globegarden at a Glance

How It All Began

In 2009, three women opened the first globegarden daycare center near Paradeplatz in Zurich. Good childcare was hard to find at the time, and many mothers gave up their careers as a result. They wanted to change that. What grew from it is a childcare network that is still 100% family-owned today. Today, more than 4,000 families entrust their children to us every week, on average on 3.5 days a week. On those days, mothers and fathers can work, mostly the mothers. By our own calculation, this corresponds to a workload of around 70 percent and around 2,800 full-time jobs. Since 2009, almost 5,000 full-time jobs have come about this way.

Brave not perfect

In our book «brave not perfect», mothers and women share how they combine family and career: brave, not perfect. Our employees tell their stories there, too.

Read the stories

Our Childcare Network

Switzerland thrives on its diversity: many languages, cultures and ways of life. Children experience exactly this diversity with us every day. Our childcare network includes globegarden daycare centers, the Akidemy daycare centers and daycare centers that continue under their own name. Each keeps its own character, and all share the same quality standards.

• over 90 centers
• over 20 of them joined us through succession solutions
• our own kindergartens in the canton of Zurich
• more than half bilingual, German and English
• over 4,000 families, over 14,000 children since 2009
• families stay with us for more than five years on average

The People in Our Childcare Network

Our teams are our heart. That is why we invest in their training and development, from their first apprenticeship to a management role.

• around 1,200 employees
• over 300 apprentices, more than 85% stay with us after graduating
• at most one intern per daycare center, with a guaranteed apprenticeship contract after the probation period
• an average of six training courses per person per year, from a two-hour course to a multi-year program in center management, infant care, vocational training, leadership, fire safety or first aid

Appreciation You Can Feel

We live appreciation every day, and once a year we celebrate it in a special way.

• March is our Month of Appreciation.
• In October, our Award Season begins. Employees nominate each other in our value categories Share, Teach, Act and Respect. Every year, this adds up to well over 6,500 personal nominations.
• We present the awards at our Christmas Party.

Our Management Board

Our organization is led by a seven-member management board. Three of them founded the childcare network in 2009, and most of the others joined in the early years. Many have been with us for more than ten years, some for more than 15. Together, they bring experience in education, operations, finance and family services.

• Patricia Bergès, Accounting
• Silke Bührmann, Pedagogy and Education
• Christina Mair, Founder
• Kristina Rebsamen, Founder
• Marco Spitz, Operations and Succession Solutions
• Caroline Staehelin, Founder
• Galla Stambuk, Families

What Our Employees Earn

• City of Zurich: A qualified childcare worker (Fachperson Betreuung) earns around CHF 65,000 on average with us. The minimum set by the city and kibesuisse is around CHF 56,000.
• Basel-Stadt: A qualified childcare worker earns over CHF 78,000 on average with us, including the 13th-month salary.
• Kindergarten teachers are employed according to the cantonal salary regulations. They start at around CHF 90,000, and most earn between CHF 96,000 and 120,000.
• Women and men earn the same with us. This is confirmed by our equal pay analysis.

Quality, Verified from the Outside

Switzerland stands for quality and reliability. That is our standard too, every day and in every one of our centers. And anyone who cares for children must be open to inspection. That is why we have documented every external inspection since 2019.

• ISO certification for quality management since 2011
• over 600 visits by the daycare and kindergarten supervisory authorities, around half of them unannounced
• together with food safety and labor inspections, over 750 official inspections in eight cantons
• plus over 270 voluntary external audits
• Per qualified caregiver, we care for 3–4 children under 18 months, 5–6 children aged 2 to 4, and 8 children in kindergarten.
• A KPMG study commissioned by the City of Zurich shows: per place, we employ around half again as many qualified staff as the average of all providers.
• Our curriculum «Discover the World ©», with six learning areas, has been guiding children since 2020.

What Parents Say

Around 2,000 parents took part in our last major parent survey. 95% recommend us without reservation.

Keeping Your Child Safe

Your child's safety is our top priority.

• All employees sign our code of conduct for the prevention of violence and abuse, developed with the specialist organization Limita, and receive training on it every year.
• Before anyone is hired, we obtain their criminal record extract and the special private extract, and we register the person with the responsible authority.
• Two independent contact points are available to parents, employees and third parties: kinderschutz@schutzstelle.ch for child protection concerns, vertrauen@schutzstelle.ch for all other confidential matters.

Awards We Are Proud Of

• 2026 Leading Employers Switzerland
• 2025 Best Workplaces Switzerland, rank 11, and the film «Culture follows Strategy» by Great Place to Work
• 2022 Best Workplaces Switzerland, rank 9, and Best Workplaces Europe, rank 46
• Great Place to Work certified since 2021
• 2018 EY Entrepreneur of the Year
• 2011 Women Finance Award, SMG Forum

Any Questions?

Families: familienservice@globegarden.org, +41 58 776 78 78

Media: Markus Spillmann, KMES Partner, presse@globegarden.org