3.1 Social Responsibility

SQS strives to be a responsible and attractive employer. Proof that we live up to this claim is the loyalty of our employees: one-third of our full-time staff have worked for us for 10 years or more. Seventeen of them (10%) have even been with SQS for more than 20 years.

We can also assume social responsibility beyond our organization because we contribute to greater safety and health in the workplace or to family-friendly working conditions through various services. However, our potential or actual social impacts as customers in the supply chains are not significant (see also "Materiality" in Chapter 1.2).

New HR Strategy

To meet this requirement, the «HR and Organizational Development department was strengthened in 2024. As part of this step, the existing HR strategy was first evaluated and adapted to the current context. The strategy was approved by the SQS Executive Management and the Board in spring 2025.

To address the challenges ahead, three overarching strategic themes have been defined: «Planning and Acquisition», «Leadership and Culture» and «Development and Retention». Under these headings, the relevant areas of action were defined, prioritized and implemented in projects and in everyday practice.

In 2025, the focus was particularly on more efficient and effective recruitment and the implementation of various controlling instruments. Initial successes were already achieved during the reporting year through a reduction in overtime and consistent use of vacation time.

Employee survey

Another focus was on the employee survey. SQS again participated in the Swiss Employer Award, the largest structured employee survey in Switzerland with over 30,000 participants across all branches. For the first time, in addition to full-time employees in Switzerland and Italy, the survey also invited freelance employees to participate. The reporting structure for the business office departments was also refined, enabling more individualized analyses of the results.

The overall result can be described as positive. SQS was able to increase the satisfaction and confidence of its employees compared to the last survey in 2023 and continues to benefit from a high level of commitment on the part of its employees. However, as in other companies, the results must and can be viewed in a differentiated manner: The department, age group, number of years of service or even the form of employment relationship all led to varying results in some cases.

To enable this differentiation in the analysis and in the potential need for action, we conducted numerous workshops with the management team – unlike in previous years. These included members of the Executive Management and the heads of the specialist and functional departments. They were first trained in a one-day workshop so that they could classify the results for their department and were given methods for further action. Each department then held meetings in which the employees discussed the results together. From these meetings, measures were derived for each department to maintain existing strengths and/or to exploit potential for improvement. The measures will be implemented in 2026 and their effectiveness will be measured by means of a «Pulse survey».