Sabrina and Sascha both work in Human Resources, in different companies and with different specialisms though. Sabrina works at RWE Power in the team responsible for personnel policy issues, while Sascha works at RWE Offshore Wind in the Compensation & Benefits, Labour Relations department. Now they both wanted to broaden their horizons and develop further within RWE, so they took up the challenge: they swapped jobs for a total of three months. team:news asked them what insights and knowledge the job rotation gave them and what surprised them the most.

But back to the beginning: For Sabrina and Sascha, the adventure began with their own initiative and the motivation to broaden their horizons. "We had both been looking for an opportunity to develop within RWE for some time," says Sabrina. "A short move to another company was exactly the kind of challenge we were looking for. We only knew each other by sight and from a few working groups," explains Sascha. Both approached their managers and together they quickly found that they were a suitable match for a job rotation in HR.

Jumping in at the deep end

Acclimatisation time? There was hardly any, as they were thrown straight in at the deep end - but that was just the right thing for both of them. "Because my colleagues integrated me into the team right from the start and included me as a matter of course, I was able to start working straight away. There was no transition period at all," says Sascha. "I already had a lot of meetings in the first week and was able to get to know a lot of my colleagues in just a few days. That really helped me to find my feet," says Sabrina, who was particularly impressed by the working methods at Offshore. In total, the two of them had around 30 meetings in the first week and were able to get to know around 100 new colleagues.

Sascha, Compensation & Benefits, Labour Relations at RWE Offshore Wind: “The organisation within RWE Power has a different level of maturity to us at Offshore. The company is very large and complex, but anyone who thinks that it might be a bit 'dusty' is completely wrong. Quite the opposite: the colleagues there have established well-functioning HR processes, structures and approaches over decades. There is a huge wealth of experience that we can learn and benefit from.”

Sabrina, HR policy issues at RWE Power: “Offshore wind is currently going in a completely different direction, which was very exciting for me to see. Even though the growth in offshore has a different dynamic, there were few surprises - but a lot of positive things. The trust that the team placed in me from day one made it very easy for me to jump in at the deep end.”

Both are very grateful that they were fully integrated by their temporary team colleagues right from the start - this enabled them to contribute a great deal of their experience and take responsibility for each other's work from the very beginning.

When asked whether they would recommend a job rotation to others, the two agreed: