The guide
Guide: HR in a Swiss SME, step by step
Managing people in Switzerland means juggling the Code of Obligations, the Labour Act, social insurance and cantonal law. This guide sums up what an SME with 20 to 150 people needs to master, and how HR software helps.
Which HR software should a Swiss SME choose?
HR software for Swiss SMEs must first know Swiss law: holidays under CO 329a, overtime under CO 321c, time recording under the LTr, work certificates under CO 330a. A foreign tool adapted after the fact leaves these rules to the user’s judgement, and that is where mistakes begin.
The second criterion is integration. In a 40-person company, HR, payroll and accounting are often handled by the same two or three people. If absences live in one tool, hours in another and payroll at the fiduciary, every month end starts with copying. Numezis connects these steps: the file feeds payroll, approved hours feed payroll, payroll feeds accounting. Finally, check that data is hosted in Switzerland, that role-based access meets the nLPD and that the tool works in French, German and Italian.
What HR obligations does an employer have in Switzerland?
From the first employee, the employer registers the company with an AHV/AVS compensation fund, with an LPP pension institution for salaries above the entry threshold and with an accident insurer under the LAA. It withholds contributions, declares and pays them on time, deducts withholding tax for the employees concerned and issues a salary certificate every year.
Employment law adds its own rules: a written contract is recommended, minimum holidays are four weeks (five up to age 20), working times must be recorded and kept, overtime compensated or paid. Payroll records are kept for ten years. Numezis turns these obligations into visible deadlines in the compliance calendar and into checks applied at the moment of entry, so that an oversight becomes a signal rather than a late discovery.
How should the personnel file be organised?
The personnel file gathers everything that underpins the employment relationship: contract and amendments, job description, residence permit, bank details, insurance certificates, reviews, certificates. In Switzerland, the nLPD requires that only what is necessary be kept, that access be limited to those who need it and that employees can consult their own data.
In Numezis, each employee has a single record. Uploaded documents are classified by type, dated and linked to the data they support: the amendment that moves the activity rate to 80 % also changes the salary and the holiday entitlement. Managers only see their own team. When an employee leaves, the file is archived, the work certificate prepared and payroll records kept for ten years as CO 958f requires.
How do you connect HR, working time and payroll?
Most payroll errors happen between two tools: an absence not carried over, forgotten overtime, a change in activity rate that arrived after cut-off. A direct link between HR, time and payroll closes these gaps.
In Numezis, approved absences reduce the holiday balance and, for unpaid leave, the month’s salary. Approved hours feed the overtime balance and the pay of hourly employees. Contract changes take effect on their effective date, prorated if it falls mid-month. The agent prepares payroll from this data, flags what has changed since the previous month and waits for your approval before producing payslips, the Swissdec ELM declaration and the payment file.
Should HR be kept in-house or handed to a fiduciary?
Many SMEs entrust payroll to their fiduciary and keep the rest in-house. The model works, provided information flows: the fiduciary needs absences, hours and contract changes on time, and the company wants to see what has been calculated.
Numezis supports both models. Your fiduciary works in the same workspace, with its own access rights, and prepares payroll from the data your teams have entered; you keep the overview and the final approval. If you bring it in-house, the agent takes over the repetitive preparation and your fiduciary steps in as reviewer. Either way, no more files sent by email and no re-keying, and every step stays traced.