Immersion: The Rewards Of Secondments

Immersion : the rewards of secondments

Immersion – it’s one of the most rapid approaches to learning, and the rewards are plentiful. The LendLease Foundation recently partnered with ISCA enabling a six month secondment of one of LendLease Engineering’s finest sustainability professionals, Jaclyn Fathers.

This experience has been a powerful and positive experience all round. The outcomes have been mutually beneficial in that Jaclyn benefited from wider skills development enabling career progression and the opportunity to build upon her greatest strengths; Jaclyn’s effervescence added more value than we could have imagined.

While embedded in our team as a Case Manager, we stretched our thinking with her fresh perspectives, we are even more efficient thanks to process improvements and new templates, and we are ready and raring to support the many new relationships Jaclyn fostered.

This secondment worked because the spirit of arrangement was one of growth and opportunity, there was genuine willingness to collaborate, we had a agreement making clear the governance and nature of the relationship and most importantly, Jaclyn was an excellent skill and cultural fit. Her personal ethos will serve her well throughout her career and life.

“My eight month secondment at ISCA was a unique opportunity that was highly rewarding and provided me with valuable insight into the operating of a not-for-profit. The team at ISCA welcomed me with open arms, and offered me the chance to work with the wider ISCA community, which has helped grow my knowledge and understanding of successful sustainability management in infrastructure projects and the value that can come from engaging with leadership” Jaclyn Fathers

This experience has broadened our approach to embracing the many challenges a growing NFP encounters. It also enables future opportunities where our members can work along side us for discreet periods to bolster our impact, delivery and capability, in exchange for a vibrant and purpose-driven learning experience which develops core skills like initiative, determination and contribution.

If one of your team members deserves an outstanding growth opportunity, express your organisations interest in partnering with ISCA. The skills sets we would benefit the most from in the next six months are:

• Impactful communication – Digital Media/PR (0.2 FTE, 3 months)
• Process re-engineering (0.2FTE, 4-6 weeks)