Professional Development Placement Program

LGMA offers a Professional Development Placement Program. This is one of the LGMA initiatives aimed at supporting the retention and development of quality employees in the local government sector.

Ongoing discussions with Queensland councils have identified that there is a high risk to councils of losing talented and valued officers due to limited capacity to offer targeted development opportunities, including shadowing experienced officers from other councils or acting in higher or different roles. Inter-council secondments and learning activities have been recognised as a valuable enhancement to employment and employee retention in local government.

The Professional Development Placement Program will offer two streams.

Shadowing

Short-term, on the job employee development
One officer observes (shadows) another officer at a different council

Secondment

Coordinates short-term to 12-month opportunities to relieve a vacancy in another council
Secondment undertaken through agreement between two councils

Both program streams aim to:

Broaden the skills and experience of local government officers in Queensland
Provide opportunities which may not be available to an officer within their own council
Assist councils in filling short- to medium-term vacancies
Assist councils to access skills and competencies that may not be readily available within existing officer cohorts
Encourage skilled officers to be retained in the local government sector
Build cross-council networks

View Placement Program Brochure for further information.

The Shadowing Program

The Shadowing Program is a short-term, on-the-job employee development activity in which one officer observes (shadows) another officer at a different council in order to learn from them. Job shadowing allows an officer to gain comprehensive knowledge about another role and what that role entails daily. Each experience will be different, however, typically the observing officer will follow an employee and observe them partaking in their day-to-day work.

Shadowing Program Requirements

Shadowing Program Forms

LGMA Placement Program - Shadowing Application Form

The Secondment Program

The Secondment Program coordinates short-term to 12-month relieving opportunities between a council with a staffing vacancy and a council officer from a different council who could fill that vacancy. Secondments are an agreement between two councils whereby the home council ‘lends’ an employee to another council (the ‘seconding’ council) for a stated period.

Secondment Program Process

To facilitate secondments between councils, LGMA will:

Promote secondment opportunities and coordinate the receipt of nominations for secondment; and
Provide participating councils with generic agreements for the secondment of officers.

To formalise the process the following procedures will occur: