2023-10-03 08:48:31
From On to Bank Vontobel: Why co-management is booming
In large companies, co-management is becoming a common practice. Three duos provide insight into how they can better combine children and management jobs, encourage each other and calm irritated Americans.
The private bank Vontobel will have a management duo from 2024: Georg Schubiger and Christel Rendu de Lint will replace long-time boss Zeno Staub.
Photo: PD
“This article first appeared on May 26, 2023. Due to the appointment of a management duo at Bank Vontobel, we are making the article available to you once more.”
Bank Vontobel has found a succession plan for the replacement at the top of the company. Two co-chief executives will replace long-time boss Zeno Staub, the bank announced on Tuesday.
Christel Rendu de Lint, head of investment, and Georg Schubiger, head of private banking, will take over the management of the traditional Zurich private bank as co-CEOs at the beginning of 2024. In addition to their new roles, the two will continue to lead their current areas. Staub announced his departure a few months ago and wants to be elected to the National Council for “Die Mitte” in the canton of Zurich in October.
The leadership situation at the private bank is not an isolated case, as these examples from Swiss companies show.
SBB: “Co-management enables us to combine management job and family”
Anja Bhend (left) and Salome Peters head the human resources policy department at SBB: “It depends on the person with whom you share co-management.”
Foto: Raphael Moser
“We wanted to develop further and wanted more responsibility,” say Anja Bhend and Salome Peters. “Co-management enables us to combine management jobs and family.” Since October 2022, the mothers of school-age children have been jointly heading the personnel policy department in SBB’s HR department. They each work 60 percent, but have the right to carry out the function as if it were occupied by one person.
The duo leads a team of around 20 employees. You are responsible for topics such as the wage system or working time regulations. Further develop HR processes. Or negotiate with the social partners. According to Peters, the fact that both had already worked at SBB for ten years and knew each other well was a decisive factor: “It depends on the person with whom you share co-management.”
You have to live the same values, appreciate the same types of work, and treat employees in the same way. «Before we accepted the position, we defined values that form the basis for our collaboration. There had to be reliability, transparency and trust for both,” says Bhend. “Our goal was that the team didn’t have to think regarding: Do I go to Salome or Anja with my concerns?”
However, this requires that both always know regarding all ongoing business. If Peters has an important meeting on Bhend’s day off, he must be informed quickly the next day. Sounds like an administrative elephant.
But according to Bhend, the two co-bosses have come to terms well: “On the one hand, the SBB supported the collaboration with a 120 percent workload.” On the other hand, a lot of documentation is necessary for the many different tasks of her job. They also keep a handover log where they record what happens on each other’s day off and give each other small but important information. You receive emails in CC.
And they have a common phone number: the one who is currently working answers the phone. For Peters, this is an important advantage of the shared leadership position: “On my days off, I’m really not available because Anja takes over the tasks.”
They are repeatedly asked whether this co-management does not mean additional work. “We don’t feel that way,” says Bhend. After all, part-time jobs without managerial tasks also require certain handovers. Peters says: “Our exchange creates more well-founded solutions because they are looked at and questioned in pairs.”
In order for employees to be able to take on a double management position, they primarily need willing employers, as Irenka Krone says. Ten years ago, she and her job-sharing colleague founded the PTO “Part Time Optimization” association, which advises companies and employees on implementing shared workplaces. The association was initially co-financed by the federal government.
“Companies have become increasingly committed to this in recent years. There are now several shared management positions, especially in administration and at larger private companies,” says Krone. Including the SBB. A total of around 100 double positions are currently filled. About 40 of them are at management level.
How many there are across Switzerland is not recorded anywhere. The Federal Statistical Office (BFS), which reports every five years how many jobs are shared (job sharing), provides an indication. The most current figures are from 2021. In management positions, the proportion of shared positions is only between 0.7 and 1.5 percent, as the office calculated for this newspaper.
One barrier to why more companies don’t install co-lines is cost. According to Krone, co-bosses most often work 60 or 70 percent.
This costs a company more than if it only had to pay for a 100 percent position, in terms of wages, infrastructure (for example two laptops or a larger office) or through double training.
Nevertheless, says Krone, a company doesn’t have to shell out more in the long run: “A co-leader brings with him a double brain, a double network and double experience. This gives the company a completely different, additional value.”
On: “We encourage each other to perform better”
“We complement each other very well”: Martin Hoffmann (left) and Marc Maurer, co-CEOs of the shoe company On.
Photo: Sabina Bobst
While many co-managers share the office, with Marc Maurer and Martin Hoffmann it is a Herculean task to get them into the same room. The co-CEOs of the now global running shoe company On are constantly on the move: the company now has offices in the USA, Japan and even Brazil.
The bosses don’t have their own, not even in 2022 newly inaugurated headquarters in Zurich-West. “We make a lot of phone calls,” says Maurer. “And when I know that Martin is in Zurich, I come here.”
Despite having children and co-management, the two of them work full time. In their case, the double cast is more regarding the flat hierarchy and diversity, which are very central to On.
They leave a lot of decision-making power to the small teams, as they emphasize. And the approximately 2,000 employees can decide for themselves how many holidays they take each year. Only the legal minimum is set out in the employment contract.
Maurer and Hoffmann joined On in 2013 and have been running the company with the three founders ever since. “We would have preferred no titles at all,” says Maurer. But with the listing on the New York Stock Exchange in 2021, they had to define both supervisory roles and operational leadership. In addition to the co-CEOs, the board of directors is also chaired by the co-lead.
In the US market, which is so important for On, the shared leadership position always raises question marks. “American culture is much more focused on individuals. Before we went public, we discussed intensively whether these co-appointments would result in more questions than answers,” says Hoffmann.
But following initial discussions with investors, these concerns subsided. “They recognized that it was our strength.” Precisely because On is growing so quickly, it is crucial to distribute the burden across many shoulders.
The co-CEOs also leave the tasks that suit each other to each other. “Marc is the creative person who builds the brand and makes sure the products perform,” says Hoffmann. As head of finance, he is responsible for efficient processing. “When it comes to money, I can rely 100 percent on Martin,” says Maurer. “We complement each other very well.”
They just can’t replace each other compared to other top sharing systems. They still believe that they will benefit, especially personally, from dual leadership: “We can overcome failures together. And celebrate successes together,” says Maurer, who is now also a personal friend of his boss partner.
According to Hoffmann, the company ultimately benefits from this: “Because our decisions are structured more diversely. And because we encourage each other to do better.”
Anyone looking for co-leaders will find a striking number of same-sex examples. And women. Around six percent of all women in the labor market are employed in a job-sharing model. For men it is just under one percent.
Since the Share of part-time work among men But as Irenka Krone from the PTO association notes, there are more and more male and mixed co-leaders.
But not everyone is suitable for dual leadership, says the consultant, who herself works in two co-management positions: “In my experience, it is very difficult with strong alpha people.” In Krone’s experience, co-management also fails more often when companies put two employees together in a duo. It is more efficient to advertise the shared positions like this: “The professional couple has to look for and find each other.”
Because this is not always easy, she helped set up the “We Jobshare” platform. There, employees can look for a partner for a job.
Women’s Clinic: “We wanted to continue to be clinically active”
The two chief physicians Christine Brambs (left) and Corina Christmann co-lead the women’s clinic at the Lucerne Cantonal Hospital.
Photo: Sabina Bobst
“It was like a blind date,” says Christine Brambs and laughs. When she applied for the position as head of the women’s clinic at the Lucerne Cantonal Hospital (Luks) in 2020, she did not yet know her future co-management partner. Corina Christmann has been working at Luks for a long time and is also interested in the position, which is explicitly advertised as co-management. So the two of them go for coffee first. “We both said relatively quickly: This might work,” said Brambs.
Today the doubts have long since disappeared. The two look like they have known each other for years. Finish each other’s sentences. Are a well-rehearsed team. “Co-management requires a high level of interaction skills,” says Brambs. “There are no clear co-management job descriptions,” adds Christmann. “We had to work for it.”
Initially both work 90 percent. Today there are 100. Although the co-management would just make part-time work possible. «Our ambition was not to work less. “But to take over the management of the clinic and continue to be clinically active,” says Brambs. So continue to be with the patients and research treatment methods. “I didn’t study medicine for a purely administrative job,” says Christmann.
Today, they pursue their focus areas in everyday clinical practice. Together they plan the strategic direction and finances. And they look following the employees: “Especially in conflict situations, it is incredibly enriching that we can exchange ideas,” says Brambs.
The head doctors not only prove that front-line work and administrative tasks are compatible under co-management. They are also mothers of school-age children – and want to encourage young colleagues. “Employees always come to our office very worried – because they are pregnant,” says Christmann. “They are afraid of what it means for their future. Quite often they even say: I don’t want you to think that I don’t want to work!”
The co-clinic directors want to show that family and career are also possible in medicine. Of course, not everything is always easy, says Christmann: “Our children are also sick sometimes and we have to ask each other to step in. But today I have this backup, which is a luxury.” They want to show young colleagues perspectives: “Dual leadership is a possible path.”
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