Job mobility in motion

Have you ever worried that you may be getting a little too comfortable in your career? Perhaps you have worked at the same organisation for years, surrounded by familiar faces, sitting in your usual desk, and tackling the same issues day after day.

Over time, it can be easy to become complacent in our careers once role competency and a strong routine is established. However, in today's fast-paced work environment, the ability to adapt and grow is more important than ever.

Job mobility, described as the ability and/or willingness of individuals to move to different roles or industries for their careers, has gained a lot of traction in the corridors of corporate Australia. However, it’s not limited to climbing the corporate ladder; it includes lateral moves like cross-departmental changes, and geographical relocations that provide employees with the chance to upskill and gain a new perspective.

A significant driver of employee retention is a belief by workers that they will have opportunities to grow and develop new skills. In PwC’s 2024 Global Workforce Hopes & Fears Survey, the ability to upskill in a workplace was named as a critical company differentiator, with almost half of employees surveyed saying that having opportunities to learn new skills is a key consideration when deliberating to stay with their employer or leave for another job.

On the other side of the desk, a study by Executive Networks found a large proportion of human resources leaders are saying talent retention and attraction have become top priorities. The study found more than 80 per cent of global organisations are facing a significant talent retention problem.

One innovative approach to addressing this issue is the concept of job swapping, where two employees with different yet comparable roles exchange responsibilities for a period of time.

For ANZ’s Ian Cruttenden and Chris Oosthuizen this initiative was self-led and turned out to be a career highlight.

Trading places

At the beginning of 2024, Ian returned from parental leave ready to dive back into his role as Portfolio Lead for Commercial Management in Technology. When he was approached by his colleague Chris, Portfolio Lead for Strategy and Operations supporting the Institutional Payment’s Technology team about a job swap, his year took an unexpected but rewarding turn.

“The swap occurred somewhat unofficially, and after the initial discussion and some conversations with our managers about the agreed details, they endorsed it. The change was driven by us.”

Under the swap, Ian stepped into Chris’ role, and vice versa for 12 months. “Despite retaining my line management duties with my ‘old’ team, Chris essentially handed me the keys to his team, pointed me in the right direction and said go!”

For Ian, the role wasn’t significantly dissimilar to ones he had performed previously, so the task didn’t feel overwhelmingly foreign. Yet, the stakeholders and businesses he was supporting were.

“This was certainly the biggest challenge for me. But Chris’ unwavering support and willingness to give me the autonomy to make the decisions I needed to in his place were instrumental to the success and smooth execution of this job swap.”

Reaping the rewards

This career transformative and unique experience allowed both Chris and Ian to foster mutual growth and collaboration, not only benefiting them but their teams too.

“The biggest highlight from the experience was the all-round benefits from the mobility. Benefits to myself as a leader, to the teams that Chris and I joined, and benefits to ANZ as we try to break down silos and think as one bank.”

As Ian moved from a more centralised team to a divisional one, there was lots to be learnt from the more involved level of collaboration. This was made all the easier by the support they received during the swap.

“I was able to add so much more to my ‘toolkit’ as a leader by collaborating with such a different team. I was able to understand so much more about how ‘the business’ works, helping me think about the customer with every decision we made. But the biggest thing I learnt was that people love to help. A supportive team will make or break what you get out of an opportunity, and that cuts both ways.”

This experience was not only re-invigorating for Ian and Chris but also highlighted the immense value of job mobility. Through the power of support, curiosity and the willingness to embrace new challenges, initiatives like job swaps are just one way to foster talent for a more cohesive and collaborative workplace.

Alexandra Galea is Editorial Producer at ANZ