Nick Hayek, the Swatch Group’s chief executive, says he wants to create at least 500 new jobs in Switzerland this year and a total of 1,000 new positions worldwide.

In an interview with Der Sonntag newspaper on Sunday, Hayek said he was always involved in hiring decisions at the Swiss watchmaking giant, which currently employs 28,000 people.

He said that he and his management team were against hiring for the short term and then dismissing employees as needed.

“This helped us to avoid letting any employees go during the last crisis two years ago,” Hayek told the newspaper.

While acknowledging that every firm functions differently, he criticised other companies’ creatively-named cost-cutting programs and their tendency to genuflect to shareholders. Hayek also said he was not a fan of shareholders voting on manager salaries.

He said that to him, short-term shareholder value was not nearly as important for a company as creativity, the courage to try new things and satisfied employees.

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative