Our employees

Diversity and inclusion 

For the third year running, Bühler has affirmed its commitment to support gender equality by joining with over 100 Swiss-based companies in its commitment to improve gender balance in the workplace by 1% year over year. 2020 has seen the continued development of the Bühler Beyond Bias workshops launched in 2019. The aim of Beyond Bias is to address unconscious bias in the workplace and to help foster an inclusive environment. With workshops carried out across global locations, every region was able to tailor the training sessions to address local cultural circumstances.

In 2020, 180 participants attended 15 workshops, and 12 new facilitators were certified in Bühler’s Beyond Bias “Train the Facilitator” program, to support the running of the workshops. Due to Covid-19 constraints, these workshops were adapted from face-to-face to virtual experiences. Bühler has continued to build the partnership with the continuous-education program, Women Back to Business, at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. The program is designed to help women back into the workplace after taking a career break. Making sure we regain talent is part of our success story, and we are pleased to report Bühler recruited the first return-to-work employee from the program in 2020.

Bühler published its first Diversity & Inclusion Annual Report for the year 2019 in early 2020. A 2020 report, which includes key achievements and plans, is in development. We also launched an online diversity dashboard, enabling employees to access specific diversity metrics to support key performance indicators, and two new e-learning modules covering inclusivity in the workplace were launched.

Future readiness 

Bühler’s Generation B (GenB) movement grew to 700 members and 75 active ambassadors globally. GenB initiative brings employees together to create the company “people want to work for.” In 2020, it reached over 1,400 unique attendances with hybrid events on topics such as climate change, diversity and inclusion, and knowledge sharing.

GenB has also established long-term change initiatives, including Women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), which encourages young women to pursue STEM subjects, and the SWAP reverse mentoring program where junior and less experienced colleagues have the opportunity to provide insight and knowledge to someone more senior and experienced to foster intergenerational dialogue. GenB often acts as a sounding board to the leadership, providing feedback on topics such as how the business will navigate the new normal. GenB also supports in deploying the Destination25 strategy, linking key elements of the strategy to the events and initiatives within the movement.

Virtual learning and talent development 

To become a best company, Bühler believes it is critical to facilitate lifelong learning among all employees, regardless of their age or what stage of their career they are at. This is manifested in a global learning initiative launched in 2020. Bühler is committed to enable all employees to strive at work, develop the latest skills, and perform tasks at their best. Key to this is ensuring flexible learning programs that enable employees to use the most appropriate learning medium for them at different life stages. Bühler has continued to develop B-Learning, a state-of-the-art learning platform designed to deliver a broad spectrum of learning opportunities through videos, e-learnings, classroom trainings, webinars, and mobile apps. Despite the impact of Covid-19, over 700 internal training sessions were carried out over the year.

Bühler has continued with its Next Generation Learning Program, designed to ensure today’s employees have the skills and knowledge to be able to quickly adapt to new technologies and economic drivers. Covid-19 has demonstrated how employee versatility is integral to business resilience. The Next Generation Learning Program addresses how innovation shapes the way employees learn. Bühler is working with professionals to create training formats that are short, relevant, engaging, personalized, and mobile, to meet the needs of the modern learner. We have also upgraded our Employee Performance Management System (EPS), designed to ensure employees receive the right career support and help when establishing targets and developing training plans.

Sales staff development and customer training

It is often the frontline staff interacting with customers who need to be most adept at adapting at the same pace as the markets change. This is why, in 2020, Bühler dedicated resources and time to refreshing and revamping the Bühler Sales and Service Academy, creating new curriculums and career paths for employees.

Bühler’s training focus is not restricted to employees but includes customers who attend high-end training programs at our application and training centers in 24 locations around the world. Subject experts running the training programs help customers develop and improve their knowledge of Bühler technologies and services. Again, these programs took place in the context of Covid-19, requiring Bühler to be both versatile and innovative in the way it leveraged technology to make sure training continued uninterrupted as travel restrictions started to grip. Training was delivered virtually at all locations. These included the milling schools in Switzerland and Kenya, the chocolate training centers in Ivory Coast (Côte d’Ivoire), Indonesia and Switzerland and the International Rice Milling Academy in India.

Vocational training  

Each year, Bühler offers three-and-four-year courses across eight different professional fields. In 2020, we provided 576 apprenticeships across Europe, North America, South America, Africa, and Asia. These apprenticeships are based on the Swiss dual-vocational model where students receive a mix of practical and academic training. The apprentices are paid during their training and Bühler also provides tools, books, computers, and uniforms. The Swiss model is seen as a global benchmark and has been adapted by other countries. The model is evolving as the skills needed by employers change and provides Bühler with a talent pipeline at entry level. More than 70% of apprentices will go on to have careers with Bühler.

Bühler apprentices have taken home several medals in the prestigious 2020 SwissSkills championship, which is part of the global WorldSkills movement to raise the ambitions and opportunities of vocational education and training for young people, employers, and societies. Twelve of our young apprentices participated in five disciplines, winning eight medals. They took home gold, silver, and bronze in the discipline “industrial designers”; silver and bronze in “automation engineers”; bronze in “polymechanics”; and gold and silver in the “sheet metal” competition.

While this is a truly exceptional feat, its foundation is firmly rooted in our commitment to training apprentices across the globe and valuing them as vital contributors to our success. Our apprenticeship system has long been implemented in and recognized by many countries, including the US, where tackling the shortage of skilled workers was a key focus of the Obama administration. In 2014, Professor – and now First Lady – Jill Biden visited Bühler Uzwil to see first-hand how we train and promote apprentices.

Gratitude is owed to our educational team and all trainers at Bühler who lay the basis for these achievements in their daily dedication to develop young people.

Succession planning 

Bühler has several different initiatives to ensure the senior leaders of tomorrow are nurtured from the best talents from within and outside Bühler. Now in its fourth year, the Excelerator Program is designed to develop the specific needs of individuals to make sure talented employees are first recognized from within the company and then enabled to mature and develop into leadership roles.

Covid-19 has required us to adapt the program from a face-to-face to virtual interactions. Employees who are showing the most promise are first nominated from across all our global operations. Following an assessment program 20 candidates are shortlisted. Individual development plans are drawn up for each participant to build on their strengths and develop their leadership capabilities.

Our second management pipeline is the Bühler International Management Trainee Program. Designed to attract and develop the best talents leaving universities and business schools the three-year program takes trainees and fast-tracks them through the Bühler corporate experience. They have the opportunity to work with top management on the Executive Board as well as with regional heads. Within the context of the pandemic, Bühler made the assessment program virtual within days of travel bans being imposed and selected six candidates out of over 130. The six started with Bühler in the third quarter of 2020.

Corporate values 

During challenging times, it is even more important that we reinforce our corporate values to ensure we live by them and that our employees understand the contribution they make to the organization in terms of the expression of those values. Designed to be concise and unambiguous our values are encompassed in the acronym TOP, standing for trust, ownership, and passion. Trust relates to integrity, partnership skills and the credibility required for Bühler to form collaborative networks with customers, start-ups, academia, and NGOs to address global challenges.

Ownership is about taking responsibility for decisions taken in the interest of our customers, and Passion drives people at Bühler to live their intentions, to learn each day, and to support others and to drive success. These values were integrated into the Employee Performance Management System in 2020 to make sure they reach deep into the organization.

Destination 25  

In 2020, the HR Destination 2025 strategy was launched in line with the Bühler Destination25 business strategy. The HR strategy aims to focus on leadership, our employees, and our HR function in a bid to prepare Bühler for future challenges. Our winning ambition is to have a diverse group of leaders who all express our TOP values and are equipped with solid inclusive leadership competencies for a new era of leadership, who will be expected to drive a high-performance culture in which they and their teams are held accountable for their results and on how those results are achieved.  

In parallel, we want to enable highly engaged, competent employees who are driven by our purpose, using digital tools, sharing success and failures, and demonstrating strong competencies. It aims to facilitate an inclusive culture that embraces diversity, lifelong learning, and career agility for all generations. Employees will be willing and able to continue developing their skills to flexibly adapt to changing circumstances. 

Human resources processes will enable our team members in Human Resources (HR) to work as employee champions and to add strategic business value by aligning with our business leaders and organizational development. HR aims to be a role model for global teamwork with high professionalism, integrity, financial discipline, and business orientation.   

Employer branding 

In 2020, Bühler also adapted its approach to employer branding due to the pandemic. We developed strategies to reach prospective employees through a significant increase in social media usage and virtual events. We also launched a globally standardized toolkit for career fairs while running over 40 virtual career events and live streams.

For the second year running, Bühler is pleased to have won the prestigious Swiss Leading Employer Award ranking it among the top 1% of nominated Swiss employers.

At Bühler our sense of purpose, our care for people and our family values provide a solid foundation in challenging times. Our aim in Human Resources is to relentlessly focus on adding business value and ensure our leaders and employees are “future fit.” Together we aim to shape our culture so that Bühler becomes “a best company.”