Seconding staff to the community is an investment of a valuable resource which will yield real benefits if properly managed. Evaluation is essential if the impact is to be fully understood and future secondments well handled. This applies just as much to the flexible short-term or part-time release of employees for community projects as to traditional full-time secondments.
There are two sides to evaluation: quantitative measures, essentially recording general statistical information about the secondment, and qualitative ones, making a judgement about the outcomes.
Statistics
The first, statistical approach involves recording information such as:
– the numbers of secondments and their length, resulting in a measure of ‘secondee days’
– the type of work undertaken and the skills transferred
– the fit with corporate responsibility policy and business goals
– the monetary value of the secondment, based on salary plus overheads for full-time secondments or notional consultancy rates for shorter placements.
These will provide useful data to quantify the impact.
Judgement
The qualitative approach is harder but is of greater significance in determining the effect of the secondment on all the parties involved – the company, the secondee and the community organisation involved. The process has four stages, starting before the secondment itself begins.
Before the start
All parties must agree and understand each others’ reasons for participating in the secondment. Each will have different motives for taking part, but these must be stated and understood at the outset. If the objectives have not been defined, judging success afterwards is more difficult.
Examples of benefits which can be measured are the new experience gained by the secondee and the extra services gained by the voluntary organisation.
During
All parties should keep a record of activities and tasks performed and note any problems as they arise. A formal process of monitoring, assisted by an outside agency such as Action: Employees in the Community, can be very helpful.
At the end
All three parties should arrange a meeting at the end of the secondment to review its success. Each should state what benefits they think were gained from the secondment, and illustrate these with concrete examples – what experience was acquired, skills gained, knowledge tested and so on.
Afterwards
Three to six months later, a further review will establish the long-term benefits: How is the experience gained during the secondment being put to use? Is there any continuing involvement on the part of the secondee with the community organisation? Is the secondee’s work bearing fruit?
The information gained through the evaluation can be used in planning and assessing the development needs of individuals and the whole organisation, and can also be widely communicated both internally and externally.
This guide to secondment evaluation was prepared by Action: Employees in the Community, which offers a consultancy service to companies on all aspects of employee community involvement. Action: Employees in the Community was recently formed from the merger of Action Resource Centre and BITC’s Employees in the Community campaign. For further information contact. David Hemsworth 071 629 2209
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