Mr. Robert Watt:

Mr. Cagney may wish to talk through the details of this. We now have a system which goes across different grades and geographical areas so that people can apply to different offices and Departments in the same area. In effect this is a response to the town hall meetings with staff where somebody in Department X in a particular location felt his or her career was stuck but there might have been opportunities for advancement in another Department that would better appreciate his or her skills. There was no sophisticated system of transfer. They had to identify somebody who would go the other way, a partner as it were. This system uses IT so people express an interest in moving then moves or advertises, and managers can fill the place. It is an attempt to be much more strategic and use the IT to enable those transfers.

It can happen that somebody is in a career and feels stuck and somebody in another office feels the same, if he or she can move, everybody can be happier. There were 350 moves in the most recent tranche. It is a bit too early to say definitively but the feedback is quite positive. It is a challenge for managers who may not want somebody very good to move but for the good of the system they have to co-operate with those transfers.