Secondment
Also called:job rotation, temporary assignment
Secondments let you fill a gap and grow a person at the same time. The discipline is in the end date — without one, a secondment quietly becomes a transfer no one decided to make.
What a secondment actually is
A secondment is a temporary reassignment. An employee leaves their usual role for a defined period — typically three to twelve months — to work in another team, department, or sometimes another company entirely. At the end, they go back. The contract, the salary band, and the home manager usually stay put; only the work changes.
It is distinct from a permanent internal move. A secondment has a return date written down. That single detail is what makes it useful and what makes it easy to get wrong.
Why teams use them
- Cover a real gap without a new hire. Parental leave, a sudden project, a vacancy you haven’t filled yet — a secondment buys you a skilled person for the exact window you need.
- Develop people faster than a training budget can. Six months running a different function teaches more than any course. It is the cheapest senior-leadership development most companies never use.
- Retain people who are restless. Someone bored in their role and eyeing the exit will often stay for the chance to try something different for a while. A secondment is a pressure valve.
Secondment vs promotion
A promotion is permanent and comes with a new title and usually new pay. A secondment is temporary and typically neither. Confusing the two is the classic mistake: the person treats it as a step up, the home team treats the seat as still occupied, and when the end date arrives nobody planned for the return. Decide upfront which one it is, in writing.
Where it goes wrong
The end date slips. The host team grows dependent, the home team backfills, and six months turns into eighteen by accident. Now you have a transfer that no one approved and a return path that no longer exists. Treat the end date as a real commitment, schedule a return conversation a month before it, and decide deliberately — return, extend, or make it permanent.
Where Join fits
Join keeps your talent pool and past candidates organized, so when a secondment ends and you do need to hire permanently — or backfill the seat it left open — the pipeline is already there. See the features page.
