Secondment being made permanent

bobblebob

Bit of background. I work in the NHS and few years ago was offered a promotion on a 6 month secondment. 3 month in they offered me it on a permanant basis and changed my contract to a substantive one.

Friend also in the NHS had similar situation, but she was told she would need to apply like everyone else for her own job to be made permanent, as they had to follow due process and give everyone a chance to apply

So fast forward a few years im now currently on a 12 month secondment thats more money with 2 other people in the same role. Management have said they're happy with all 3 of us, but may only have the budget next year to keep 2 of us on a permanent basis. So my question is how do secondments work? Can management pick who they want out of us 3, or does it have to go through an interview process?

Seems between me and my friend we have been on the receiving end of both scenarios

LinLui

Provided they do not break the law,  it is up to the employer how they select. They could pick. They could interview (which may not be that different).

TELLIT01

As LinLui implies, going through a formal interview process may be utterly meaningless.  If they have a preferred candidate before the interview it's likely that person will be given the job.

bobblebob

Thanks both. Will just have to wait and see

DullGreyGuy

As long as they aren't selecting based on protected characteristics (sexual orientation, religion, race etc) then the law says they can go through whatever process they want to select who gets a perm job from simply the manager making their choice to a 10 round interview and assessment process open to internal and external applicants. 

Some companies/organisations do have internal rules which may limit their options however as these aren't legally required some will either allow exceptions or allow it to be just lip service. Many years ago I was offered a secondment, relocation allowance and promised a perm job after if it went well. During the 6 months the "Director of" that had made the offer had moved onto another job and his former boss (the CxO) said he knew the offer was made but it broke company rules so 1) the secondment would be extended 2) an interview process would be held 3) if I was successful any pay rise would be backdated to the end of the original secondment. 

What then happened was a pure lip service thing... they did advertise the job after a few more months, but only for 1 week and only for internal applicants. They decided to only interview me plus one other. They told me at the end of the interview that I was the successful candidate. Waste of time for everyone really, false hope to others but we followed the rules and so the CxO was happy. 

bobblebob

DullGreyGuy said:

As long as they aren't selecting based on protected characteristics (sexual orientation, religion, race etc) then the law says they can go through whatever process they want to select who gets a perm job from simply the manager making their choice to a 10 round interview and assessment process open to internal and external applicants. 

Some companies/organisations do have internal rules which may limit their options however as these aren't legally required some will either allow exceptions or allow it to be just lip service. Many years ago I was offered a secondment, relocation allowance and promised a perm job after if it went well. During the 6 months the "Director of" that had made the offer had moved onto another job and his former boss (the CxO) said he knew the offer was made but it broke company rules so 1) the secondment would be extended 2) an interview process would be held 3) if I was successful any pay rise would be backdated to the end of the original secondment. 

What then happened was a pure lip service thing... they did advertise the job after a few more months, but only for 1 week and only for internal applicants. They decided to only interview me plus one other. They told me at the end of the interview that I was the successful candidate. Waste of time for everyone really, false hope to others but we followed the rules and so the CxO was happy. 

Thank you. Yea happens alot in the NHS too. You basically know who will get the job just by who applies, even before shortlisting as management know who they want but just follow process.

It is annoying and often gets brought up on staff surveys because its just wasting peoples time. And interviews are stressful enough without knowing you really dont stand a chance