Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Job Swap Practical Considerations

Job swaps are expensive, in terms of money spent and HR department time. To ensure that they present the best development opportunity, a various issues shall be carefully considered.

Per definition, the job swap requires that job swappers swap jobs and hence are in similar position and have similar areas of expertise and experience in order to be able to cover each other position's workload while on exchange. However, the companies must also be clear about how the employee's workload will be handled during the job swap in the case employees cannot swap exactly the same positions.

At times, identifying job swap candidates along with client and language consideration might be a challenge. In regards to client, training intervention in form of a job swap creates a slight disturbance to the account service. The key account person is leaving and replaced by a new colleague with whom the Client has to yet establish a rapport. In regards to the language issue, while both potentials job swappers are most likely fluent in English, hardly anyone of them may speak the local language of the host company. Hence, the employee need to serve on a global account where English is the working language. Ultimately, companies need to determine the remaining recruitment criteria of job swappers.

Further factors to consider when planning a job swap include:
* What is the overall purpose, vision, and expected benefits of the job swap?
* How shall the job swap be evaluated and the benefits quantified?
* What are the obligations of each swap office?
* What shall be the financial arrangement? Shall job swappers be paid by their respective home or host swap office during the exchange? Which party shall be responsible for costs such as airfares, accommodation, travel and medical insurance, visas and work permits of each job swapper?
* Shall job swappers sign a “stay guarantee” (i.e. that they stay with the employer for a certain period of time upon completion of the job swap)?
* What are the work responsibilities of job swappers during the exchange?
* What additional training and opportunities for development shall be provided by host office?
* How shall job swappers be prepared for the intercultural experiences?

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Behavioral Changes through Job Swaps

Effective talent management depends on understanding the workforce, their desires and aspirations, and reconciling these with commercial and operational realities. One such desire of Chinese employees is the appetite for meaningful career advancement opportunities, not only in China, but also in the West.

Global job swaps are a unique opportunity for Chinese employees to gain first-hand experience with diverse business environments and cultures. Though, one cannot overlook the size of the investment a company needs to make to support such a program. Given the average training budget per employee per year, the job swap program costs (in particular as we only refer to one or a few job swappers) can be substantial.

Even so, in 2009, TBWA\China made an overseas assignment for one Chinese employee a reality. At the same time, the agency hosted a German employee in its office for the period of six months.

The 2009 job swap was kicked off as both agencies, in Shanghai and in Hamburg, saw the benefits that could accrue to the employees and the agencies from the exchange. Employees were provided with the opportunity to gain international exposure to a different business environment, insight into different cultures and societies, as well as the first hand knowledge of how other cultures approach agency operations and client relationships. Agencies expected to benefit by the ways of having more qualified and experienced staff who returns professionally inspired and equipped with a unique international perspective. Furthermore, agencies used the exchange to strengthen ties between them.

A questionnaire was distributed to job swappers to explore their self-assessment of the interpersonal and intercultural skills. Job swappers completed the questionnaire twice, first after the first 2 weeks of the exchange and second 2 weeks after the exchange was finished and job swappers returned to their home office.

Both job swappers agreed that they developed new skills during the job swap. They became more aware that they sometimes hear people, but they do not truly listen to what they are telling. They learned to strive to get the true message that people of different cultural background were trying to send, read between the lines, and pick up the non-verbal nuances. During the job swap, the job swappers developed into better listeners. Furthermore, job swappers got a better feel for empathy. They became skilled at putting themselves in another's shoes, an ability essential for account service professionals. These behavioral changes were the most realized personal development gains and advantages of a job swap.