Internal secondment letter

If you agree that an employee can temporarily work elsewhere in your business, use our letter to confirm the terms of their internal secondment.

External or internal secondment?

If you reach an agreement with an external third party that one of your employees will work for that third party for a temporary period under contract while still continuing in your employment, you can use our Secondment Agreement. However, where the secondment is simply an internal one, that agreement isn’t suitable, so use our Internal Secondment Letter. An internal secondment might be used, say, to cover for staff absence in another team or department or to enable the employee to gain experience in another area of your business or to learn new skills. Whatever the reason for it, you should only second an employee with their express consent as it will involve a temporary change to their existing terms and conditions of employment, even if that’s only in respect of their job title and reporting line. Where you’re looking to implement a secondment, do also ensure that your process for selecting secondees is fair, transparent and non-discriminatory.

Internal secondment letter

Our letter sets out the terms of the employee’s internal secondment, including the start and end dates, job title, place of work, hours of work, reporting line and any salary changes. Make sure you clearly set out any terms of the internal secondment that differ from the employee’s current terms and conditions of employment, as otherwise our letter states that, in all other respects, their current terms and conditions remain unchanged. Our letter also outlines what will happen to the employee at the end of the internal secondment, i.e. they’ll return to their permanent role and revert to their previous terms and conditions as they applied before the secondment (subject to any pay review that may have taken place in the meantime). Finally, our letter asks the employee to sign and return an acceptance slip to signify their written consent to the terms of the secondment. You can simply send out a duplicate copy of your letter here so the employee can sign and return that copy.