The agency that connects people to everyday support.

We help you so that you can have all the time in the world again.

We want to make a gift of this time to you. We've been in business since 1993, putting our heart and soul into helping people like you.

Manuela Schatzmann

Managing Director / Owner

Boiana Doero

Migration law specialist

Tina Pettersson

Administrator

A family business since 1993

How it all began …

It's high time you had more time! Are you curious to know who’s behind Perfect Way, how it all started and what the future has in store? Manuela Schatzmann, second-generation owner and Managing Director of Perfect Way, reveals all of this and much more.


You’ll discover how Perfect Way combines business and pleasure, how parents can get more time for themselves, why we now offer payroll services too and how we help businesses based in Switzerland looking to hire qualified workers from non-EU/EFTA countries.


We ask: Ms Schatzmann, thirty years ago, when your mother, Karin Schatzmann, set up Perfect Way, women were still grappling with the difficult decision of whether to pursue a career or start a family. The prerogative of having both a successful career and children was reserved almost exclusively for men. Was this the motivation for establishing the first placement agency for au pairs in Switzerland?


Manuela Schatzmann: Yes, you’ve hit the nail on the head. My mother was born in Sweden. There, policy about families guarantees both parents fair access to the labour market. This had a major influence on her, shaping her view that organising daily life around kids, work and the home is the responsibility of both members of the couple. However, when she emigrated to Switzerland in 1981, she sometimes found that such ideas had not yet made it here. Many people didn’t like the fact that she worked while also raising a family. ‘You're a bad mother’ was one of the nicer accusations levelled at her.


We ask: Nevertheless, your mother persisted, bravely challenging societal norms. What was it that drove her?


Manuela Schatzmann: It was always important to my mother to be her own person and not be reduced to the role of child carer or organiser of family life. She refused to accept that women had to decide whether they were for or against having children solely because being for it meant your chances of forging a fulfilling career dropped dramatically. What’s more, she couldn’t understand the view that only mothers can look after their children properly. Having worked as an au pair for many years, in Canada and Brussels, she was aware that others could do so just as well. This makes me think she possessed this will to oppose discrimination from an early age and that it was reinforced by her life experiences.


We ask: You joined the family business in 2009, started taking on more responsibilities from 2016 and have been Managing Director/Owner since 2019. You say you want to continue along the same path on which your mother started. Why do you talk about the same path when so many things have changed in the meantime?


Manuela Schatzmann: Yes, I did think things had changed, too. But they actually haven’t changed all that much. Women still slip down the ranks when they try to combine career and family. This is just as much a challenge for families who have moved here from overseas as it is for Swiss families. Our service is the perfect solution for such families. In the last few decades, through the placement of qualified nannies, domestic workers and, of course, au pairs, we’ve helped around 3,000 families get back more freedom and find the perfect work-life balance.


We ask: Finding qualified professionals is difficult in your field as in many others, no doubt. How does your selection process work?


Manuela Schatzmann: We try to find professionals via various channels – from active sourcing to online adverts, with the help of our partners in Switzerland and across Europe, using our database and through lots of other channels. We thoroughly check all documents, such as CVs and written references, always interview all candidates – online or in person – and check with referees personally. That means we contact at least one to two referees for detailed feedback. But gut feeling is equally important in the selection process. Often, during the interview, I’ll get a feel for which clients the candidate might be a good fit for.


We ask: Did you know from the start that you wanted to continue with Perfect Way?


Manuela Schatzmann: To be honest, no, I didn’t. For me, it was a process. It was about growing into the role. It was and, in many ways, remains my mother’s "baby", so I needed time to make it my "baby". I got the opportunity to develop the business in a way that works for me and that I'm happy with. Today, I'm proud to own this business and of our ability to make such an important contribution to helping people achieve a good work-life balance.


We ask: It sounds like you've got everything covered. What is there left to do?


Manuela Schatzmann: What we still need to do is convince women and men that they should do whatever makes them happy in the long term. Both parents ought to have the flexibility to be able to combine their work and family lives. When this is the case, the children benefit too. Their parents are less stressed, and everyone has more fun playing, making stuff, reading or going on family outings together.


We ask: And what have you changed?


Manuela Schatzmann: I see the expansion of our range of services as a key change. We now offer payroll services, i.e. payroll administration, because, as HR professionals, we know this area well and also have a decade of experience in obtaining work permits for nannies and au pairs from EU/EFTA countries. And our success rate is 100%.


In addition, since 2022, we have been helping businesses based in Switzerland obtain work permits for third-country citizens. We now have a first-class specialist in migration law on the team – Boiana Doero. She has worked as a lawyer with the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) for 15 years, so she is well-versed in this subject area.


We ask: It sounds like obtaining work permits for third-country nationals is a complicated matter. Is that right?


Manuela Schatzmann: Yes, it's a very specific field. And it's rarely addressed in HR professionals’ education and training. Consequently, it’s often complex for HR managers to handle the process themselves. Many are also afraid of making mistakes that would lead to delays in the process or even a rejection of the application.


Ms Schatzmann, thank you so much for your time.


And you, dear reader, what's taking up most of your time right now? What sort of questions would you like answers to? Give us a call. We’ll be glad to help.

What would you like an answer to?


We are happy to help
Your cart is empty Continue
Shopping Cart
Subtotal:
Discount 
Discount 
View Details
- +
Sold Out