Why the ECB is telling staff it’s time to move

A pedestrian passes European Union banners flying outside the European Central Bank headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany. Photo by Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg files

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The European Central Bank, like most big central banks, generally does its best to be unexciting. But it has just rolled out a policy for most of its 5,200 staff that is not merely interesting but borderline adventurous.

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It requires its employees to think about doing something that some have failed to do for a decade and more: switch jobs.

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In a move aimed at boosting skills and broadening experience, the Frankfurt-based bank’s new “3-5-8” plan will encourage people to spend no more than eight years in the same role.

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It is called 3-5-8 because it envisages staff will spend the first three years in a new job building up their knowhow and then use the time up to year five to plot a move that should ideally happen by year eight. If this doesn’t happen, employees can expect to have a discussion with managers about where they might head next.

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The policy is not meant to force anyone to move, nor switch specialization, says Eva Murciano, the bank’s director-general of human resources. Rather, it is meant to convey “clear expectations by the institution towards changing roles,” she told me.

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Managers will be expected to take a more active approach to staff moves. A platform that acts like an internal LinkedIn will let staff post their CVs and register interest in shifting jobs. And staff can work for as long as three years at other global financial institutions, knowing they have a return ticket to the ECB.

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Murciano concedes the policy has sparked some apprehension among staff who have spent years working in highly-specialized areas such as economic research.

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But it is hoped the new guidelines will help people advance in an organization where Murciano says most staff stay until they hit the retirement age of 65, and employee turnover is a very low 1.8 per cent.

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The plan also aims to tackle a problem confronting employers across the world — the need to raise workforce skills as AI and data technologies upend the shape of jobs in a raft of sectors.

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Term limits on jobs are of course not new. Diplomats and soldiers expect regular tours of duty. In the private sector, graduate trainees are often rotated around a business to learn the ropes, as are top executives earmarked for greater things.

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At the ECB itself, people who supervise banks are required to shift roles regularly to maintain objectivity. But making it clear to nearly all staff that they will be encouraged to swap roles after a set period of time is less common.

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So is it a good idea? That depends on the employer.

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Churn in the U.K. civil service has long been so notoriously high that departments such as the Treasury have lost up to a quarter of their staff each year, raising fears for institutional memory and expertise.

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In both the public and private sectors, I can think of many people who have spent years in the same job, accumulating wisdom that makes them highly prized specialists. But I also know of too many bright younger people whose career paths seem hopelessly blocked.