This is the second of two blog posts created with masters students of Swiss Universities of Applied Sciences from a variety of academic fields receiving the Hirschmann foundation scholarship. As part of the project, the young group of future decision-makers presented their work in response to the guiding question: What innovative approaches can address workforce shortages and migration simultaneously?
Authors: Simeon Brütsch, Elena Fischer, Adina Lüthi, Egor Tatarenko, Laura Uck
As healthcare faces labour shortages, immigrant workers bring valuable skills but encounter barriers in language, credential recognition and cultural integration. By fostering inclusion, healthcare institutions can address the needs of the labour shortage.
Source: «Symbolbild. Spitex Schweiz/Pia Neuenschwander»
Abstract: As the global workforce faces both shortages and growing migration, innovative strategies are essential to integrate immigrant workers effectively while addressing labour gaps. This post explores key challenges and opportunities, drawing on interviews with care workers, professionals and HR, to present actionable recommendations for fostering inclusion and filling workforce needs simultaneously.
Labour shortages are a persistent challenge for industries worldwide, particularly in healthcare, where a growing ageing population has exacerbated the demand for skilled workers. At the same time, increasing migration presents both a solution and a challenge. By leveraging the potential of immigrant workers, industries can mitigate the effects of workforce shortages. However, this requires overcoming cultural and linguistic barriers while ensuring immigrants are fully integrated into the workforce. How can companies and policymakers address labour shortages while also facilitating the integration of immigrants?
The Dual Challenge: Labour Shortage and Immigration
Healthcare is a sector at the forefront of labour shortages and labour immigration. In Switzerland, healthcare organisations rely heavily on foreign workers to meet the health care demands of an ageing population. According to interviews conducted with hospital and care organisations, immigrant workers from countries such as Afghanistan, Romania, and Italy constitute a significant part of the workforce. However, integration challenges, particularly language and cultural barriers, often hinder the full potential of these workers.
Both care workers and healthcare organisations highlighted the role of linguistic barriers, with one care worker stating, “Learning Swiss German and dialect was very difficult… Communication in general was difficult, even among employees.”. This highlights how linguistic differences impact not only patient care but also the collaboration between staff. Despite these challenges, foreign workers bring invaluable diversity, which healthcare organisations acknowledge as a key advantage. The HR representative from one hospital remarked, “We tend to see the opportunities and advantages that diversity brings us.”.
Current Strategies: What’s working?
To address the challenge of labour shortage, the Hirslanden Group’s employer branding campaign has proven highly effective. Utilizing platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Google Ads, the campaign increased applications by 37% in just three months. It also expanded beyond Switzerland, targeting healthcare professionals in Germany, Austria, and Croatia, while introducing WhatsApp as a recruitment tool, generating 10 promising applications per month. This strategy demonstrates the power of digital innovation in tackling healthcare recruitment shortages.
Several initiatives are already in place to support the integration of immigrant workers into the workforce. For example, one hospital has developed an HR portal that offers future employee’s checklists on “Working in Switzerland”, which provides useful insights for incoming foreign workers. Additionally, cultural training is offered to help employees better understand Swiss norms. Similarly, care organisations provide basic cultural information and mobility support, such as teaching employees how to ride a bike, which is crucial for mobile care workers.
However, training recognition remains a complicated issue. While hospitals emphasised the importance of Swiss Red Cross (SRC) accreditation, care organisations noted that international qualifications were sometimes not recognised, limiting the opportunities for highly-skilled foreign workers to contribute at their full capacity. Addressing this gap is crucial for improving workforce integration and ensuring labour shortages are effectively addressed.
Recommendations for Future Policy
To ensure that immigration serves as a viable solution to labour shortages, more comprehensive integration programs are needed.
- Enhanced Language Training: Both HR representatives and employees identified language difficulties as a core issue. While German courses are already offered in some instances, a more structured approach, including specialised medical German courses, would help workers participate more fully in care processes. As one care worker mentioned, “Medical German courses would allow me to take part in reports and understand what is being said.”. Providing these language courses as part of onboarding and continuous training could significantly enhance communication and collaboration within teams.
- Accreditation and Training Recognition: The process for recognising foreign qualifications remains inconsistent, which leads to underutilisation of immigrant workers’ skills. Streamlining the process and offering bridge programmes that allow foreign workers to gain Swiss accreditation without redundancy in training would help address this issue. A hospital representative pointed out that “SRC recognition is mandatory for nurses”, which shows that there are clear pathways to accreditation.
- Cultural Competency Workshops: The HR professionals and workers emphasised the importance of cultural understanding in successful workplace integration. Workshops on cultural differences, especially regarding the patient care process, would foster better team dynamics and patient relations. A hospital mentioned seminars such as “Successful collaboration in diverse teams” and “Dealing with racism in everyday hospital life”, which serve as promising steps toward addressing potential conflict and promoting inclusion.
Conclusion: A Path Forward
As labour shortages continue to strain industries, particularly in healthcare, immigration offers a key solution — if properly managed. Effective integration requires more than just hiring foreign workers; it demands ongoing support in language acquisition, training recognition, and cultural competency. With the right policies in place, immigrant workers can not only help alleviate labour shortages, but also enrich workplaces through diverse perspectives and experiences.
By recognising the dual challenge of labour shortages and immigration as an opportunity rather than a burden, both companies and policymakers can develop innovative, inclusive approaches that benefit workers, patients, and the broader economy.