Swiss Post has opened its own IT development site in Portugal and plans to create 200 IT jobs in Switzerland by 2030 – to secure the IT expertise required for future development.
Swiss Post is setting up its own IT site in Portugal to give the company access to the IT skills required in the European labor market – particularly in software development, data and business analysis and cybersecurity. The Swiss Post site in Lisbon will begin operations in 2023 with around 50 specialists. It then aims to increase its headcount to around 120 employees over the coming years. Swiss Post is founding a subsidiary in Portugal with the name ‘Swiss Post I/T Portugal’. Out of the various locations evaluated, that Lisbon best meets its requirements – IT professionals in Portugal possess extensive expertise, the quality of work is high and the working conditions and work culture is similar to Switzerland. A site in Europe also facilitates close, day-to-day collaboration with the IT teams in Switzerland.
According to Swiss Post, Switzerland and its companies are becoming increasingly digital. More and more Swiss Post solutions, processes and working procedures are based on information technology. Swiss Post is making investments in this area by improving internal basic and advanced training opportunities, promoting mobile working and focusing on diversity.
Switzerland expects to face a shortage of around 35,000 IT professionals up to 2028; around 70 IT vacancies at Swiss Post went unfilled at the end of August 2022. The recruitment process is taking increasingly longer – and often takes over nine months for data specialists. There are no signs of this trend reversing. On the contrary, the shortage of IT professionals and the battle to attract the best IT talent appears to be intensifying. On top of the shortage, around 270 employees are also set to retire from Swiss Post’s IT unit over the next decade. Additionally, Swiss Post wants to remain independent of external IT providers in key areas of expertise in the future. Swiss Post will continue developing its existing IT sites in Switzerland. The company intends to strengthen its position as a key IT employer and training company over the coming years and is set to create around 200 new IT jobs by 2030.
Wolfgang Eger, chief information officer and member of executive management at Swiss Post, said, “We’re doing everything we can to position ourselves as an attractive IT employer. Despite all these efforts, it’s still taking a long time to fill vacancies or we’re unable to find enough of the specialists needed. This means we face a growing risk of a shortage of the vital IT resources required over the medium and long term to implement the digitization of Swiss Post as planned. This wouldn’t only have a negative impact on Swiss Post itself, but also on the Swiss public and economy. Swiss Post needs to avoid such a scenario. That’s why the company has no option but to look for fresh solutions. The setting-up of the campus in Portugal does not involve the transfer of any jobs from Switzerland abroad. The aim is to recruit IT specialists in Portugal that we are unable to find sufficient numbers of in Switzerland. This means the Lisbon site will complement Swiss Post’s existing IT sites in Switzerland.”
