Section 1: Statement of Purpose

• Participating Organisations
• Types of Interchange Opportunities
• Contact/ Discussion Groups
• Interchange Managers
• Roles and Responsibilities
• Benefits
• Costs
• Marketing Interchange
• Targets and Goals
• Evaluation

The interchange programme is a collaborative initiative designed to promote and encourage an increase in the exchange of personnel and good practice between the public, voluntary and private sectors in Northern Ireland. It is essentially a business opportunity to facilitate the acquisition and application of new knowledge and skills with a view to improving mutual understanding and enhancing the effectiveness of the organisations and individuals taking part in the interchange programme.

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Participating Organisations

Interchange is not new. Many organisations have had exchange programmes for a number of years. What is new, is the approach and commitment, articulated in the formation of the Interchange Partner Group. The organisations involved include: all NI Civil Service Departments/Agencies, Northern Bank, NI Office, NI Public Service Alliance, Housing Executive, NI Council for Voluntary Action, Association of Chief Officers for Voluntary Organisations, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Shorts/Bombardier, Viridian, British Telecom, Local Government Staff Commission, NI Court Service, Inland Revenue (NI), Customs & Excise (NI), Marks & Spencer, Ministry of Defence, NHS Federation, Down & Lisburn Trust, Ernst & Young, and Chamber of Commerce & Industry.

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Types of Interchange Opportunities

Interchange is very flexible. It provides cost-effective direct benefits to those organisations taking part in the programme as well as allowing people from the participating organisations the opportunity to learn from each other and to share good practice, ideas and experience. Interchange can take many forms and the following represent the types of interchange opportunities available through the programme.

These generally last between 3 months and 3 years and do not affect terms and conditions of service.

Last less than 3 months and are generally used by individuals and organisations to carry out specific short-term projects.

Regular meetings with a representative at a similar level in a different organisation for mutual benefit and support.

Accompanying someone throughout his or her working day or week.

Regular contact/feedback for developmental purposes from a more senior person in one organisation to a more junior person in another.

Non-executive directorships, openings on subsidiary boards, committees or joint project teams.

Seminars and longer training programmes involving other organisations and individuals.

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Contact/Discussion Groups

Ad hoc or established groups, meeting regularly to discuss issues of the day and matters of common interest.

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Interchange Managers

Each of the organisations participating in the interchange programme have appointed interchange managers who are responsible for promoting, identifying, tracking and evaluating interchange opportunities at organisational level. The current list of interchange managers is at Annex 1.

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Roles and Responsibilities

It is intended that the interchange programme will represent a contract between individuals, their line managers, their interchange manager and the Interchange Unit in Central Personnel Group. For its part, the Interchange Unit in Central Personnel Group will continue to provide support and advice and will be responsible for brokering interchange opportunities between the organisations involved in the programme, and for monitoring and the overall evaluation of the programme. This process will involve matching individuals and opportunities available. It will be for the organisations, through the respective interchange managers, to agree the terms and conditions of the interchange with the individual and their line manager. It is also the responsibility of the exporting organisation to ensure keeping-in-touch arrangements are in hand and for managing the individual’s return from an interchange, where the interchange is for an extended period of time. It is also important to evaluate each interchange opportunity. This is considered to be a shared responsibility between the individual, the line manager, the interchange manager and the Interchange Unit.

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Benefits

Interchange provides benefits for the individual, line manager, the parent organisation and the host organisation.

The Individual

• acquires new skills in a new environment;
• gains a broader outlook – a spread of experience across a range of work cultures;
• gains an appreciation of the context within which they work and understands better the impact on customers of the policies they develop and the services they provide;
• develops flexibility;
• learns to adapt to new challenges and situations.

The Line Manager

• gains another staff development tool;
• sees objectives met more effectively as staff apply what they have learned;
• gets back a member of staff with new ideas, who should be more enthusiastic and creative;
• is given the opportunity to bring someone from another organisation into the team, who can share their knowledge/skills and challenge within a work-based context.

The Parent Organisation

• is given the opportunity to develop staff knowledge, skills and attitudes that can plug gaps within the organisation;
• is given the means of more effectively and innovatively meeting business targets and objectives;
• can demonstrate real investment in people;
• can promote networking with other sectors;
• has a more outward looking and diversely skilled staff;
• obtains new skills and knowledge that enable staff to progress through the organisation;
• is in a better position to manage change;
• has the opportunity to enhance diversity.

The Host Organisation

• gains a fresh perspective on the operation of parts of the organisation;
• identifies contacts that could be useful sources of advice in the future;
• benefits from the knowledge, skills and experience of the interchanger.

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Costs

Interchange is considered as a cost-effective business development opportunity. Many interchange activities such as job-shadowing, short-term attachments and mentoring are unlikely to incur any direct costs except perhaps for travel and subsistence. It is important, however, that the issue of costs including liability is considered and agreed at the planning stage of the interchange.

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Marketing Interchange

The Interchange Unit in Central Personnel Group will promote the interchange programme, circulate, co-ordinate and track individual opportunities, canvass other potential interchange partners with a view to joining the Interchange Partner Group, and provide on-line feedback reports to all of the organisations involved. It will be the responsibility of the interchange manager, line manager, and individual to promote interchange within their organisations and to engage their personnel section as necessary.

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Targets and Goals

The setting of targets and goals need to be balanced within the overall objective of interchange and the business needs of individual organisations. The Interchange Unit in Central Personnel Group will work closely with all of the organisations involved with the aim of setting realistic but challenging targets and goals year on year.

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Evaluation

Criteria for success of the interchange programme will be a mixture of quantitative and qualitative measures, including: the level of uptake of opportunities, the positive impact at different levels of organisations’ confirmation that the experience was enjoyable as well as instructive and was well managed in terms of meeting peoples' requirements, the creation of networks for the continuing exchange of ideas and good practice.

© Interchange 2004