120,000 client visits – a new record in the history of Spitex Chur. "Never before have we carried out as many visits as last year," says Co-Managing Director Daniel Jörg. This means an increase of 13.5 percent in billable hours on the previous year, 2022. A clear sign that the demand for Spitex services will keep on growing in view of demographic trends. But there's a shortage of skilled workers.
150 employees are responsible for Chur, Haldenstein and Maladers, serving their clients 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. Spitex Chur is organized into nine teams: four neighborhood teams and one team each for housekeeping, dementia, outpatient psychiatric care, Spitex Plus and care and support. The Spitex Plus team is a novelty in the Spitex landscape: clients can choose when they want visits to take place and which employees they want to provide their care.
Spitex Chur, with its 1,000 clients, is also feeling the effects of the shortage of specialists in the healthcare sector. How can a Spitex organization remain an attractive employer? This is a preoccupying question: among other things, Spitex Chur relies on the Dutch organizational model of "buurtzorg" (neighborhood care), which takes a holistic approach to care and in which teams coordinate independently. "The teams organize themselves autonomously. They are the contact persons for our clients. The teams take care of everything they need for their daily work – from planning visits and shifts to the continuous improvement of work processes," explains Daniel Jörg. The autonomous organization model pays off: Spitex Chur receives many exciting applications, especially from qualified nursing staff – who are rare on the job market – and has a low employee turnover rate.
Ricarda Meyer is one of these sought-after nursing professionals. She has been working for Spitex Chur for just over a year and is perfectly happy with her job. She particularly enjoys the flexible working hours and the company's culture of appreciation. Ricarda is now very keen to continue working in an autonomous team, despite initially having reservations about this form of organization. "Working in an autonomous team creates an incredible sense of togetherness. Everyone pulls together, takes responsibility and is committed," the qualified nurse emphasizes enthusiastically. However, there's even more to be said in favor of Spitex Chur as an employer.
Spitex Chur is all about flexibility and personal responsibility, which is why a good pension fund solution with options is important to the organization. Spitex Chur expanded its retirement provision solution around two years ago. This entailed a range of changes: the entire salary is insured – there is no coordination deduction – and the savings contributions are 1 percent above the statutory minimum. In addition, Spitex Chur offers its employees an optional savings plan. "The decision to opt for a higher-value retirement provision strategy was made quickly," says Roger Schlub, Vice President of Spitex Chur. "We wanted to optimize the retirement provision for our employees, partly in order to remain attractive as an employer."
Spitex employees can choose which savings plan is the ideal fit for their situation in life and increase their own savings contribution by 0.5 or 1.0 percentage points. An optional savings plan allows employees to pay more into their pension fund and thus actively shape their occupational retirement provision. "The idea of optional savings plans fits in perfectly with our corporate philosophy of personal responsibility and flexibility," adds Roger Schlub. The response to this option has been positive: a good 40 percent of employees have opted for a higher-value savings plan. Ricarda Meyer is one of them. In management, as many as 90 percent of employees opted for a higher-value optional savings plan.
Opportunities for customizing occupational retirement provision do exist. The Federal Law on Occupational Retirement, Survivors' and Disability Plans (BVG) defines minimum benefits for all employees from the age of 17. But nowadays, minimum benefits are scarcely enough for a person to sustain their usual standard of living after retirement – as was originally intended. It is therefore worthwhile for every company to review its retirement provision solution and bring it up to date. There are wide-ranging opportunities for customization in occupational retirement provision, so it is worth regularly reviewing your pension fund solution. With clever retirement provision solutions, companies can not only set themselves apart from the competition, but also score points as responsible employers and make an important contribution to ensuring that their employees have adequate retirement provision.
