FAQs and good practice guidance

All staff members will be eligible to request a secondment. It is normally expected that staff will have completed 6 months’ service on the date the request is made.  

Members of staff will not normally be permitted to undertake a secondment during their probationary period or training and development review period (if applicable). However, the probation period/training and development review period will count towards the above qualifying period of service for a secondment.   

All matters relating to eligibility may be subject to variation at departmental/divisional level.

Members of staff wishing to apply for secondments should discuss this with their line manager before making an application. Approval for a secondment must be given by the member of staff’s current line manager before it can proceed. Should approval not be given, there is no right to appeal against this decision.

Note: Managers are encouraged to give serious consideration to a request for a secondment, as this form of work-based learning is supported by Imperial as a positive and impactful development. Where a manager feels there is no choice but to decline a request, they should discuss the reasons with the member of staff concerned. 

If a fair selection process is used to select an individual for a secondment, then unsuccessful applicants must also receive feedback on why their applications were unsuccessful.

Undertaking a formal secondment allows individuals to experience what it is like to take on a different job role in as “real” a way as possible. You can expect to learn about the role firsthand by undertaking a number of its elements, or possibly the whole role. The premise of a secondment is that the secondee temporarily takes up a role from which the substantive role holder is absent (for example, through maternity/parental leave).

Job shadowing is a situation where the role holder is still in the role. The individual job shadowing them is there to observe the role or undertake tasks under the role holder's supervision. Job shadowing will usually be for a short, defined period, ranging from a few hours to a week, or potentially 2 or 3 days per week, for four weeks, for example.

People involved in job shadowing will gain a greater understanding of the role being observed, but may not necessarily learn the full range of skills required for it. It intends to provide a “flavour” and appreciation of the role.

A job shadowing opportunity may be less formal than a secondment, without the need for a fixed-term contract or a contract variation.

A project will be a discrete piece of work assigned to an individual for completion, and the individual may also work in another department or team during the project. The intention of this opportunity is for the person undertaking the project to gain skills and experience outside of their current role.

At the end of any secondment/shadowing/project work opportunity, a follow-up meeting must be held to evaluate the learning achieved by the individual during the work-based learning period and to identify ways to disseminate the learning across the wider team.

Imperial requires that all selection processes for secondments and other work-based learning opportunities be conducted in the fairest manner possible; therefore, managers must conduct a fair selection process each time. A formal and fair recruitment process must be carried out for all secondments, and a fixed-term contract of employment must be put in place.

It is not necessary to use the Talentlink system to manage the recruitment process if the manager invites applicants to a secondment via an expression of interest rather than an internal job advert.

Managers are required to use the guidance and templates contained in this website to ensure fairness and consistency of approach.  

On a day-to-day basis, the member of staff will report to and be managed by the hosting manager. Any management issues during the secondment will be dealt with in consultation with the substantive manager.

Before the work-based learning opportunity takes place, the substantive manager and staff member should agree on clear objectives for the secondment/job shadowing/project work period, and on how and when they will stay in touch during the period when the staff member will be away from their normal job.

Having clear objectives in place will ensure the staff member can focus on learning from the experience.

Staying in touch regularly will enable the manager and staff member to discuss how the opportunity is going and the new learning taking place, and to begin thinking about how the learning could be applied when the individual is back in their substantive role.

It is recommended that the substantive manager lead the individual’s ARC conversation during the period of secondment; however, the hosting manager should also have input into the individual’s ARC for that year.

The hosting manager may be asked to provide feedback to the substantive manager to raise during the ARC, or the hosting manager could attend all or part of the ARC conversation if the individual agrees in advance.

If, for any reason, a secondment needed to end early (for example, if the arrangement was not working operationally or due to performance concerns), the expectation would be that the individual would return to their substantive role.

However, an early end to a secondment or other work-based learning opportunity should, in most cases, be avoidable if effective planning and communication take place between the individual, the substantive manager and the host manager prior to the opportunity commencing.

If a person is on secondment when any pay review recommendations are proposed, final decisions would sit with the substantive department, given its longer-term budget responsibility.

“Sending” a staff member to undertake a secondment can often present an opportunity for another colleague within the sending department to step forward and fill the secondee’s role for a period. And indeed, this may also allow a third person to undertake a secondment to fill the second person’s role.

This is acceptable and to be encouraged, if it is logistically feasible to set up a “chain” of secondments. For this reason, managers are advised to allow as much time as possible to plan for secondments, to allow individuals to prepare for their short-term change of role, and to ensure that all practical/contractual steps are taken.

If a manager feels that there is no suitable colleague within their team to step in and backfill the substantive role of the secondee, then they must follow the standard guidance as set out in the earlier FAQ “Good practice principles for conducting an open recruitment process for a secondment”, and recruit a colleague from elsewhere in the organisation, to fill the vacant position for the duration of the secondment.

Budget arrangements must always be confirmed before any recruitment process begins.

At the end of any secondment/shadowing/project work opportunity, a follow-up meeting must be held to evaluate the learning achieved by the individual during the work-based learning period and to identify ways to disseminate the learning across the wider team.

Managers are encouraged to take a longer view of the benefits that work-based learning opportunities can bring- both to the individual staff member, and to the wider team, and ultimately to themselves in terms of increasing the likelihood of the manager creating a high-performing team. With sufficient time and thought allocated to planning and implementing work-based learning, opportunities can be accommodated into the annual cycle of activity. There are numerous benefits to be gained from work-based learning.

Of course, it is essential to ensure that the substantive team can release the individual operationally before any work-based learning is agreed. Again, advanced planning will help to ensure that work-based learning opportunities can be created and implemented.