Flying napkins at Baur au Lac

After a two-year break, the time was ripe for a top-class employee party. The management put its contacts to work and reserved no less than the Petit Palais of the 5-star Hotel Baur au Lac. The exclusive setting and the fitting motto "Zurich's finest" caused anticipation to soar. The pompous room was radiant with the dressed-up team. Instead of service aprons, chef's hats and uniforms, there were tailcoats, bow ties, cocktail dresses and freshly knotted cornrows.

Chronicle of the best team app posts

Usually, the Fred Tschanz start of the year party includes a retrospective of the past fiscal years. This year, that review consisted of posts from the internal communications platform Team App. In fast motion, we went through the challenges and highlights of the last three years - including the reactions from our employees. An entertaining and emotional journey through time that showed why our cohesion is stronger today than ever before.

And the winner is: Fred Tschanz Group!

The path of realignment and restructuring that we embarked on a few years ago is bearing fruit today: Compared with the competition, both our Odeon and our hotels have the best annual scores in 2022 on all the relevant rating platforms - an amazing achievement. We were also blown away by the results of the Great Place to Work survey. With an overall rating of 89%, we are above the average of all employers of our company size - and even across all industries.

More appreciation, more bonuses, more cohesion

The journey continues: Major projects are also on the agenda for the coming year. On the one hand, we are continuing to drive forward the digitization of processes, and on the other hand, we surprised the team with news regarding our hotels. 
As a token of appreciation for our employees, we revolutionized our loyalty program: with "Loyalty Vouchers 2.0", all employees working 50% or more will receive an extra benefit at the end of the year. They can choose between a cash payment, a ZVV travel pass for the entire canton or a sixth week of vacation. An investment that pays off: It's not for no reason that the most gifted hosts work for Fred Tschanz!

Pleasure after business

The easily digestible news was followed by big appetite. Odeon Managing Director Hans Jürgen Schlatzer knew how to get the service staff's attention. He called on the whole team to wag napkins in order to push the opening of the buffet. From then on, the dam for exuberant celebration was broken. We ate our way from salty to sweet and back again, exchanging places and countless stories. At the latest when the families and friends of our employees, who had also been invited, arrived to toast with us, our favorite DJ Charles Meyer also turned up the heat. Only after a midnight snack of pasta and currywurst and a few long drinks later did we gradually admit defeat.