Learning and Returning: The Use of Secondments and Rotations in the New Zealand Public Service

Definitions Used in the Survey

External secondment: a fixed term placement that usually occurs between organisations, with the expectation that the person concerned will return to the parent organisation. This placement can be either into or out of the organisation.

Internal secondment: a fixed term placement that usually occurs between business units, teams or branches, with the expectation that the person concerned will return to the parent business unit, team or branch.

Rotation: a placement within an organisation that is usually permanent. The difference between a secondment and a rotation is the understanding that a secondee will return to the original position. This understanding does not exist for a rotation.

Introduction

A recent publication by the State Services Commission (SSC) highlighted the difficulty of developing and retaining a pool of skilled policy advisors in the New Zealand Public Service. This research drew on the practical experience of policy managers, who suggested that the solution to this problem might include paying attention to the use of and arrangements for secondments within the Public Service, and between the Public and other appropriate sectors.

In response to this recommendation, the SSC conducted a survey in May and June 1999 of Public Service departments. The survey aimed to gather information on the extent and nature of the use of secondments and to identify some of the issues affecting their use. It had a particular emphasis on examining the use of secondments as developmental tools that contribute to improved policy capability.

The survey thus constitutes part of the SSC's work on improving the quality of policy advice, and also has links to continuing investigations on senior management development and succession. This paper summarises the findings of the survey and draws conclusions about the effectiveness of secondments and rotations, the associated risks and barriers, and areas for improvement.

State Services Commission, Minds Over Matter: Human Resources Issues Affecting the Quality of Policy Advice, Occasional Paper No. 8, June 1999.

Methodology

A telephone survey was conducted of the Corporate or Human Resource managers of 36 out of 37 Public Service departments (a 97% response rate). Interviewees were asked questions on the numbers and use of external secondments, internal secondments and rotations by all staff within their department. In particular, interviewees were asked about the nature of the process through which secondments take place, and about their perceptions of the associated benefits, risks and barriers. The survey had a particular interest in gathering information on the role of the Management Development Centre (MDC) in the secondment process. This was arranged in consultation with the MDC.

The survey also gathered the perspectives of secondees through additional interviews.

Part 1 of this paper outlines the findings of the survey along with some preliminary analysis. Part 2 draws general conclusions from these findings and identifies areas for improvement and for future action.

The survey letter and questions are attached as Appendix 1, while Appendix 2 notes the limitations of the methodological approach taken. These limitations include a reliance on the perceptions and knowledge of the designated contact person in each department and on the records available.

The MDC was established in 1994 under the governance of a board of Public Service chief executives. It has taken a number of initiatives to facilitate secondment opportunities.

Part 1: Findings

This part of the paper presents the survey results and some preliminary analysis. It is organised into three sections, which outline the survey findings on external secondments, internal secondments and rotations respectively.

External Secondments

External secondments are fixed term placements that usually occur between organisations, with the expectation that the person concerned will return to the parent department.

Numbers of Departments Using External Secondments

The majority of Public Service departments - 33 (92%) of the 36 surveyed - used external secondments. However, the frequency with which secondments were used varied widely, ranging from their use "at times" and "if [the] need arises" to a medium-sized Ministry expecting to have "3% of policy staff on secondment at any given time".

Figure 1: Proportion of Departments Using External Secondments and the Nature of the Process

Note: Of the three departments (from a total of 36) that reported not using secondments, one reported the use of individuals from the private sector in a secondment type arrangement. Another department reported that it was not responsible for arranging any secondments, but it did have a seconded chief executive.

At the time this survey was taken, 0.6% of all staff from the departments surveyed were reported as being on secondment (see Table 2). Figure 2 (overleaf) indicates the number of staff from each department who were on external secondment as at June 1999, as a proportion of the number of fulltime employees (FTEs). Analysis shows that the number of secondments is inversely related to the size of the department, with smaller departments having the highest proportion of staff currently on secondment. The maximum was represented by a small Ministry that reported having 30% of its staff on secondment at that point, but noted that the numbers fluctuated and could be significantly lower at times.

Figure 2: Proportion of FTEs on External Secondments (by Department) as at June 1999

Table 1: Incidence of External Secondments as at June 1999

 

Incidence	Number of Departments	Total number of secondments
0 secondments	41	N/A
1 to 5 secondments	22	44
6 to 10 secondments	5	35
More than 10 secondments	3	51
Current Figures Unavailable	2	N/A
Total	36	130

Of the four departments with no current secondments, three did not use secondments and one used secondments, but did not have any under way at the time.

How and When External Secondments are Used

 

Secondments are used most frequently amongst policy staff, as shown by Table 2. Policy agencies reported a total of 3.5% of all staff as currently on secondment, compared with 0.5% of mixed policy and service delivery organisations, and 0.1% of service organisations. Table 3 (overleaf) shows that 58 of 93 (62%) secondments into departments and 74 of 97 (76%) secondments out of departments in the past two years had involved policy positions. Interviewees' responses indicated that policy work lends itself particularly well to moving to "where the demand is" within the Public Service. This movement facilitates an "exchange of policy knowledge" between departments, it "gives policy writers experience in a different area" and can "increase the policy capacity" of a particular group. One department noted that projects are held up when the "right calibre" of policy staff is unavailable.

Table 2: Proportion of Staff on Secondment (by Type of Department)¹as at June 1999

 

	Number of Departments	Number of FTEs2	Number of Secondments	Proportion of Staff on Secondment	Proportion of Public Service3
Policy	15	2580	91	3.5	11.6
Mixed	8	3829	19	0.5	17.1
Service Delivery	11	15917	20	0.1	71.3
Total	34	22326	130	0.6	100.0

 

The departments are grouped on the basis of the nature of the business of the organisation, i.e. policy, those that provide a mixture of policy and service delivery, and service delivery. Specialist organisations such as the Crown Law Office and Serious Fraud Office are grouped with policy organisations. Given the varied size of the service delivery organisations, these are grouped into large, medium-sized and small service delivery organisations.

² The total FTEs employed as at 30 June 1999 by all departments in each group that currently have staff on secondment. The Inland Revenue Department (large service delivery) and the Education Review Office (mixed) have been excluded from the table because secondments data was unavailable.

3 The proportion of the Public Service (excluding IRD and ERO) that each group employs.

Interviewees said that secondments of policy staff inject expertise to the places it is most needed and that they keep policy staff "fresh" and motivated.

Table 3: Distribution of External Secondments in the Past Two Years by Position

 

	Secondments into departments	Secondments out of departments
Managerial staff	5	11
Policy staff	58	74
Technical and Operational staff	30	10
Unknown staff	0	2
Total	93	97

 

Note: For the above data an assumption was made that all secondments to a Minister's office were of a policy nature.

As Table 3 shows, the number of secondments at the managerial level represented only five of those into departments and 11 out of departments. This figure included secondments of chief executives that were initiated by the State Services Commissioner. Departments themselves currently initiate few managerial level secondments and some departments suggested managers could be difficult to replace, as they often had specific skills and responsibilities. However, this was not a universal perception. The fact that some departments reported successful secondments across managerial levels, and acknowledged their value in providing managerial skills to other staff, is evidence that secondments at this level are both possible and potentially valuable.

A number of departments in all categories considered that secondments were not possible or appropriate in some aspects of their work, such as work that is specialised and technical in nature. There may be scope for departments to revisit their assumptions on the extent of such limitations, in light of the benefits identified in the survey - these are explored further in Part 2.

Use of Cross-Sectoral Secondments

Many departments (64%) reported that they currently had some external secondments outside of the Public Service. A further 21% saw value in cross-sectoral secondments and would consider such secondments if the opportunity arose.

Figure 3: Departmental Use of Secondments outside of the Public Service (34 Departments)

Secondments outside the Public Service included secondments to Crown entities, academic institutions and private sector firms. They also included secondments to overseas positions, such as secondments to departments' international counterparts or equivalents and to multilateral agencies. Some departments had formal and on-going relationships with overseas organisations in, for example, Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada.

Most external secondments were arranged to meet a particular need, and were not regarded as being an exchange relationship. While some direct exchanges did take place (such as those with overseas agencies), this was unusual. Several respondents noted the practical difficulty of organising a straight swap, and the exchange was generally seen as a "quid pro quo" which was not necessarily exact in terms of timing or the nature of the position.

Nature of the Secondment Process: Formal and Informal Approaches

The majority of departments (66%) regarded the planning of external secondments as an informal or ad hoc process (see Figure 1). The primary explanation given for this was the infrequent nature of secondment opportunities. They tended to arise in response to particular needs throughout the year, and were thus difficult to predict or to plan for. Interviewees referred to secondments arising from discussions between chief executives, between policy managers of different departments, and between HR managers. Some departments noted that staff sometimes initiated the secondment process as part of their personal development plans.

Regular secondments from departments to Ministers' offices were usually arranged in a more formal way than most external secondments, and go some way to explaining the mixture of formal and informal processes in some departments.

Only one department noted that it included minimum targets for the number of secondments in its human resource capability plan. This strategy appeared to be helpful in ensuring secondment opportunities were considered within a formal process that related to the current needs of the organisation. The question of equity of treatment when secondments are arranged informally is addressed in Part 2.

Once a secondment opportunity existed, a variety of initiatives for secondment arrangements were used. Secondments into chief executive positions were necessarily organised by the SSC. Below this level, arrangements sometimes revolved around discussions between managers and staff, or were advertised in-house in a newsletter or on the intranet. However, much of the advertising process was informal and involved 'shoulder-tapping' and using personal contacts.

The Role of the Management Development Centre (MDC)

One of the objectives of this survey was to assess the extent and nature of departments' use of the MDC in facilitating the secondment process. It was conducted in consultation with the Centre and was designed to assist in the review of the services it offers.

In 1997 the MDC published Developing Managers in the New Zealand Public Service: Secondment Guidelines for Career Development and the MDC Secondment Service. These guidelines set out the benefits and general principles for the use of secondments. They are intended for use by departments in designing their own secondment processes to suit their particular requirements. The guidelines offer advice to host organisations on identifying a secondment opportunity and making a selection. They also guide applicants in considering their career aspirations and the competencies they need to develop, in order to find the right match with a prospective secondment. The MDC is available to publicise a vacancy (maintaining a level of confidentiality as determined by the requesting department) and to collate applications on behalf of departments.

The survey found that awareness of these guidelines was high. However, there was some disparity between the level of awareness of the guidelines, and the level of actual use. Ten departments stated that while they were aware of the guidelines, they had not used them.

The 15 departments that had used the guidelines to develop their own secondment policies described them positively. For example, the guidelines were "useful as a reference point" and "as a basis [for internal policy] they were excellent". One department suggested that the guidelines had helped to "raise awareness" about the secondment process.

Similarly, although interviewees were aware of the MDC's willingness to act as a facilitator, this option was not widely used. Only seven departments (20% of survey respondents) reported using the MDC secondment service. A limited number of departments reported that they passed on MDC-vacancies to staff, and others reported that they had attempted to use the service but "nothing has resulted yet" or "it wasn't successful".

As the lack of knowledge of secondment opportunities has been cited as a barrier to secondments, the services of MDC could be better utilised by departments. There may also be a need for MDC to develop a role that is more in tune with departmental needs. The role of the MDC and a means of maximising the use of its services are discussed further in Part 2 of the paper.

Benefits of External Secondments to Individuals

MDC guidelines state that "secondment widens the experience and knowledge base of an individual to the mutual benefit of the secondee, the host organisation and the home employer" (1997: 4) and those interviewed for this survey responded enthusiastically to questions on the benefits of secondments. There were perceived benefits for both individuals and organisations, and often the two were intertwined.

Secondments were viewed by interviewees as an opportunity for individuals to develop new skills and experience. They provide individuals with "exposure to new tasks" and, more specifically, may develop new skills such as "managerial skills for technical people", and vice versa. Secondees supported this view. They commented on the skills they acquired, and on the new ways of working that they learned. In turn, such development builds both sectoral and institutional knowledge, and is beneficial in keeping staff motivated and thus in retaining their skills within the Public Service.

Secondments also contribute to network and relationship building. For example, survey respondents described them as "a good networking opportunity" for individuals within the Public Service, and, for international secondments, as a chance to apply "knowledge to international relationships".

Benefits of External Secondments to Organisations

Departments stressed the advantage of being able to fill specific, often project-related needs with specific expertise. They were able to get the "right resource in the right place at the right time", and to "get the expertise required for particular projects". The interviews revealed a sense of resource sharing across the Public Service in order that the service as a whole could operate as efficiently as possible. In particular, this related to policy roles. One interviewee described project-based secondments for policy staff as an "ideal opportunity" to fulfil the expectations that sometimes arose for secondments from smaller agencies. Another pointed out that such secondments could fill particular gaps, such as those created by parental leave.

Benefits such as enhanced individual skills, and exposure of staff to tasks to which they would otherwise not have access, are seen to be positive factors in increasing the overall capability of the organisation. The exchange of perspectives encourages relationship building between departments, and can also result in an increased understanding of clients' needs. Where secondments are taking place with overseas organisations, this relationship building is extended to the international arena.

It is noteworthy that interviewees overlooked one possible benefit identified by the MDC, that of a department being able to "achieve a balance within its workforce, even on a short term basis, by seeking and accepting a secondee identified under EEO policy"(1997: 4).

Risks and Barriers

While secondments were perceived to have many benefits both to individuals and departments, there was a sense that they were not without risk. In particular, some interviewees expressed concern about the potential for "poaching" of secondees and the risk that once seconded, individuals would not return to their previous position. This risk appeared to increase with the length of the secondment. Interviewees saw a twofold cause of this situation. First, once exposed to new ideas and responsibilities (possibly reflected in their salary) secondees may be reluctant to return to their former position. Second, this position may no longer exist. Moreover, the ability of the secondee to do the job may be different from that of the original staff member. For example, it may be that "the individual who replaces [the] secondee [is] better", or conversely, as one department noted, such individuals may be less able. One interviewee expressed a point of view that poaching between departments might lead to salary inflation, which in turn might affect salaries across the Public Service.

Those managers interviewed cited risks that "management learns to do without [secondees] and doesn't want them back" or that the "individual position is not missed". A key concern of secondees interviewed was uncertainty about returning to their former position. This was the case even when there was dialogue between the secondee and the parent department during the secondment. Individuals sent to Ministers' offices also faced complications if there were differing expectations on the secondee from the Minister's office and the Ministry, and the two roles became blurred. This lack of clarity could pose difficulties for the secondee and possibly for the parent department, and if poorly handled could affect the secondee's longer-term relationship with the employer.

For departments, there are perceived risks around losing a valuable resource that may not be replaced and which results in an increased workload for other staff. Also, the time spent bringing an individual up to speed when brought into an organisation can be costly.

There are also more practical concerns involving, for example, responsibility or liability for injury that may occur during a secondment. One interviewee noted that international secondments pose additional issues with, for example, accommodation and exchange rates.

Making external secondments subject to a more formal process, including clear contracts and discussion of the expectations of each party would overcome many of these risks. Ongoing contact between the secondee and their parent department would help in maintaining loyalty. The issues of developing contracts and of ensuring positive three-way communications are discussed further in Part II of the paper. However it should be borne in mind that undue concern about the poaching of secondees is not sustainable in the context of modern career and organisational structures. Frequent career moves are to be expected, and improved employability is a normal consequence of developmental initiatives. As was recognised by a number of interviewees, an individual's skills may reasonably be grown for the benefit of the wider Public Service, rather than for the long-term advantage of a single department.

Thirty departments are included in the table. Of the 36 surveyed, three did not use secondments, one had no current secondments and two did not have current figures available.

The number of FTEs is the number of permanent employees, and so includes permanent staff who are on secondment out of the department, and does not include those seconded in. (They are counted with their parent organisation.)

Internal Secondments

Internal secondments are fixed term placements that usually occur between business units, teams or branches within an organisation. It is generally expected that the person concerned will return to their parent business unit, team or branch at the end of the secondment period.

Numbers of Departments Using Internal Secondments

This survey indicated that fewer departments (14%) use internal secondments than use external secondments (92%). However, the number of secondees within a department varied from fewer than 10 up to 200, indicating that in some of these departments the use of internal secondments is extensive. In some cases, this reflects the specialized structure of the department's operations.

Figure 4: The Use of Internal Secondments by Departments

How and When Internal Secondments are Used

The majority of internal secondments were used for practical reasons and were related to individual projects and demands within an organisation. Staff were seconded to different branches or teams to add skills, experience, or simply extra resource, to a particular project. One interviewee noted that they considered internal secondments "in relation to our purchase agreement", another used secondments for "different projects within different business groups".

There was a difference between those departments using internal secondments for "organisational need rather than [for] development" and those which saw such opportunities as being primarily for staff development. The overall picture, however, is that the benefits are mutual, whatever the driver.

Nature of the Secondment Process

Only 40% of internal secondments were arranged on a formal basis and the majority (60%) of secondments were organised in an informal, ad hoc way. Typically, internal secondments were driven by project managers and involved people working on different projects with different groups within an organisation. A typical response was that "people move for projects, but there is no formal process".

Where internal secondments were organised formally, they constituted part of staff training and development or "part of [our] HR capability plan". Several departments expressed a desire to formalise their internal secondment process. For example, one interviewee noted that their department had "talked about more formal arrangements, but nothing [has been] set up"; another said that the chief executive "thinks it's a good idea, but [there is] no formal process".

This comment raises an important and general issue about managerial support of the secondment process. It is critical that employees are made aware of this support and of their organisation's attitude towards and policy on secondments. This point is elaborated in Part 2.

Benefits

As with external secondments, internal secondments allow departments to fill individual project needs. They also allowed staff to gain skills and experience (such as technical or writing skills) or to develop managerial expertise if seconded to fill a temporary management vacancy. Some departments noted that staff requested secondments to fulfil their particular needs. Internal secondments allow both parties to "test drive" a role without committing to it in the long term.

Risks and Barriers

The perceived risks of internal secondments were of a slightly different nature from those for external secondments. The problems of staff "poaching" were less prevalent in interviewees' responses. Concerns centred largely on managing the process adequately, and training costs. For example, one department noted that attempts at internal secondments failed as "internal snobbery took over". Another noted that internal secondees could be viewed negatively through being used as a "short-term, cheap labour supply".

Rotations

A rotation is a placement within an organisation that is usually permanent. The difference between a secondment and a rotation is the understanding that the secondee will return to the original position. This understanding does not exist for a rotation.

Numbers of Departments Using Rotations

Rotations were used by almost half (44%) of the departments interviewed.

Figure 5: Use of Rotations by Department

How and When Rotations are Used

Most rotations within departments involved small numbers of staff. However, five departments reported high numbers of rotations, with a total of 645 rotations among them over the past two years. In these cases, rotations tended to be used across most staff and were compulsory for some employees. For example, one department viewed rotations as their "principal means of staff development".

Table 4: Distribution of Rotations by Position

	Number of Departments	Number of Rotations
Managerial Staff	2	4
Policy Staff	3	14
Operational Staff	6	6
Across all positions in department	5	645
Total	16	669

Nature of the Rotation Process

Departments reported a mix of formal and informal processes for organising rotations. Some departments had a formal rotation policy, most generally for "career development" reasons. Others rotated staff on an informal basis to meet the needs of particular projects, or to "fill gaps". The process was initiated either by managers "by invitation", or by individuals responding to a vacancy or to the need to manage their own career (for example, "as part of their individual development plan"). One department had tried to make the process more formal, and another was currently reviewing its rotation policy as a means of keeping policy staff up-to-date. Only one department reported that rotations were sometimes written into employment contracts. The question of equity of treatment when rotations are arranged informally is addressed in Part 2.

Benefits

Rotations were seen as an opportunity for staff to keep their skills current, to gain skills in new areas (especially for graduate intakes), and, if necessary, as "a retention tool" for employees who felt dissatisfied with their current role. Rotations can also give individuals scope to consider the wider role of their organisation by preventing "individuals [from] being precious about their areas" and encouraging "individuals to see their previous job in a different light". Such an approach allows for the development of a "pool of generalist staff who can turn their hand to anything", with consequent advantages to the department and to the Public Service as a whole.

One department saw advantages in rotating staff to work alongside external consultants. In particular their staff were seen to add "technical expertise" to projects. Another department noted that the particular nature of their organisation required rotations to "protect against corruption" by not leaving staff too long in one position.

Risks and Barriers

There are costs to the organisation in rotating staff. While one department noted that such costs "need to be seen as an investment", this is often not the case and others saw training costs (and time) as a barrier. One interviewee noted that managers could be reluctant to commit to the rotation process, as it involved losing staff whom they have trained. Others commented that rotations could be "difficult to manage" and "difficult to track", and that there could be problems with covering the original position. However, as one department noted, with careful management rotations can be an exchange arrangement, with advantages for both employees in gaining new skills and exposure to new areas of work.

Part 2: Discussion and Conclusions

All of the 36 departments interviewed for this survey were aware of at least some of the possibilities for seconding or rotating their staff, and most offered some perspectives on the relative benefits and risks involved. However, the survey highlighted a large variation between departments in the number of secondments and rotations they currently undertake and in their reasons and motivations for doing so.

In part, this finding reflects the variety in the type of activities undertaken by government departments. Secondments are currently seen to be more appropriate to particular areas of work (such as policy work) than others (for example, where the activities of the department are highly specific and technical). Rotations of large numbers of staff are only appropriate in departments where the skills of these staff are reasonably generic.

Some departments indicated that secondments at a managerial level presented particular difficulties. However, this was not a universal finding, and the conclusions that follow apply to secondments and rotations of most staff, including managers.

In summary, there is considerable scope for departments to:

• increase the use of secondments and rotations, thus maximising the potential benefits; and
• create more structure and certainty around the secondment process, thus better managing the potential risks.

Increasing the Use of Secondments and Rotations to Maximise Benefits

"[There is] more scope for external secondments".

"We would [undertake more] if there were any going".

"We have considered secondments ... but it has never happened".

Such reactions were common responses in this survey. They indicate a need to increase awareness of the benefits of secondments, and to encourage and promote their use across the Public Service. This is reinforced by the senior management development and succession project, which referred to the importance of secondments as part of on the job training. In this paper,¹ Graeme Field, formerly of Fletcher Challenge, made the following strong recommendation, "Put a real emphasis on secondment. Make it real. Make it visible. Let people know that it happens!"

The Onus is on Departments

While the MDC has a role in promoting a culture across the Public Service that is supportive of secondments (particularly as a tool for developing managers), awareness and action needs to occur within departments. This first finds expression in departments' annual planning of work, including their purchase agreements, business plans and human resource plans, and extends to individual performance plans. Departments need to factor in the double potential of secondments: to assist in output delivery, by providing a boost to resources at crucial moments; and to develop staff skills that build the organisation's longer run capability.

In assessing their organisations' resourcing needs, departments should consider the relative benefits of secondments and rotations, compared with other means of meeting these needs. For example, the transaction costs of seconding or rotating staff can be expected to be less than those of recruiting and training a new employee (which can amount to 0.8 to 1.5 times the total annual remuneration for the position). Secondments can contribute to retention rates by avoiding staff leaving the organisation in search of new challenges. They can offer "stretch" opportunities for a finite, trial period and give individuals an exposure to experiences not found in their own jobs.

In their human resources planning, departments could ensure that managers are briefed to take account of the scope for secondments or rotations in addressing their own and their staff members' developmental needs. The practical benefits of seconding or rotating staff, so that they can learn on the job, should be weighed against those of more theoretical or academic learning options, such as tertiary education or training courses. In exploring such options, departments are encouraged to think more laterally about the opportunities for interchange between regional offices of their own or other departments; regional and head offices; central and local government; Public Service, Crown entities and private sector; and domestic and international agencies. They should also bear in mind the potential of secondments not only for managerial, policy and operational staff, but also for specialised support people in areas like computer services or information and data management.

The added benefits that interviewees identified, of improved relationships and a better understanding of one another's business, can apply in all of these cases. Secondments between policy and operational departments offer the particular advantage of enhancing information flows across the policy/delivery divide. Overall, a returning secondee can bring back and share with the home department a whole set of fresh experiences and ways of doing things that can have a revitalising and challenging effect on the home team. Departments should expect and be open to such challenges.

Advertising opportunities for secondments within departments (as some currently do) is a good means of furthering the secondment process. This should extend, where applicable, to advertising across regions to encourage exchanges at the local level. Using the advertising services of the MDC would widen the pool of applicants for external secondments from within a department to the whole Public Service. This would alleviate, for both organisations and staff, the impression that there are currently few opportunities for secondments.

Chief executives have a key role in using their range of contacts to identify secondment opportunities for management and staff. Similarly, professional and technical networks can be drawn upon, in a conscious way, for staff exchange possibilities.

Equity and Good Employer Obligations

There are issues of equity of treatment to consider in making arrangements for staff movements, whether these are secondments or rotations. If too informal an approach is followed, there is a risk that these arrangements may be perceived as unfair or inadequately thought through. Public Service chief executives are required by the State Sector Act 1988 to operate personnel policies that comply with good employer principles. These include "the impartial selection of suitably qualified persons for appointment" and "opportunities for the enhancement of the abilities of individual employees". Departments should therefore consider carefully how best to observe these obligations, which at a minimum should involve establishing and distributing clear policy statements on the use of secondments and rotations. The policy should cover whether or not opportunities will be notified to staff as a regular practice, or if any such opportunities will be considered on a case by case basis in relation to the developmental needs and aspirations identified in an individual's Training and Development plan.

Staff also have a Role in Asserting Their Needs

Staff should feel confident about approaching their managers and about applying for secondments or rotations. Individuals may see opportunities in any vacancy without it being formally identified as a secondment opportunity and they should feel comfortable raising such instances. This situation requires managerial support, departmental openness about their policy for considering such approaches and a general willingness by departments to share resources across the Public Service. Reaching this goal requires some "demand side" action on the part of employees.

The Benefits of More Secondments and Rotations will be Felt Across the State Sector

Once secondments are built more formally into departmental planning and when employees are aware of these opportunities and are confident in asserting their needs, secondments have the potential to create benefits across the State sector. Rotations on a large scale are likely to be less accessible to influence by individuals, but must still be incorporated into departmental planning. They have the potential to assist in skill development and to maximise efficient use of human resources within a department. One-off rotations offer many of the same benefits as secondments and can equally be triggered by individuals' discussions with their managers.

Both secondments and rotations are of particular importance in improving the quality of policy advice provided by public officials. They are effective mechanisms for placing policy staff where they are most needed, keeping policy staff motivated and stimulated, and developing a pool of policy staff with generic skills and a range of experience. They can help ensure that policy staff are grounded in the practical realities, by exposing them to delivery environments.

State Services Commission, Senior Management Development and Succession, 1998.

Improving the Secondment Process to Manage Potential Risks

Once opportunities for secondments are identified, it is important that they are organised and managed appropriately. The MDC guidelines emphasise that "the success of a secondment depends on these critical factors:

• the quality of the people selected
• an effective match between their learning needs and the expectations of the home and host organisations" (1997: 7).

This survey revealed some concerns about the efficacy of the present process. and some perceptions identified some pitfalls to be avoided. Several points of action are required to create greater certainty around this process.

Support and Guidance

The SSC endorses the use of secondments, but does not take an operational role. It has a particular role in monitoring how departments manage their ownership responsibilities and build their capability to serve successive governments. It is also directed from time to time to investigate specific whole-of-government concerns, such the project on improving the quality of policy advice of which the survey of secondments and rotations is a part. In addition, the Commissioner has an oversight of the ways in which chief executives develop their senior managers for succession purposes in the interests of the Public Service as a whole. In each of these cases, there is scope for departments to demonstrate that they actively include secondments in their repertoire of strategies for staff training and development.

Practical support and guidance are best provided by the MDC as a specialist in this field. The current high level of awareness of the MDC's services could be translated into greater actual use through further, active promotion. This could involve publicising as examples those departments that currently use the MDC's guidelines as a basis for their own secondment policies, and following up the reasons why in some cases MDC guidance has failed to produce positive results. The MDC's recent expansion of e-mail communications with HR and project management groups is a positive step forward in disseminating secondment information.

Contracting to Avoid Uncertainty

When a secondment has been confirmed, overcoming the potential risks involved is best achieved by agreeing development targets and putting a formal contract in place. This is particularly pertinent to external secondments. This survey showed that those secondments that work best are those where expectations, on the part of both departments and secondees, are explicit, and are agreed between the parties. A contract clarifies the secondee's conditions of employment, sets out the secondee's obligations to the parent organisation, outlines the arrangements for return to a parent organisation, and minimises (but does not eliminate) the risk of staff poaching. Interviews with secondees confirmed the value of formal contracts in clarifying these issues.

The MDC guidelines provide useful guidance for drawing up such contracts. The guidelines suggest discussing and recording contractual details such as salary and adjustments, working hours, holidays, expenses and codes of conduct. They also recommend seeking agreement in advance over issues such as whether the host organisation can actively seek to recruit the secondee during the secondment or whether it will guarantee not to do so for a minimum period.

While these guidelines provide structure and certainty around the process, there remains a moral obligation on departments not to use the process as a means of passing on problem employees. This risk is alleviated by good negotiation processes about the skills of the employee, their reasons for seeking a secondment and their suitability for the new position.

Preparing for the Move

A significant number of the reported secondments were one-off moves to overseas organisations. These imply the need for added care by the parent department to ensure staff are briefed on cultural and environmental differences and, where appropriate, given time for language training or refresher courses.

Retaining Contact

An internal management process of career planning should back this contract. On-going communication between the secondee and both organisations involved is particularly important. Those secondees who were interviewed in this survey described the maintenance of contact as a critical factor in ensuring a successful secondment.

Contact allows the parent organisation to tap into the new knowledge and networks acquired by the secondee, and lessens the feelings of personal risk for secondees. Such access should not of course be misused or over-used in a way that causes stress for the secondee or presents conflicts of interest. Regular contact also allows secondees to keep up-to-date with changes in the parent organisation that might affect their return. It is important that secondees do not feel a loss of visibility and reputation while they are away, and that their increased experience be recorded on their parent department files. Three-way communication also assists in ensuring the appropriate use of a secondee's skills and experience both during the secondment and on their return to the parent department. In the latter instance, this may well include changes to the original position description to reflect new skills and knowledge that have been acquired.

While the process is likely to be less formal than for external secondments, similar considerations are relevant to internal secondments and rotations. However, it is important not to lose the benefits of moving staff internally on a less formal basis to meet the immediate needs of the department.

Recording and Learning

This survey highlighted the lack of centralised record keeping and evaluation of individual secondments within departments (see Appendix 2). Anecdotal evidence suggests that the incidence of secondments was significantly under-reported in the survey. Short term, informal arrangements that may nonetheless have developmental as well as operational advantages are easily overlooked, if there is no regular requirement to capture and pass on the information. Corporate offices may simply never be made aware of the extent of secondment activity undertaken. This may explain in part the finding (see Figure 2, p.5) that the number of secondments reported was inversely related to the size of the department. The situation may be more common in larger departments, especially those with semi autonomous units and those with regional offices.

Improved processes for information gathering and for feeding this information back into human resource plans would increase awareness of secondments and their benefits. A means of gathering feedback from secondees could aid this process - the MDC can provide evaluation forms for both host organisations and secondees if necessary. This information is critical for departments to ensure ongoing learning about the problems, challenges and successes experienced by secondees. It is also an essential part of an individual's performance management and personal development planning that the value of a significant experience of this kind be analysed and recorded.

The Way Forward

The results of this survey suggest that secondments and rotations can provide benefits to individuals, departments and the Public Service as a whole. On-the-job learning is one of the best ways in which people continue to learn, and secondments are a means of facilitating this learning in a way that enables departments to meet short-term staffing needs and develop their resources in the longer term.

The use of secondments appears to be a particularly useful strategy for alleviating the current situation in which, for some, "experienced policy advisors are as scarce as hen's teeth" by providing developmental opportunities and cross-sectoral experience for policy advisors, thus encouraging them to stay within the Public Service.

However, this survey has also shown that not enough departments actively promote secondments in their HR strategies, maintain thorough records of their use and evaluate the benefits.

Maximisation of the use of secondments and rotations requires change in two areas:

1 Departmental initiative is required. Secondments should become a regular part of HR planning for staff at many levels and should be promoted by departments as a means of investing in the particular needs of the organisation and its people. The practice of setting minimum annual secondment targets in the HR Strategic Plan is a useful mechanism for bringing this strategy to the fore. Where appropriate, departments might consider instituting links that lead to regular exchanges with counterpart agencies or private sector organisations such as major corporates or consultancy firms.

2 Fuller use should be made of the opportunities and networks provided by the MDC, including its recent initiatives in support of secondments for inter-agency projects. These opportunities include advertising secondments across the Public Service, providing guidance for managing the secondment process, and facilitating secondments in a way that ensures maximum benefits for all parties. In light of this survey, the MDC envisages offering clinics involving secondment case studies; revisiting its guidelines and advertising service; and publicising their availability.

This report is designed to stimulate the thinking of departments as they work to build their long run capability. The SSC supports the use of secondments and rotations as operational and developmental tools for this purpose.

State Services Commission, Minds Over Matter: Human Resources Issues Affecting the Quality of Policy Advice Occasional Paper No. 8, June 1999.

MDC, Inter-agency Project Work for Senior Management Career Development: Guidelines, 1999.

Appendix 1: Survey Questions and Letter to Interviewees

The SSC is conducting this survey to obtain data on the frequency and use of secondments and rotations. This is part of a larger project on improving the quality of policy advice. Its particular aim is to determine whether the use of secondments and rotations can contribute towards improving policy capability.

For this purpose, a secondment is defined as a fixed term placement which usually occurs between organisations, with the expectation that the person concerned will return to the parent department, whilst rotations are placements that can be indefinite and usually occur internally.

I would like to record this conversation, to help me in analysing the survey results. Is that acceptable to you?

• Does your department arrange external secondments of your staff?
  
  • If yes, are they ad hoc or a formal part of your staff training & development?
  • If formal, how?
  • If no, why not?
• Do you consider secondments beyond the Public Service? (To Crown entities? Or the private sector?)
• Do you arrange secondments into the department as well as from it? (Is secondment a two way process?)
  
  • Is it a swap?
• Can you give any examples of secondments in the past two years? Or of any that are under consideration? How many people have you got on secondment from your department right now?
  
  • When?
  • Where to?
  • What length of time?
  • What level of seniority was the person involved?
• What was the purpose of each secondment?
  
  • Skill transfer? Skill acquisition? Gaining a different experience? Improvement in the quality of policy advice?
• Do you arrange internal rotations of staff?
  
  • If yes, are they ad hoc or a formal part of your staff training and development?
  • If no, why not?
• Can you give any examples of rotations in the past 2 years? Or any that are under consideration?
• What was the purpose of the rotation?
• How are secondments or rotations initiated in your department?
  
  • Who usually takes the initiative? Individuals, line managers, corporate HR?
  • Do staff members approach you about the possibility of being seconded?
  • Have you encouraged staff to approach you about being seconded?
• Are you aware of the MDC Secondment Guidelines for Career Development?
  
  • If no, why not ?
• Have you used these guidelines?
  
  • In what circumstances have you used them?
  • Were the guidelines useful?
  • Could they be made more useful?
• Have you used the MDC's secondment service?
  
  • In what circumstances?
  • Was it useful?
  • Could it be made more useful?
• What do you see as the benefits of
  
  • secondments?
  • rotations?
• What do you see as the risks or disadvantages of
  
  • secondments?
  • rotations?
• What do you do to deal with these risks ?
• Can you suggest any other solutions that would minimise these risks?

Are you happy for any information you have given me to be used as a case study of the use of secondments? Other comments?

13 May 1999

<<FirstName>> <<LastName>>

<<Job Title>>

<<Department>>

<<Adress>>

<<City>>

Dear <<FirstName>>

TELEPHONE SURVEY ON DEPARTMENTAL USE OF SECONDMENTS AND ROTATIONS

The State Services Commission is pursuing a number of initiatives aimed at improving the quality of policy advice from departments. One of these is to explore opportunities for on-the-job training and development of policy advice staff through secondments and rotations.

As you are no doubt aware, the State Services Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner have recently been discussing senior management development with each chief executive. The Commission has also been working with the Management Development Centre to reinforce the developmental benefits of seconding senior managers to interagency projects. In the course of this exercise, we found there was little hard information available on the wider use of secondments and rotations being made by departments. Such information would be valuable as a basis for considering how secondments could serve to build policy advice skills.

We therefore propose to conduct a telephone survey of all Public Service HR managers, or the equivalent, on the use of secondments/rotations. We are interested in any recent instances of secondments/rotations and whether they are limited to the Public Service or extend to Crown entities or the private sector. We would also like your perception of the purpose of secondments/rotations, and benefits or risks involved.

We would appreciate your participation in this survey, on which we will report back to departments in due course. You may want to have on hand for the interview some quantitative data on how many secondments and rotations your department has arranged over the past two years and for what purposes.

We have scheduled the following time for a short telephone conversation between yourself (or the appropriate HR/corporate manager) and Ali Bradshaw from the SSC.

Time: <<Time>>

If you are unable to make this time, could you please contact Ali by e-mail to reschedule: alison.bradshaw@ssc.govt.nz or phone her on 495 6658. Ali will send you the record of your conversation for approval and will check that you are willing for any non-personal information to be used in the survey.

If you require further information on the survey, please contact Christine Goodman (project leader) on 495 6647.

Yours sincerely

Appendix 2: Limitations

There were three key limitations on the quality of the information gathered in the survey. These arose from what appeared to be a general lack of systematic recording and evaluation of secondments and rotations across departments.

First, the data was supplied by the designated contact person in each department and was based on their knowledge and records. Often the interviewees commented that this was the only data available and that there may have been more instances of secondments that were not reported or recorded. In cases where the contact person had been with the department for less than two years, they were only able to present figures for as long as they had been with the department.

Second, inconsistencies were revealed during the data analysis. In some cases, a department would report a secondment to another department, but the host department did not report this secondment. The figures also include some double counting because, in some cases, a secondment was reported by both the parent department and the host department.

Third, interview responses were often based on perception rather than actual experience or evaluation. This particularly relates to the benefits and risks of secondments and rotations.