”The exchange program contributes partly to developing the employees who participate, and partly to the Port of Gothenburg having access to new thoughts and ideas that our representatives secure. In the next step, we will welcome people from the host port, and several of us will be involved in creating a good program,” said Elvir Dzanic, Gothenburg Port Authority Chief Excecutive.

The recruitment process started in the autumn of 2021, where Per Alkås and Dirk Wallem were the two employees who were accepted. They have just returned from the first round of exchanges which went to the Port of Hamburg – one of Europe's major ports that has a lot in common with the Port of Gothenburg. The two have completely different roles where Per works as a Port Officer, while Dirk works with the purchasing and procurement processes at the Gothenburg Port Authority.

”It is very interesting to see what we can learn from Hamburg and what they can learn from us. But above all, we have made many new pleasant contacts with colleagues in Hamburg, with whom we can continue to collaborate in the future, and at the same time they are welcome with their questions and problems,” said Dirk Wallem.

Plans to start an exchange program with other ports started in 2019, but when the Covid-19-pandemic started, the project, like so much else, had to be postponed to the future. When society started opening up in 2021, the job of building an exchange program was resumed.

”I hope and believe that such an opportunity for exchange will be able to contribute to us becoming an even more attractive employer who works to develop our staff in inspiring ways. We also see in development interviews and through our employee surveys that employees wish for more exchanges, and we would like to accomodate that,” said Susanne Utbult, Head of Human Resources at the Gothenburg Port Authority.

The idea is that future exchanges will take place with ports outside Europe, in the United States and Asia.