INTHEBLACK December - January 2022 - Magazine - Page 50
Secondment
ELEVATE BUSINESS AS USUAL
50
DEC 2022
JAN 2023
“Over nine weeks, I worked from home
in Sydney two days a week for Central
Coast Aboriginal organisation Barang
Regional Alliance, switching back to my
day job in the bank’s regulatory team on
the other days,” says Carter.
Barang has been central to the New
South Wales Government’s Local Decision
Making reform program, and it was
Carter’s job to support the organisation
by providing project management skills,
so that the Barang team could finalise its
negotiation activities.
Even though Carter had to develop
a working relationship with her Barang
supervisor over video, she says the
bond between them became deep. “It’s
remarkable how much I’ve learned from
him from my lounge room,” she says.
“Among the key professional
development skills I’ve been able to bring
back to my day job at Westpac, the power
and benefit of authentic acceleration
to enhance project delivery is vital –
especially in a screen-to-screen working
world,” says Carter.
Siobhan Toohill, Westpac’s chief
sustainability officer, says the secondment
INTHEBLACK CAREER, ELEVATED SPECIAL EDITION
program, co-founded by Boston
Consulting Group, is both an exchange
program and an Indigenous-led experience.
“Jawun puts forward a brief for the kind
of skills they are looking for, and Westpac
seeks to match our employees who have
expressed an interest in taking part,” says
Toohill. “Employees must have the right
sort of skills, as well as the support of their
manager – and this must form part of
their development plan.”
For Westpac staff, the secondment
experiences to date have been strongly
positive. Secondees report a better
awareness of Aboriginal culture and a
deeper understanding of the challenges
faced by Indigenous communities. From
a personal and professional development
perspective, employees also say the
experience gives them more confidence,
a greater ability to adapt and improved
resilience when facing a range of stresses.
FROM NARROW TO BROAD
A secondment program need not be
formal and organisation-wide to be
successful. Smaller organisations can still
reap the benefits of secondments done on
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