Boss for a day and other Job Swaps

Job swaps infuse new ideas into organizational processes and problems. For a day or even a few months, a person takes on a new role, usually within their own organization, to build and share a new perspective.

Internal or External

Job swaps could be internal — involving two current employees — or external — bringing in a fresh perspective from outside of the organization.

• Internal: Internal job swaps might improve performance and lengthen tenure. They offer staff a change to grow their understanding of other functions, increase job satisfaction through new opportunities and connections, and expand their interests.¹
• External: External job swaps happen across an organization’s global offices or integrated organizations. The global Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) recommended government procurement swaps as an example of external exchanges. Groups that purchase different types of goods or services, such as a central purchasing body and a municipal contracting authority, can exchange perspectives on the complexity of large-scale purchases and the responsibility of social services procurement.

Vertical or Lateral

Job swaps can be lateral — swapping across departments or functional areas within a department — or vertical — switching up roles of leadership and support.

• Vertical: “Boss for a day” is an example of a vertical swap. Vincit, an IT company, chooses one employee a month to make CEO for a Day and provides an unlimited budget to improve the company.
• Lateral: Lateral moves are swaps across the business development and finance department or within the communications department between content developer and graphic designer. PaperCut’s Job Swap program allows people to take on a new role at the company, sometimes across countries.

Rally for Ideas

Equip job swappers with mechanisms and budgets for suggesting or implementing changes or innovations in their own role, the new role, or across the organization. Identifying improvement opportunities should be among your explicit goals. In addition to having leaders ask swappers to focus on opportunities, the program could incentivize them with the promise of perks or acknowledgments for new ideas.²

Swaps shed light on blind spots — for leaders and employees.³ For the employee, having the chance to create or consider one’s ideas from a new vantage point with different responsibilities leads to upgrades that make the ideas more feasible and impactful. For the leader, providing your team with the power and perspective to find ideas outside of your viewpoint boosts the organization’s innovation quotient.

1. The idea of job swap. (2018, November 23). Swapp Agency.
2. Job swapping at work – 8 fundamental benefits. Learn how to make it effective. (2017, August 23). Manager’s Orbit.
3. Hinds, R. (2023, May 16). How “perspective swaps” can unlock organizational change. Harvard Business Review.