33 / 76
Career progression is enhanced
Accelerated skills growth
Lattice progression
Linear progression
Leadership roles
For a number of secondees, the lessons learnt and
development they experienced on secondment
resulted in a step change in performance back in
the workplace. This was often recognised both
personally (by the individual) and externally
(by their managers and colleagues), and led
to enhanced career progression. Secondees
nominated themselves for new challenges and
opportunities, moved into the next stage of their
career or were promoted to leadership roles.
Many secondees experienced
accelerated skills
growth
during secondment, which was effectively
applied in their professional lives post-secondment.
Trish Clancy explained: ‘The secondment was a
chance to build skills that I built naturally in my
job but it built them faster, particularly around
engaging with stakeholders, thinking through
the complexities of engaging with stakeholders
across a community with very different views
from each other and differences in the preferred
ways of communicating.’ Melissa Griggs similarly
experienced a faster rate of professional growth:
With a secondment you’re often thrown in the
deep end with minimal direction, you have to
self-lead, you have to do things that are out of
your comfort zone—and once you return to work,
the speed at which your skills increase and your
confidence increases is astronomical.
Bonnie Carter believes the skills she acquired while
on secondment allowed her to ‘blossom much
quicker with my sights set on where I want to go.’
Nina Kordic felt that the immersive nature of her
secondment—working with Indigenous partners in
community but also alongside other professionals—
contributed to her accelerated development:
Not only are you working away from home
and outside your own environment, you’re also
working with very different people at different
life stages and career stages, and from different
organisations and cultures, so when you’re
thrown together as a secondment group,
it adds to the momentum of development
you experience.
Secondees reported various types of career
growth post secondment. For some, it was
lattice
progression
(a lateral move to a different role), or
taking advantage of new opportunities or different
responsibilities within their organisation. Tracey
Benson said: ‘Since my secondment I’ve joined a
leadership learning circle, where a small group of
women meet once a month and focus on things like
your values and goals and career planning—I saw
it as a really good opportunity to stretch myself.’
Tracey reflected that her view of her career
trajectory had also broadened since her Jawun
experience. ‘I’d always thought I’d do something
related to my background in visual arts and never
really considered working on the policy side of
things, but that’s something I’ve thought about
since doing the secondment.’ Elise Marciano from
Woodside similarly viewed her career options
more broadly after her secondment:
Jawun showed me that as a commercial
professional I can work and add value in very
different areas. I’d studied economics and finance,
but I realised I didn’t need to confine myself to
working in those areas. Since returning from my
secondment, I have completed cross-postings
to investor relations and LNG marketing. Jawun
taught me to look more broadly for potential
career paths.
Nina Kordic was given greater responsibilities
in her role when her manager saw how she had
grown while on secondment. Carmen Ashcroft,
Senior Manager of Talent & Diversity at IAG,
explained: ‘Nina has become more confident and
she’s more at ease with stakeholder engagement
and management, to the point where part of the
big piece of work for my team this year has been a
rollout of a new talent framework and engagement
within IAG, and I recommended that Nina carry
out three rather large pieces of work for that.’
Other secondees have experienced
linear
progression
in their careers, in the form of
upward promotion or managing larger teams.
Chadi Khalifeh was promoted shortly after his
secondment. He reflected: ‘I think my career path
was accelerated by the secondment. I genuinely
believe that I’m able to apply greater leadership
skills because of this secondment—I’m better
at listening, understanding my stakeholders’
needs and applying empathy.’
CREATING VALUE FOR CORPORATE AND GOVERNMENT PARTNERS 23