Specializing in government relations, union negotiation, lobbying, Bettina Schaller, President at World Employment Confederation, is focused on creating a leveled playing field in the industry for everyone. Backing up her skills and experience in the sector, she is deploying smart strategies to lead the WEC in the right direction.
Climbing the ladder of success
Bettina started working at the Adecco Group in 2010, hired to set up the Public and Government Affairs Function. She quickly took on roles at the sector level, within what is today World Employment Confederation, and over the years added mandates in the broader World of Work, such as being a Member of the G20-B20 Employment and Education Task Force, co-chairing the Business at OECD Employment and Social Affairs Committee as well as various roles on Non-Governmental Organizations, such as the World Economic Forum and the Global Apprenticeship Network.
She was elected President of the World Employment Confederation (WEC) in September 2020, after having held various mandates in the Organization since she joined the industry in March 2010. She adds, “I campaigned among others on the notion of evolution, not revolution, which says a lot about where WEC stood at that time: a well-oiled and effective Member-driven Association.”
The reasons why she presented herself for election were also linked to the industry. She states, “My sense of purpose is very strong in the Staffing, Recruitment, Workforce Solutions, Career Guidance and Work-Readiness Training Industry. It is all about social impact, about being relevant to a Labour Market and a Country’s Competitiveness, about making a difference in people’s lives. So, it’s a true honor to be part of a project that is geared towards growing this industry.”
Rising and shining
Bettina believes that challenges and failures have an immense growth effect in them, but they can sometimes break a person. They can eat too much energy, which is detrimental to one’s overall performance.
One big roadblock in Bettina’s life which led to a complete pivot was the decision she had to take to step out of the Diplomatic Service. She states, “I had entered it after a tough selection process and was clearly set on a path of service for the Swiss Government until my retirement in the year 2039. I realized after some time on the job that my true calling might not be in Public Service after all. That process was difficult for me, but obviously then opened the door to other avenues and to where I am today.”
Taking WEC to the next level
WEC is a Trade Association. It is the voice of the employment industry at the global level, representing labor market enablers in 50 countries and 7 of the largest international workforce solutions companies.
Taking charge as the President and working with a fresh Board, they have an ambitious strategic plan to deploy. Bettina states, “Our Value Proposition is as follows: we aim at uniting and strengthening the Industry; creating a level playing field for the Industry, creating supportive regulatory frameworks, at profiling the value of the Industry – all while delivering world-class services to Members.”
Teamwork is the key
Being new into her role, she is still in the process of establishing the basis of growth, together with the leadership team. This also directs towards adding more talented members to the team.
Keeping an engaged, accountable, solution-oriented, and forward-looking/ innovative approach has helped in creating notable changes in shifting the industry’s perception to value creation. This includes revamping the whole culture encompassing the full spectrum of HR solutions into the advocacy pipeline and becoming a truly global organization by transforming the approach to a data-driven decision-making one. She believes since transparency, openness, inclusion, and fairness are the benchmarks of the company’s culture, it has become easier to climb new heights of success.
Additionally, some of the other top core values consist of Collaboration with similar organizations, Participation, as well as Excellence.
She is happy to find a lot of self-driven and motivated employees in the organisation and witnesses an incredible sense of drive, commitment, and engagement in the team. Her focus also lies in increasing the speed of work and the number of resources. It is owing to the fact that everyone nowadays tries to do too much at the same time and as swiftly as possible that too with limited resources. For her, striking this perfect balance is quite essential to develop as an empowering Leader.
Emerging as a Structured Leader
As the President of the World Employment Confederation, Bettina is heading the WEC Board as well as the WEC Executive Committee. Moreover, she also supervises the implementation of the Strategy and resource allocation.
Further, she is also one of the Representatives of the Organization and represents it in Committees and Platforms relevant to WEC, such as the International Business Advisory Group of the G20-B20. She focuses on this as according to her other expert voices and leaders of the organization must also be representative for larger impact.
Sharing her achievements, she states, “One pride is that WEC has been navigating through the COVID-19 crisis by increasing its value proposition to Members. WEC took the digital offerings “bull” by the horn, pivoted all services online, and added to its delivery.”
It has also helped in redefining the organisation’s new strategy so that they can stay focused on their Members and external Stakeholders in the World of Work, i.e., their clients, as they know that their voice is extremely relevant to the world crisis in different Labor Markets.
Global plans for World Employment Confederation
Laying the organisation’s future vision, Bettina states, “My vision is defined as a GPS – the elements being for G – Growth & Governance, for P – Profiling and Positioning & Purposeful & Prioritization and for S – Serving & Strategy & Scope. The overarching drivers are Growth, Relevance, and Impact.”
She also desires to take the Organization to the next level with more Membership, Impact, and Relevance. Her vision for expansion revolves around being more structured, incremental as well as inclusive.
