you and your company, contact us!

Marcel Brader

Managing Partner

HR Unlimited is an owner-managed company specialized in Interim Management, located in Glattpark Opfikon, Switzerland. For more than 20 years HR Unlimited has been offering corresponding assignments in Switzerland and abroad. HR Unlimited is Andreas Biel, Tanja Biel, Balz Schlittler, Marcel Brader, Christian Hobi, Désirée Leuthold, Martin Hegglin, Christoph Müller, Georg Boos, Andy Gnepf, Monika Wälty, Daniel Brunner and a large qualified pool of Interim Managers.

Digitize – but do it right!

At the moment, I notice that many companies pick out individual HR topics and then quite promptly and frantically provide them with a digital tool. The result is usually subdued or no enthusiasm at all, which leads to astonishment in many places, because digital tools are the savior, right?! 

But the failure was foreseeable. Why? 

In most cases, there is no effective HR strategy that is accepted, supported and communicated by the management. Without such a strategy, there is a great danger of getting lost in the jungle of topics and only giving a tool to those who shout the loudest. In most cases, such solutions end up being more expensive and more complicated – because they are not coordinated – than a truly digitized solution. And what has been known for a long time, but is usually forgotten: there is not THE digital solution. It must always be sought on a company-specific basis. The HR strategy as a prerequisite for meaningful HR processes that can also be digitized. 

Talk to our interim managers today. They will accompany you competently and unagitatedly in and on this topic from A to Z. Their enormous experience ensures your digital solution, by the way, not only in HR, and ensures that you will not experience any surprises after the introduction of the digital platforms. 

Andreas Biel 

Managing Partner 

HR Unlimited is an owner-managed company specializing in interim management, based in Glattpark Opfikon, Switzerland, and has been offering corresponding assignments in Switzerland and abroad for more than 20 years. HR Unlimited is Andreas Biel, Tanja Biel, Balz Schlittler, Marcel Brader, Christian Hobi, Désirée Leuthold, Martin Hegglin, Christoph Müller, Georg Boos, Andy Gnepf, Monika Wälty and a large, qualified pool of Interim Managers. 

Dani Brunner – Interim Manager Engineering & General Management

Dani is the proven engineering generalist with many years of experience in life cycle management in aviation, as well as in the power generation and power transmission industry at the levels of general management, COO / CEO, but also specialist.

He is an attentive listener with a quick grasp. He always succeeds not only in identifying the causes of problems within a short time, but also in defining and implementing solutions in a targeted manner. He succeeds in this, among other things, because he very much enjoys working with people, regardless of their cultural background. 

Dani’s systematic and structured way of working helps to achieve the set goals together as a team within the given time.

Personally, he is less concerned with abstract scientific concepts and solution approaches, but rather with practically applicable solutions that have a high cost-benefit ratio. Central to his thinking and actions are the concepts of reliability, availability, sustainability and affordability.

Dani grew up abroad and holds a degree in mechanical engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) with further education in business administration from IMD Lausanne. He works primarily in industry, but not only. He brings broad management experience in many cultures and companies that make him an ideal interim manager. His clients and business partners are located in Switzerland on the one hand, but also abroad, and include private sector companies as well as government agencies.

In his free time he enjoys traveling, hiking, skiing and motorcycling.  

Daniel Brunner strengthens the HR Unlimited team for interim mandates in the areas of Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) in civil and military aviation, as well as in the areas of defense, power generation, power distribution, and industrial production.

Welcome Daniel R. Brunner

Dani strengthens the HR Unlimited team for interim mandates in the areas of Maintenance Repair & Overhaul (MRO) in civil and military aviation, as well as in the areas of defense, power generation and distribution, and production in the manufacturing industry.

Dani Brunner’s proven leadership experience at General Management and CEO level in corporations as well as SME’s provides a broad know how base for any industrial enterprise. Dani works globally in different time zones with different cultures.

HR Unlimited is an owner-managed company specialized in Interim Management, based in Glattpark Opfikon, Switzerland, and has been providing Interim Management services for more than 20 years in Switzerland and abroad. HR Unlimited is Andreas Biel, Tanja Biel, Balz Schlittler, Marcel Brader, Christian Hobi, Désirée Leuthold, Harry Emmenegger, Martin Hegglin, Christoph Müller, Georg Boos, Daniel R. Brunner and a large qualified pool of Interim Managers personally trusted by us.

Georg Boos, Interim Manager IT

Who am I? I am a husband, father and entrepreneur, I have a clear treasure of visions, values and ideas that I apply every day; this makes me and my behavior predictable for my family and employees at all times. Results and goals are part of my life; I appreciate experiencing success as part of a team. In cases where this is not possible, it is then a matter of learning from the experience gained. Missed goals and mistakes are part of life; the art is not not to make them, but to deal with them constructively and diplomatically. This also includes dealing with conflicts. I pay attention to my environment, listen actively, ask questions where necessary and try to sense at any time when the shoe pinches somewhere. My environment in every perspective is my most important asset, so I also try to open doors for new experiences and training wherever possible.

My career has clearly been shaped by technology, digitalization and IT. The topics of telecommunications, IT organization, human resources and at the same time IT operations management and its controlling are close to my heart. Technologically, I am personally interested in the areas of IoT, Big Data and databases, Smart Home and Industry 4.0, and last but not least, the whole discussion around cloud applications. In terms of education, I have leadership training from the Swiss Army, an education as a business economist, a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Southern Queensland in Australia, and an Executive Master’s in Management from the FHHWV.
Off-hours I like to play golf with my partner (although not very well), read novels and spend a lot of time with our Irish setter dog in the great outdoors.

Welcome Georg Boos!

Georg strengthens the HR Unlimited team for interim mandates in the area of business management, IT projects & programs, as well as bridging mandates in the area of CIO or CEO. Georg Boos is a longtime IT crack in the area of IT service providing. In the area of Projects & Programs he focuses on IT, electrical engineering and physical challenges. Due to his broad experience he offers especially in digitalization and IOT the right know how for every company.

HR Unlimited is an owner-managed company specialized in interim management, based in Glattpark Opfikon, Switzerland, and has been offering corresponding assignments in Switzerland and abroad for more than 20 years. HR Unlimited is Andreas Biel, Tanja Biel, Balz Schlittler, Marcel Brader, Christian Hobi, Désirée Leuthold, Harry Emmenegger, Martin Hegglin, Christoph Müller, Georg Boos and a large, qualified pool of Interim Managers we know personally.

20 years HR Unlimited – We say thank you!

Immediately after the Swissair Grounding Andreas Biel founded HR Unlimited AG in April 2002. He continuously expanded the HR Unlimited team over two decades with unique personalities to become today’s HR Interim Management specialist with 4 Managing Partners, 2 Partners and 2 Ambassadors. And of course a high quality pool of experienced Interim Managers, who can take over any function – not only HR – interim in any industry at any time.

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