Mobility of personnel −
personnel rotation and exchanges of public officials
Mobility among central government personnel has long been supported. This means mobility not only within their own organisations but also within and outside central government. The mobility goal has been set out in a number of plans and guides, the most recent of which is the guide on personnel rotation in central government, which was published in 2012. This guide was rooted in the Government’s decision that more objectives related to promoting personnel mobility should be included in the agencies’ performance and management agreements. The current Government Programme includes the objectives of tackling silo mentality in central government and developing career paths and internal job rotation. It states that government tasks should be organised in a way that enables multi-local living and full utilisation of the opportunities provided by smart technology to work in any location.
In personnel rotation, employees move to a different task for a fixed period, with no change in pay. They retain the employment relationship with their home organisation, which pays the salary and other personnel expenses during the rotation period. The host organisation may be a central government unit, or a municipal or private organisation. There is an emphasis on better utilisation of existing skills by allocating work inputs to where they are the most obviously needed.
An exchange of public officials means a short-term posting of a central government employee who is in an employment or public service relationship, for one to six months abroad within the same administrative branch. The exchange programmes are managed by the Finnish National Agency for Education. Applications for these programmes are received continuously, and a precondition for participating in an exchange is that the public official’s employer supports the plan and has granted the paid leave of absence. Public officials have mainly gone on exchanges to the Nordic countries and to other EU countries. The aim of the Nordic exchanges has been to build public officials’ knowledge of administration and legislation in other Nordic countries and establish connections between the Nordic central governments.
Other internationalisation options that can be applied for through the Finnish National Agency for Education include the Government's EU jobs, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs’ development cooperation programmes, and the Nordic-Baltic Mobility Programme.
For more information about all the exchange programmes for public officials:
Finnish National Agency for Education's website
Additional material and practical information on internal mobility and personnel rotation are available on the Valtiolle.fi website.
Contact information
Kirsi Kuuttiniemi
Ministerial Adviser
Tel. +358 2955 30207
[email protected]