Secondment Request Letter

When and how to use this letter

A secondment request is really two requests: permission to leave your team and permission to join another. Your letter must therefore reassure both sides. Reassure your manager first — coverage, handover, and a defined return date — because a manager who fears losing you permanently will block the move quietly.

Sell the development angle hard. Secondments exist to build skills and perspective, so name exactly what you will learn: new processes, stakeholder management, a different market. Then connect it back: explain how that learning serves your home team when you return. A secondment that benefits only you reads as a holiday; one that benefits both teams reads as investment.

Get the mechanics in writing before you start. Who pays your salary, who appraises you, what your grade is during the secondment, and — most importantly — your guaranteed right to return to an equivalent role. The non-obvious tip: set a return-date review meeting in your calendar before you leave. Secondments have a habit of extending informally until the return becomes awkward; a pre-scheduled review keeps the arrangement honest on both sides.

Propose a handover plan in the letter itself. Naming who covers your work and offering to train them turns your manager's biggest objection into a solved problem before it is raised.

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