Switzerland regularly occupies top positions in international innovation studies and rankings and is one of the most innovative countries in the world. However, such studies assess the entire national economy, including all framework conditions, and say little about the innovative strength of individual industrial classes. The Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences (SATW) therefore took a closer look at innovative strength and discovered something disturbing. Swiss industrial companies, especially SMEs, appear to be increasingly losing innovative strength and competitiveness. This is bad news for a country that depends on an internationally competitive export industry.

Fewer companies, less research, less domestic

The study is based on data from the innovation survey conducted by the KOF economic research institute, which is currently available up to and including 2014. It is striking that there are fewer and fewer Swiss industrial companies. This development is also shown by the Swiss Engineering Index: Switzerland has been losing around 4,000 full-time jobs in the industrial sector every year for the past six years. Worryingly, from 1997-2014, many SMEs reduced their R&D efforts at home and abroad (see chart 1). The NOGA1 classes of chemicals, machinery, metal products, textiles/clothing and watches were particularly hard hit. In some cases, a migration of R&D activities abroad is also evident, for example among SMEs in the electrical engineering and metal manufacturing classes.

Some particularly required industrial classes

The study shows how successful the R&D efforts of Swiss industrial companies are with regard to new products. The results for the observed period (2001-2014) are presented in a portfolio representation (see chart 2). The x-axis shows the change in the share of sales accounted for by R&D spending, while the y-axis shows the change in sales of new products. While R&D efforts by SMEs paid off in some classes such as pharmaceuticals, wood or metal products (yellow and green areas), things looked less good in the electronics/instruments, machinery or chemicals classes. There, SME sales of new products fell, despite higher R&D spending in percentage terms - so the efforts were all for naught, as it were. The findings for SMEs in the textile/clothing class are disturbing: they have reduced R&D spending in percentage terms and their sales of new products have fallen. Changed framework conditions, stronger competition or disappearing markets are possible causes.

Strengthening applied research and development

The public sector finances university research in Switzerland. Industrial companies bear their own research costs. This model seems to have reached its limits. The results of the study suggest that SMEs in Swiss industry in particular are finding it increasingly difficult to bear the high costs of R&D. Those that nevertheless take the risk are increasingly less successful. Those that do take the risk are less likely to be successful. Larger companies outsource research to countries that offer more government incentives to do so.

These developments must give pause for thought. In view of the state support for industry that the majority of the leading industrialized countries provide, the political debate must be conducted: Does the federal government need to provide greater support for domestic industrial companies in their innovation efforts and set appropriate incentives?

Source: www.satw.ch

Dangers lurk everywhere in everyday working life: in the workshop, outside on the construction site and even inside in the office. Recently, various young people have been drawing the attention of colleagues of the same age to the dangers in different industries and showing them how to protect themselves against them. Leisure time is not neglected either. The BSWS Influencers know why they pay attention to their safety at work. So they can fully enjoy their free time. Great pictures are taken in the process: For example, of Lena, who knows all about the dangers in the office.

More safety at work via Instagram

With the new Instagram account, BE SMART WORK SAFE is also using a new online channel after five successful years of campaigning: Young career starters communicate directly with their peers and show how they deal with the topic of occupational safety in everyday life. The new Instagram account complements the Facebook presence of BE SMART WORK SAFE, which is used by more than 12,000 young people to discuss the topic of safety in the workplace. With the new strategy, the campaign picks up young people even more specifically in their digital lifeworlds and communicates the messages in an authentic way. The campaign runs under the label SAFE AT WORK by EKAS, Seco and the cantons for more safety at work.

Interactive platform - Important information packaged in an entertaining way

The social media presence is complemented by a completely new website. Since mid-July, the bs-ws.ch site has had a fresh look. Young people are encouraged to engage with the topic of occupational safety in an interactive and entertaining way. The wealth of important information and tips for greater safety at work are presented in an age-appropriate way. They consist of cool video clips and pictures as well as an exciting quiz. Young people also have the opportunity to help design the website. Selected posts with the hashtag #besmartworksafe are integrated into the content of the page. The design has also been completely redesigned - giving the appealing site a fresh and trendy look.

More information:
instagram.com/bsws_ch
facebook.com/besmart.worksafe
bs-ws.ch
www.safeatwork.ch

Today more than ever, companies are required to provide their customers with all relevant services in real time and across all end devices and channels. This is currently one of the biggest challenges for SMEs, because they often do not have the necessary human resources. For digitization to succeed, however, companies need a central platform that collects all data about customers and links it in a meaningful way. Only in this way can they create relevant experiences for their customers. IT-PEAK-Networks, a developer of service management software, names five reasons why digitized service management will be indispensable in the future.

1. permanent risk of data loss

Even today, service in many companies is still handled via Excel spreadsheets or Word documents that go on for ages. However, such documents are not only very tedious to maintain, they also represent a high risk because companies always have to fear losing data. With service management software, this danger is averted: Employees can effortlessly work in parallel, enter data as needed, and access it without any problems.

2. more free space for value-adding activities

If companies decide to implement service management software, they have significantly more time for more meaningful activities because the time-consuming maintenance of Excel lists and Word documents is no longer necessary. Employees can, for example, set about improving service management and meeting the needs of the customer in an even more targeted manner.

3. stronger customer satisfaction and loyalty

Every company knows that it is significantly more cost-intensive to acquire new customers than to satisfy existing ones. Retaining customers in the long term through optimized, digitized service management pays off in many ways: They spend significantly more money and react less sensitively to price if quality and trust are right in return. In addition, satisfied customers act as positive brand ambassadors, as they are happy to share positive experiences with a company with those around them. Last but not least, existing customers spend less on advertising and make fewer complaints - which also reduces service costs.

Reduced costs through process automation

If companies have not yet implemented a service management solution, they have to contend with inefficient, time-consuming processes, which in turn leads to poor service. Manual processes eat up an enormous amount of time. For example, employees have to laboriously switch between different tools (Excel, Word or ERP system) during their work. It is much more efficient to automate service processes. With service management software, companies can coordinate processes much better and map service history in detail. This creates greater efficiency and effectiveness in service.

Service as a unique selling proposition

Today, a company's success or failure is no longer determined by price or product alone. Rather, it must positively distinguish itself from the competition through unique selling points. If companies decide to give service a higher priority and focus on the wishes and needs of their customers, this will have a positive impact on their image thanks to word-of-mouth recommendation. For this to succeed, companies should identify their customers' wishes at an early stage and fulfill them in the best possible way. If companies want to be successful in the long term, service digitization must be their top priority.

Information:

For more help and tips on how companies can successfully digitize their service - to generate more revenue, retain existing customers for the long term and win new customers - interested parties can read the free e-book from IT-PEAK-Networks "Digitizing service management - opportunities and challenges" at https://www.peak-networks.de/de/e-book-zur-service-optimierung.

Over the past decade, there has been a growing understanding that IT spending is a critical item. Now, the only thing that needs to grow is the understanding that IT security unfortunately does not come free of charge, but that much can be made more secure even with a small budget.

Risk awareness in place, but contingency plan not...

As part of his CAS certificate thesis, Christian Heimann evaluated various methods and approaches for an "Affordable Digital Security Audit of SMEs" and found that SMEs are very aware of the digital transformation. However, it is worrying that many small companies are overwhelmed by the multitude of technical IT security tools available on the market. For this reason, they often neither budget for nor do anything about IT security. If something is done, they are mainly concerned with the technical aspects. They are aware of the value of their data, but they forget the human component. Employees are not trained or insufficiently trained and sensitized, which increases the risk of a successful attack. Only just under one-third of small companies have an emergency plan; in the event of a successful attack, such a plan would defuse the associated crisis situation by not wasting any time.

New devices - new points of attack

Among the two-thirds of SMEs for which IT security is highly important, only 20 percent have reviewed their IT security to date. This gives pause for thought. According to leading research and consulting firm Gartner (2017), the number of IoT devices will increase to 20,000,000,000 by 2020! IoT devices are not only attack targets, but can also become attackers themselves (e.g. misuse as part of a botnet). Therefore, protecting IoT is not only about your own security, but also about the security of the general public. Gartner projects that by 2020, 25% of all identifiable cyber attacks on enterprises will have an IoT component, but less than 10% of IT security budgets will be invested in IoT.

Vulnerability Management

Over the past decade, there has been a growing understanding that IT spending is a crucial item. Now the understanding that IT security is unfortunately not free, but that a lot can be made more secure with a small budget, has to grow. A key element is to know your inventory so that you always have an overview of your systems (network, devices, access rights, cloud services).

Christian Heimann talked to Pascal Mittner, CEO of First Security Technology AG, about their vulnerability management solution. Vulnerability Scan or Automated Testing is the detection of vulnerabilities by analyzing endpoints. A good vulnerability management solution not only provides indications of the vulnerabilities, but also direct recommendations for action to eliminate the vulnerabilities. Pascal Mittner clarified in the interview that vulnerability management should function as an early warning system and provide for the analysis of the assigned area. Measures cannot and should not be implemented by the same system. The principle of "separation of powers" is to be observed.

38 new vulnerabilities per day

In the field of cyber security, when people ask IT managers how often a security audit should take place, they often ask for an interval of between three and five years. They forget that the IT infrastructure is dynamic and even one year is far too long for a technical environment, plus there are 38 new vulnerabilities every day. Small companies also lose track of the systems that are on the network. Often devices like routers, switches, IoT or test systems are simply forgotten, missing from the inventory and therefore not integrated into the IT security concept. Pascal Mittner mentions that "In addition to the documentation of the infrastructure, vulnerability management serves as a tool to detect problems at an early stage and to counteract them. This increases the efficiency and effectiveness of the company, frees up resources, helps prevent major damage and invests in the right measures."

With FS Cyber Control - the Swiss Made vulnerability management solution for SMEs, the above mentioned steps are implemented among others. The IT infrastructure is inventoried, then the systems (IPs) are scanned and a report is generated with recommended measures to eliminate the vulnerabilities found. The reports are easy to understand, regardless of IT knowledge. "Based on a traffic light system red, yellow, green, they can quickly see how their IT is doing and the solution is also affordable for SMEs," says Pascal Mittner and adds, "FS Cyber Control is easy to integrate into the existing environment and fully automatic. In this sense, there is no longer any excuse for SMEs to neglect their cyber security due to excessive demands."

More information: First Security AG

Since the launch of the StartUp Challenge in 2013, over 851 young companies have applied. For this year's edition, over 238 applications have been received, which represents a new record number of participants. The applicants come from the fields of ICT, cloud services, fintech, artificial intelligence, IOT, robotics, digital marketing and cyber security, among others. The top ten pitched to a panel of experts on Tuesday, August 14, 2018. The jury consisted of Roger Wüthrich-Hasenböhler (Chief Digital Officer Swisscom), Carole Ackermann (Investor and President Business Angels Switzerland, Lukas Weder (Founder EAT.ch) and Beat Schillig (Managing Director of the program partner venturelab).

Tailored mentoring program in Silicon Valley

With a convincing business model, team spirit and determination, the five winners scored points with the jury: AAAccell, Dotphoton, Exeon Analytics, Sentifi and ROVENSO have secured participation in the one-week Business Acceleration Program in Silicon Valley. There, they will learn from the personal experiences of top entrepreneurs and venture capitalists and further develop their marketing and sales skills. In addition, the young companies have the chance to win Swisscom for a cooperation or an investment. The start-ups will embark on their journey on October 21, 2018.

Startups from a wide range of sectors

The award-winning young companies come from a wide variety of fields. AAAccell (https://aaaccell.ch/), for example, is a spin-off company of the University of Zurich. The team consists of two former bank CEOs, eleven professors and various PhD/Master students from the University of Zurich, ETH and Columbia University New York, among others. The company brings together academic excellence, Artificial Intelligence and the power of algorithms to develop high-tech software solutions for the financial industry, specifically for the field of asset and risk management, based on the latest scientific findings.

Dotphoton (http://www.dotphoton.com/) is a quantum-inspired method for compressing raw image data for professional applications. It makes raw image data up to 10 times smaller while maintaining quality. This saves time and money when storing, transferring and analyzing images. Dotphoton says it is ushering in the next generation of high-quality imaging and processing solutions, in the fields of photography, cinema, AI, biomedical and aerospace.

Exeon Analytics (https://www.exeon.ch/) combats advanced cyber attacks using award-winning algorithms. It often takes months, if not years, to detect data leaks because they are hidden among millions of regular user activities. ExeonTrace security analytics and visualization software allows organizations to better understand their network traffic and detect hidden cyber attacks and data breaches.

Sentifi (https://sentifi.com/) provides financially relevant crowd intelligence. This company's solutions garner more than 180 million views per month and are used by the world's leading financial services firms to gain unique insights into more than 50,000 traded companies, currencies, and commodities and stay up-to-date on the events that affect them. Sentifi uses machine learning to rank more than 14 million financial influencers.

ROVENSO (http://www.rovenso.com/), a company founded in 2016 that began as a startup at EPFL in 2014, manufactures agile sensor robots for particularly demanding and harsh environments. The Swiss-based company has already opened a branch and workshops in Shenzhen, China, in cooperation with the HAX Accelerator. Pilot projects are currently underway with paying customers in China and Switzerland, in the fields of firefighting and security monitoring.

More information about the StartUp Challenge and source: www.swisscom.ch/challenge

When it comes to planning a sustainable future with foresight in entrepreneurial families, the focus is often exclusively on the company and capital side. Here, a professional structure is cultivated with caution and care. In the process, the organization of the family and the needs of the individual are not given at least as much weight. This is one of the main reasons why many family businesses still fail with their ambitions. This is also evidenced by the declining numbers of successful family-internal succession arrangements. The holistic view is missing.

The stakes are high

In which direction are we developing as a family? How do we align our company for the future? Where do we stand with our financial capital? What plans do the individual players have? Where do we want to go together? These are all complex and challenging questions for entrepreneurial families which, as experience shows, do not tolerate any delay. Otherwise, everything may soon be at stake: family, company and capital. With the so far unique "Family Business Compass", entrepreneurial families have the opportunity for the first time to receive a holistic situation analysis and planning basis for the 4 core areas of family businesses: Family - Company - Capital - Individual.

Key experiences thanks to gamification

Quite deliberately, the owners and leading heads of "The Family Retreat"Franziksa Müller Tiberini and Carole Häusermann, have opted for a playful concept (gamification). The 44 humorously illustrated compass cards with targeted questions make the abstract tangible and facilitate access to challenging topics. "The game is played with all members or subgroups of the entrepreneurial family.

Scientific findings coupled with our many years of experience show that the holistic view of the 4 core areas is decisive for success. It is essential to use the interaction between the sensitive organism family as well as the family business as an organization for oneself. The "gain" for all involved is the joint development of individual priorities and thus an individual compass orientation. In this way, ideally with ease, all those involved plan the future of the entrepreneurial family together in a professional manner. The official launch of the "Family Business Compass" is on November 5, 2018 in Zurich.

More information: www.familienunternehmen.ch

Screening as well as communicating with prospects are among the most sensitive topics in recruiting. Classifying these tasks as routine reveals the low status they still have. And that is precisely why the ongoing digitization of HR is raising old fundamental questions in recruiting more than ever before. The first and probably most important: Where is the human being as an individual and pivotal point in this development? Will the learning systems really be better than a recruiter at recognizing the human being in his or her unique personality behind the applicant? And how reliably will they ultimately decide what potential the person has and to what extent the cultural fit fits?

Faster, mobile and connected standards for more robot recruiting?

Whereas in the past, let's say in Stone Age recruiting, a handwritten resume was required to characterize and evaluate applicants, it seems that the opposite extreme will soon be reached in the future. The use of people analytics turns people into transparent applicants. And all of this comes at a price. Of course, recruiting processes should and must evolve, even in technical terms. Applicants, too, rightly expect uncomplicated, faster and, above all, mobile and networked standards in their contact with potential employers, standards that have long since found their way into all our lives. In contrast, many representatives of the employer side still expect "meaningful application documents" and fail to recognize that this form of professional matching is not only not very meaningful but, especially in the age of Instagram & Co. has long since ceased to be state of the art. So the gap could hardly be bigger here, too.

Seeing through the eyes of applicants

But what about the candidate experience if applicants only communicate with chatbots instead of real people in the first phase of contact with a potential employer, which is important for them professionally, or even fall through the cracks of the initial selection due to the parameters of the digital recruiter. Because just as with human personnel decisions, the question of the quality of the parameters arises again in the context of digitalization. So are robot recruiting tools a real help in times of ever faster personnel processes? Or do they end up spitting out literally uniform working robots that only meet purely superficial criteria? The fact is: In the past, as today, and also in the context of AI, the selection parameters are initially defined by humans. And as long as they continue to assume that an applicant must fit the job and not the job fit the applicant, this is and will remain the fundamental sticking point in recruiting. So it is not the algorithm that is the problem, but rather how it is handled. Possible risks and side effects of AI on the part of all parties involved are therefore not yet known. And the risk that interested parties will not even respond to a job offer for precisely this reason, or that they will jump ship prematurely, should also be considered.

Recruiting: Consistently underestimated

But despite all the technical progress, recruiters are still struggling with a fundamental, completely analog problem: even in the context of their everyday professional lives, they are permanently caught between two stools. On the one hand, they are supposed to be digital trendsetters who always have the applicant's interests in mind, and internally they are often still in the position of an unloved vicarious agent who has to fight to ensure that the importance of their position does not fall by the wayside. As a result, the (working) life of recruiters is also being turned upside down more and more. They have to deal with pressure from all sides, including problems of their own making. Because if the important significance of their work is often still completely unrecognized even by the management level, they themselves lack on the one hand a clear awareness of their new roles in the recruiting of the future and on the other hand also the will and the desire to courageously break new ground.

Survival tips for HR professionals

Instead, prevailing grievances between company management, HR and the specialist department continue to block the best possible staffing success far too often. As a result, HR staff all too often experience displeasure and frustration on the job, and this fact is anything but sustainable in view of the increasing relevance of recruiting. With regard to these multi-layered existing and new challenges, only one thing helps: self-help. For example, with these ideas and impulses:

• More fun in your own job: How could you redistribute tasks in the team so that ideally everyone does more of what they are good at and enthusiastic about? Who do you really need for your recruiting change? For example, does a colleague from IT have what it takes to be a "digital recruiter" because he not only knows IT, but also loves people? Or is one of the recruiter colleagues a real researcher type with a nose for new trends? The job crafting approach is just one way of modifying your own area of responsibility in line with the "strengths first, then the job" approach so that your individual strengths and talents are in the best possible alignment with the requirements.
• Added value "Collegial Recruiting": Recruiters are often in the role of the first or second decision-maker in the selection process. The person in charge of the department usually makes the decision primarily from his or her perspective. Actively invite future colleagues to the table as well and clarify any common questions such as "Who do we really need?" and "Who really fits us?" Even trainees with a good intuition have what it takes here to come up with innovative and surprising ideas.
• Turn processes on their head: When it comes to personnel marketing and contact with applicants, it's all about starting from scratch. Replace boring job advertisements, for example, with magnetizing questions along the lines of "Show us what makes you tick and what you're on fire for." Let creative minds develop suitable alternatives to traditional job applications and interviews, such as blind dating, coffee drinking via Skype, or reflected-best-self presentations. For your part, offer real-world insights into the fields of work to be filled, e.g., via an action cam. Attract your target groups and multipliers with innovative ideas and experiments.
• Use the sympathy factor: Missing contact data in job advertisements and the like is still a no-go and a real "turn-off" for interested parties. So it's high time for recruiters to make themselves visible not only by providing their contact details, but also by including an individual or team photo on the company or career page, in social media, on evaluation platforms, etc. The opportunity: from person to person, you arouse significantly more sympathy than a chatbot. The prerequisite for this: see through the eyes of the prospects.
• Courage does good: New ideas enable new insights and experience. Do not wait reactively for a solution from above, i.e. from the management, but become proactively curious about all the exciting trends and developments. In the end, it's all about optimizing and facilitating your work in a meaningful way. And some things can simply be tried out on a small scale, such as giving interested parties the choice between a quick and a long application, a concrete work sample instead of a cover letter, a strengths analysis instead of a resume.
• Stay cool even without a tool: Of course, you should not completely forgo technical support, because modernization, development and the sensible use of digital helpers in recruiting are undoubtedly becoming increasingly important. However, the unconditional use of analytical tools at any price - which many advertise - is not. Not every hype has to be followed, especially if it doesn't suit you as a company and the target group. It is important to know the relevant trends, systems and solutions as well as their possible side effects in order to then clearly define what is really right for optimizing your processes. Only intelligent and, above all, conscious use of modern and forward-looking tools will actually make your recruiting fit for the future.

About the author: Brigitte Herrmann is a speaker, potential consultant and author. For 15 years she was an independent headhunter and filled more than 400 positions at specialist, executive and management level - in top management up to the board of directors. She is the owner of Inspirocon Potenzialberatung, which stands for both sides of the job market. With her experience in headhunting and consulting and with a view to the working world of the future, she inspires different perspectives, new paths and shows the valuable opportunities when potential is used intelligently. She is the author of the 2016 business non-fiction book "The Selection." As a speaker, she provides forward-looking impulses on the "human opportunity in the digital age". She is one of the Top 100 Excellence Speakers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. More at www.inspirocon.de

People who find out about job vacancies generally do so online via job portals such as jobs.ch: In the past 12 months, a large majority of 68% of all respondents have used relevant online portals to search for exciting jobs - around 2% more than last year. This is followed by the job sites of recruiting companies (52% in 2018 compared to 49% in 2017) and the personal network of friends and acquaintances (2018: 47%, 2017: 45%). Newspapers and magazines continue to hold their own in the midfield. Social networks such as Xing, Facebook or LinkedIn increase by 5%, but are less relevant for the job search overall at 28%. Recruiters and the regional employment agency RAV are also not at the top of the popularity scale for job searches.

Personal network remains important despite digitization

The circle of friends and acquaintances enjoys great credibility among job seekers and is often included in the search. Around 32% of the job seekers surveyed in German-speaking Switzerland who found a new job last year found it through their personal network, the study authors report. "The personal network can be a good complement to the online job search," said Renato Profico, CEO of JobCloud. "Often, job seekers become aware of an exciting job online. They then ask acquaintances who work at the advertising company or have a good connection there for a recommendation. So personal contacts are still relevant to a successful job search and very helpful for many."

Spontaneous applications lead to success especially with Romands

The gap between the two regions is evident in spontaneous job applications: In German-speaking Switzerland, only 5% of job seekers who found a new job last year did so via spontaneous application, while in French-speaking Switzerland the figure was a whopping 20%. However, the French also had to send out twice as many applications for their next job as the German-speaking Swiss (11.6 versus 24.5 applications).

jobs.ch and jobup.ch most popular online portals for job searches

Unsurprisingly, job seekers expect a large selection of current and high-quality job postings from an online portal. For the French, it is also particularly important to be able to post a resume and have it found by recruiters, even if they are not actively looking for a job. In both French and German-speaking Switzerland, the JobCloud job portals are the best known and most popular points of contact: jobs.ch in German-speaking Switzerland, jobup.ch in French-speaking Switzerland. Thus, they are spontaneously named most often (unaided awareness) as well as most often as the most popular job portal.

Source: Jobcloud

On September 14, 2018, the Swiss Management Run will take place in Arosa for the fifth time. Under the motto "Running instead of golfing", the event offers an exclusive platform for exercising and exchanging ideas with managers and business contacts. More than 300 participants benefit from presentations on topics related to the health of managers - in line with the theme "Fit for Management".

Fit through change

Despite the clear rejection of "No-Billag," the Swiss Radio and Television Company (SRG) is continuing on its reform course. Bakel Walden, Director of Development and Offerings, is responsible for coordinating the company's marathon of change. In his presentation, he addresses the personal challenges and explains how he keeps fit through change. Alongside Bernhard Heusler, Jeannine Pilloud, former Head of Passenger Transport at SBB and now Delegate for Public Transport Sector Development, has also undergone a transformation in her management position. In a double interview, the two show why change can be both a threat and an opportunity.

Fifth Swiss Management Run

The topics of the Fit for Management symposium are aimed specifically at Swiss managers. Among other things, the topics include willpower, pressure situations, lifestyle in everyday managerial life, and the right balance of sports and recreation. After the symposium, the starting signal will be given for the 5th Swiss Management Run. On three different courses, with the distances 1.2 km, 5 km and 10 km, the runners will experience Arosa's mountain world from its most beautiful side. Afterwards, the After Run Party invites the participants to a relaxed networking and exchange. The Swiss cadre organization SKO is once again on board as a premium partner and celebrates its 125th anniversary during the event.

Here it goes to the Program and to the Registration

It is true that traditional signature-based anti-virus programs do not provide reliable protection against modern malware. The cybercriminals have now learned their lesson and carry out quality assurance by checking whether the known virus scanners recognize their new malware during malware development. They then modify it until no virus scanner is able to detect it. The criminals then have a time window of a few minutes to hours in which they can successfully spread the malware.

Cybercriminals also use AI

This is to be remedied by so-called NextGen Endpoint Security solutions with machine learning technologies, which no longer detect malware on the basis of similarity with known malware signatures, but by analyzing the properties of a file.

Only - no one is stopping the cybercriminals from also buying licenses of the NextGen endpoint solutions with machine learning and manipulating the malware until the new malware is no longer detected by these solutions either. This is exactly what, for example, the developers of NotPetya did, a sophisticated malware that got onto computers of all companies doing business with Ukraine via the update mechanism of a Ukrainian tax program. Neither traditional anti-malware solutions nor machine learning-based solutions reliably detected the malware initially.

Advanced NextGen endpoint solutions like Sophos's Intercept X, which not only inspect files before execution but also monitor software during execution, identified and stopped NotPetya's malicious intent via behavioral detection - in this case, the attempt to maliciously encrypt the hard drive caught the eye and was prevented by Intercept X.

DeepLearning is more performant

Nevertheless, the use of machine learning - preferably in the very fast and effective Deep Learning variant - can improve security in companies. A good Deep Learning model is much faster than a traditional signature-based anti-virus, so it noticeably reduces the system load. At the same time, many unknown threats are also detected. The basic prerequisite for a high detection rate on the one hand and a low false positive rate on the other is not only a powerful AI model (deep learning models are best suited in practice) but also a large amount of training data. Sophos trains its Deep Learning model with virtually all examples of malware, as well as harmless software, from the last 30 years to minimize false positives. New players in the NextGen endpoint security market also use machine learning models, but have much less training data available, which can have a negative impact on false positives.

There are also bad AI models

A bad AI model can be easily identified if the manufacturer proposes a test scenario in which either "malware samples" specified by the manufacturer are to be used or if the model first has to be trained on the customer environment. This is an indication of an AI model that is not generally applicable and that practically first has to generate exceptions (de facto signatures) for a specific customer environment - which makes the approach of a signatureless technology absurd. In addition, there are AI models that scale poorly and become very large and performance-hungry over time, requiring them to be offloaded to a dedicated scanning environment in the cloud or a scanning appliance. A good AI model is one that is compact, fast, and universally usable, meaning it can be deployed immediately at the customer's site without specific training.

AI as a building block in modern multilayered security systems

It is important to note, however, that the examination of certain file types prior to execution - whether with or without artificial intelligence methods - is only one building block in a multi-layered endpoint security. Only about half of all malware today enters the enterprise as executable files (and can thus be examined with artificial intelligence methods); the other half of threats today comes in the form of document and media malware, as well as completely fileless through infected websites or via exploit.

Therefore, it is important to implement multiple layers of security:

1. Layer - Control of malware entry paths: this includes web filtering, device control, application control and desktop/gateway firewall with network intrusion prevention.
2. Layer - pre-execution examination: here files are examined with signatures, machine learning or heuristics.
3. Layer - Behavior Detection: This is where malicious behavior is detected such as ransomware/encryption detection, exploit prevention, protection against hacker technologies such as password theft protection.
4. Layer - Automatic Response: In addition to traditional threat quarantine and cleanup, this now includes automatic recovery of files encrypted by ransomware and communication with other components to automatically contain threats.
5. Layer - Analysis: Downstream root cause analysis can identify how the malware entered, how/if/where it spread, and which company resources may still be affected and need to be cleaned up.

Attackers will always manage to overcome individual mechanisms, but this effort increases exponentially with multiple layers of protection. Therefore, a multi-layer approach to IT security and the communication of security components with the ability to automatically respond to threats (for example, by the firewall or WLAN access point automatically isolating an infected endpoint in the network) are key to modern and effective IT security.

To the author: Michael Veit is a security specialist at Sophos

"Darn, the new sales rep can't connect with key customers." "Crap, the new IT manager is rubbing the department heads the wrong way." These are the kinds of complaints you often hear from HR managers in companies some time after they have filled a vacant position in their organization. It is not uncommon for the former "dream candidate" to turn out not to be the right one after all. That's why they part ways again after a few weeks or months.

Also pay attention to the personality

But why do the "dream candidates" so often turn out to be flops? One of the main reasons for this is that the selection of personnel often focuses primarily on the professional qualifications of the applicants or candidates. This is because it is relatively easy to assess these on the basis of their (work) references and the challenges they have mastered to date. The situation is different for factors such as:

• What motivates the applicant, what drives him?
• Does he connect with the company's customers, employees or suppliers?
• Does he have the necessary stamina to lead even difficult projects/projects to success?

Determining this takes time and energy. But the effort is worth it when you think of the costs and consequential problems of miscasting.

Create a detailed requirements profile

In the run-up to a personnel selection process, you should therefore also determine exactly which personal skills and characteristics the "newcomer" should possess - for example, by interviewing the previous job holder or his/her colleagues. In this way, you can identify challenges that are typical for the advertised position and that the future job holder will have to master. For example, his or her work situation is usually characterized by a high degree of time pressure and little ability to plan. Then a requirement might be: "The future job holder works in a goal-oriented and concentrated manner even in a hectic work environment." This also makes it easier for you to formulate job advertisements in such a way that they appeal to exactly the right applicants.

It usually proves helpful to consult a personality analysis tool such as the MSA Motivational Structure Analysis when determining the personal skills and characteristics that the new hire needs. Otherwise, dimensions that are important for professional success are quickly forgotten. Using the 18 basic motives examined in the MSA, you can determine, for example: On a scale of 1 to 10, how pronounced should team orientation, pragmatism, self-confidence or willingness to take risks be in the new employee?

Job interviews are sales pitches

You should derive an interview guideline from the written requirements profile and use it in all selection interviews. This ensures that you can compare the applicant profiles well at the end - because all applicants have answered the same core questions.

But be careful when evaluating the answers, because job interviews are ultimately sales pitches. In it, the company tries to present itself in as positive a light as possible in order to profile itself as an attractive employer. The same applies to applicants: they, too, will give you embellished answers. For example, no applicant will say in an application or job interview:

• "When faced with resistance, I'm quick to throw in the towel." Or:
• "I react to critical feedback like a mimosa." Or:
• "The thing that motivates me the most is money.

This is another reason why it is advisable, at least when key positions in a company are to be filled, to use a personality test such as the MSA to determine: Do the results of the analysis match the impression we had of the candidate during the interview, or should we check again on certain points?

You cannot change the personality

This is also important because practice shows: If necessary, you can usually still impart missing specialist knowledge to new employees in training courses. The situation is different with regard to personality and motivational structure. Companies cannot change these - which is why an insufficient fit in this area almost inevitably leads to the decision at some point: We're parting ways again.

To the author: Michael Schwartz heads the Institute for Integral Living and Working Practice (ilea), Esslingen near Stuttgart (www.ilea-institut.de), which trains MSA motivational consultants, among others. Before becoming a consultant, the graduate physicist worked as an executive and project manager in the (software) industry.

An incorrect job description and poor management are the main reasons for quick termination. In other words, if expectations of the employer are disappointed, the resignation takes place within the first month. This is another finding of the labor market study for which the personnel service provider Robert Half surveyed 500 employees in Switzerland. According to the study, it is not only the applicant's first impression that is decisive, but also the impression an employer makes during the job interview.

Application situation has turned

"Especially in industries and fields where success is threatened by the shortage of skilled workers, the application situation has de facto turned around. It's not just applicants who have to present themselves well. Rather, companies must approach potential job candidates in a targeted manner and quickly convince them of their worth," says Sven Hennige, Senior Managing Director at Robert Half. "The same advice applies to companies as to applicants: stay in touch and ask a few days after the interview whether the candidate is still interested in the job. This will help filter out the right fit from the candidate pool more quickly."

The interview is pre-decisive

But that's not all: if the new job does not meet expectations, there is a risk that the employee will quit the job again within the first month. For almost one in two (46 %), tasks other than those originally advertised would be the corresponding knockout criterion, and for 45 %, poor management. 38 % would quit if the company culture did not fit. Almost a third (28 %) would quickly leave the company again if the induction process was not optimal. "Companies that communicate honestly and openly during the interview process about what candidates will face can reduce the risk of a quick termination after hiring. Trial work days are particularly helpful in helping both parties make decisions," Hennige recommends. "After working together, both parties can better assess whether the company culture is a good fit and the tasks are as expected. If a new employee starts a job, a well-structured induction is particularly important. If work and decision-making processes are quickly familiar, the new employee can quickly make a productive contribution."

Source: Robert Half, Labor Market Study 2017/2018, Respondents: 500 employees in Switzerland. http://www.roberthalf.ch