There are concerns in my current team following the announcement of my secondment. Understandably, folks are somewhat worried about what this change means for them. So, following on from my ‘Shaping up’ post, I’ve spent a bit more time thinking through the dilemma of the ripple effect. The way I see it, there are two major process issues contributing to the ripple effect that are creating this sense of unease:
1. The process is long-winded. As I’ve said previously, at present, secondments require a transparent process to attract interested and appropriate people to a “role”. This takes time. In my case, the position was advertised internally for a week, followed by a week-and-a-half of negotiations and scene-setting until I was formally made an offer. Following this, a similar process was initiated over 2 days, to find someone to step into my substantive position. This is currently being advertised internally, and is open for 7 days. Given that we only advertised internally, it could be assumed that this process will be repeated again, to backfill whoever steps into my role… and so on. The bottom line: this is not efficient. As a result, staff are left ‘hanging’ while arbitrary processes are carried out in the interests of transparency.
2. The process is driven by ‘roles’. The ripple effect continues as long as the focus is on shifting people into roles, rather than looking at ways that the functions within a role can best be picked up. This contributes to the lengthiness of the process and thus the negative feelings experienced by staff.
Questions:
While the process ensures transparency and equal access to opportunities, what needs to change to enable staff to be more quickly responsive to emerging needs/workstreams/projects in an organisation?
What are the opportunities of a function-oriented approach to backfill?
What is needed to build portfolio work into an employment agreement/position description?
What are the risks to employees of this type of work?
Who already does it well? What can we learn from them?
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Living the 'Living Job' 
