Employees
More than 38 000 employees throughout the country benefit from the best collective employment agreement in the Swiss retail sector, a wide range of training and development opportunities and good career prospects.
Coop – Eine attraktive, soziale Arbeitgeberin
We offer the best employment conditions in the Swiss retail sector, which are enjoyed by more than 38 000 employees from all parts of the country who are covered by the collective employment agreement. This solidarity is a tradition with us, as we were Switzerland's first retailer to introduce a collective employment agreement more than 100 years ago. We are the only retailer in Switzerland to negotiate the collective employment agreement with five social partners: KV Schweiz (Swiss commercial association), Syna, OCST and Unia (trade unions), and VdAC (Association of Salaried Employees of Coop).
The reference wage for trained employees is currently CHF 4 100 a month, reflecting the value we attach to professional training. Our employees also benefit from staff discounts and offers as well as attractive pension rights.
Solidarity with families
From just the fourth year of employment, we allow 16 weeks of maternity leave on full pay. If the child has to stay in hospital after the birth, the mother receives an additional eight weeks of leave on full pay. Furthermore, when their child is born, fathers can extend the one-week paternity leave by a further two unpaid weeks of holiday. We support single parents on a lower income with financial contributions towards external childcare and, since 2014, employees who care for their relatives have also been entitled to unpaid leave.
Major provider of apprenticeships in Switzerland
We are the second largest provider of apprenticeships in Switzerland. As well as a wide variety of training and development courses, we offer more than 3 400 apprenticeships across the Group. Apprenticeships are offered in over 30 professions and open up diverse career prospects. There are careers on offer in sales, logistics, administration, catering, production and transportation. In line with Coop's sustainability targets, we aim to continue employing 70% of our apprentices in retail on completion of their training. This commitment demonstrates that Coop takes responsibility for its apprentices.
Besides the conventional apprenticeship, Coop has offered a preliminary integration apprenticeship since 2017. The goal of this one-year vocational training is to enable refugees to take up an apprenticeship in retail and logistics or to facilitate their entry directly into the job market.
Wide range of training and professional development opportunities
We are dedicated to high-quality basic training, promote the vocational school-leaving certificate and support secondments to other linguistic regions of Switzerland as well as abroad. All employees complete, on average, two days of professional development training each year, as continuous learning is writ large at Coop. We run our own training centres in Muttenz and Jongny, where we offer more than 600 professional development courses. Each year, we invest over CHF 45 million in internal professional development and support employees who are attending external courses by providing funding and allowing them time to attend. Coop offers its employees around 100 000 training days each year.
We offer a wide variety of career opportunities
Nurturing and developing employees is essential to us, as motivated, well-trained teams are the foundation of our success. For this reason, we make targeted investments in talent management. Today, we are able to fill at least 75 percent of management vacancies internally. Men and women have the same career opportunities regardless of where they come from. Our one-year trainee programme enables university graduates to embark upon their career in retail. We offer a modern, dynamic working environment in the areas of sales, marketing, purchasing, communication, HR, finance, IT and logistics. In addition to the trainee programme, employees can also join us directly or complete an internship.
As well as fulfilling our social responsibility to university graduates and managers, each year we offer at least 50 practical training places for academically weaker school-leavers.