In small and medium-sized companies in Switzerland, HR departments are not common and the issues regarding HR are handled by top level managers, which do not have the capacity to dedicate large amounts of time to these issues. This approach might often be seen as the best option by these individual SMEs however it is not efficient or sustainable, especially as human resources issues are becoming increasingly complicated and global. Noticing these issues and the need for innovation within this field, Acons HR solutions decided to launch this project, to provide SMEs with effective support with their HR tasks in a more efficient way.

The authors conducted extensive field research with questionnaires, which were distributed to over 2’000 SMEs in the region Zurich and Aargau. The results provided by these questionnaires were supported by seven expert interviews to gather further insights. All the data gathered was then carefully analyzed to determine the potential market for a subscription-based consultancy service.

This research resulted in three main findings. Firstly, the results helped to delimit the target group to certain industries and company sizes. Secondly, it indicated which structure and pricing strategy is most suitable for such a service and most appealing to customers. Lastly, the results indicated through which channels the new service could offer added value to regional SMEs and be marketed most efficiently. Supported by literature and best practice examples, the authors elaborated a marketing concept around these findings to help facilitate the launch of this new service in the current market.