External person of trust in Geneva and French-speaking Switzerland

From SMEs to large groups: what makes the difference

The scheme adapts to the size and structure of your organisation, whether it has fifteen or several thousand employees. What sets it apart:

Simple, confidential access : a reporting platform available 24/7, in several languages, for all your sites.
Unique tools, such as the Workplace Harassment Baroscope, which raises team awareness, helps open up sensitive conversations and defuses tensions before they escalate.
Regular reporting to management, anonymised, to spot weak signals and identify risks.
A systemic, methodical approach, combining law, psychology and coaching.
A holistic analysis of every report : an audit of the situation and, where there is a proven risk of harassment, a full diagnosis delivered within 10 days, indicating whether an in-depth investigation is needed.
Investigations conducted using a proven methodology, which establish the facts and help restore a calm working climate, through a method that combines empathy and accountability.
Support for management and the board of directors on organisational causes and governance.
Training of harassment officers in-house, alongside the external person of trust.

Every employer in Switzerland must protect the personality and health of its employees. For an SME, appointing a neutral, trained internal person of trust is rarely possible. For a large organisation, what matters is genuine independence from line management and the ability to handle complex situations across several sites and languages. Rez-Care provides an external person of trust, independent of your line management, for companies and organisations in Geneva, the canton of Vaud and throughout French-speaking Switzerland.

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An obligation for all employers, whatever their size

Employers must protect the personality and health of their employees (art. 328 CO, art. 6 LTr). According to the case law of the Federal Supreme Court (judgment 2C_462/2011), this obligation implies a conflict management procedure with a person of trust independent of the hierarchy. This person may be internal or external.

In a small organisation, using an external person is often the simplest solution: no HR department to take over, limited scope to move the people involved, and the person implicated is sometimes close to management. A single badly handled conflict can destabilise the whole company.

What the external person of trust does

Listen employees who are experiencing or witnessing a difficult situation: conflict, psychological or sexual harassment, discrimination.
Guide and advise the person on the options available, without deciding for them.
Propose ways to resolve the situation, with the person’s consent: dialogue, mediation, alerting management.
Act as a lookout : report trends and weak signals to management, always anonymised and aggregated.

Confidentiality: what management receives

Exchanges with the person of trust are strictly confidential. No information that could identify a person is passed on to management without their consent, except in cases of serious danger. Reporting platform data is hosted in Switzerland, and only the person of trust and authorised Rez-Care staff have access to it.

More than a helpline: Rezalliance Protect

Many offers stop at listening. Yet when the facts are serious, the employer must act. Our scheme covers the entire journey, with a single point of contact:

Prevent : in-person « Émergences » workshops (more than 1,500 people trained), e-learning, training of in-house harassment officers (7 modules, 6 days, with quarterly supervision), and the Workplace Harassment Baroscope.
Listen : an external person of trust reachable by phone and email, and a confidential reporting platform available 24/7, in several languages.
Analyse : if an investigation is needed, it is entrusted to an investigator who has not been involved in the situation, to guarantee impartiality. We also analyse organisational causes: roles, processes, governance.
Repair : support for management during the crisis, communication to teams, restoring calm dialogue and an improvement plan.

We draw on the Rezalliance ecosystem, a network of complementary experts (lawyers, occupational psychologists, coaches, HR specialists) for a multidisciplinary approach.

Who is behind the Rez-Care platform?

Rez-Care was founded by Joëlle Payom, a specialist in preventing harassment and psychosocial risks, based in Geneva. Before dedicating herself to this field, she worked as Head of Procurement for more than 15 years in companies across various sectors in Switzerland and France: leading cross-functional, high-stakes projects, building robust processes to reduce risk, and finding solutions that take into account the constraints of multiple stakeholders with sometimes divergent expectations. Today she advises management teams and boards of directors on governance, covering both psychosocial and reputational risks.

How is the service billed?

A subscription covers the set-up and availability of the scheme, with an amount that depends on the size of your organisation. Interviews actually conducted and any other services chosen are added. The discovery call helps us understand your needs and prepare a tailored quote.

Frequently asked questions

Legal obligation, difference with an employee assistance programme (EAP), internal or external person of trust: find our answers in the FAQ on the external person of trust. To go further, read our article External person of trust: 5 questions to ask before choosing (in French).

Let’s talk about your situation

Do you run a company or an organisation in Geneva, the canton of Vaud or elsewhere in French-speaking Switzerland? Tell us about your context in a 20-minute discovery call, with no commitment.

Book a discovery call