DECTRIS is recognized by the Swiss Employer Award 2020

A 5-minute read

We are happy and honored to achieve 14th place for the Swiss Employer Award 2020 in the category “100-249 employees”. In this ranking, we appear as the first company that corresponds to the “industry” sector.

Founded in 2006, DECTRIS started with five employees and many ambitions in Baden, Switzerland. Today, we are a growing company with more than 120 employees and a regional office in the United States. Throughout these 14 years, we have developed novel X-ray and electron detectors and worked our way to the synchrotron, X-ray, and electron microscopy laboratory markets!

DECTRIS as an employer can look to the future with confidence. Spirits are very high, and the employees care a lot about their agile company. Often, they feel like they belong to a family, and their commitment is very high. DECTRIS continuously invests in further education; it has well-equipped workstations with modern equipment and offers quite a few benefits.

“For our company, one of the most important and valuable assets is our culture”, says CEO Dr. Christian Brönnimann. The company is committed to supporting different off-work gatherings where teams can strengthen their relationships. Sports tournaments, seasonal trips, and after-work dinners are just some of those plans.

DECTRIS during the COVID-19 pandemic

This year, COVID-19 meant to stop the world. But it didn’t stop us! We adapted our workplace and culture to the new conditions. A Pandemic Team was created from all areas of the company; this diversity was essential in order to take everyone’s emotional responses and opinions into consideration and to be there for everyone. The team’s first task was to establish an adapted escalation plan and specify the main goals: Make DECTRIS a safe place and Secure functionality.

Silke Traut, COO and a leader of the Pandemic Team, explains: “For us, it is most important that people are safe and feel safe at DECTRIS. I believe the campaign, which we developed and published with the Marketing team, was helpful in creating awareness and the feeling of security. ‘We are not a victim of the pandemic; we CAN and we DO act’ is one of the strongest messages that I hope we were able to bring across to people.” As a producing and selling company, we also secured our supply chain by increasing production coverage of needed parts and materials in stock. This way, we could maintain a stable production throughout the year.

A recent survey of our employees suggests that our Pandemic Team was successful in achieving the goals it had set. Silke Traut then points out, “Most of our measures have been targeted to ensure the in-office workers’ well-being. We freed up parking space so fewer people had to commute by public transportation; we provided free sandwiches in the cafeteria so people would not have to go out to buy lunch; we held an Easter egg hunt in the company to keep morale up; we implemented air cleaning stations at meeting points and supplied everyone with masks. However, we never lost touch with the employees working from home. A little care package with goodies was sent to them in order to show our commitment, and the management team organized video meetings and One-on-One video calls to keep in touch and verify their well being.”

Committed to the younger generation

Even during the pandemic, we have maintained one of our goals: to support the younger generation, as we want to help those who are looking for their first working experience. Therefore, we opened some internship and apprenticeship positions throughout the year. As former apprentice and now full-time employee Shpejtim Tifeku puts it, “Being in an actual company allows me to learn a lot about the work environment: in particular, teamwork and time management.”

As a growing company, we are also hiring for permanent positions. Check out our careers page; we are waiting for you!