Claire Millar, Rogan Weeple and Maria Niedzwiecka all treasure a special memory that will stay with them forever: huddling around a campfire in the Cape York National Park. “Exchanging campfire stories with people I’d known for only 48 hours was one of the best things about the secondment,” Claire says. Maria agrees: “Camping under the stars in the Cape York Peninsula was one of the best experiences ever. The friendships I’ve developed from this experience will probably last me a lifetime.”

Claire, Maria and Rogan - who work with professional services firm KPMG - were on a five-week secondment to Far North Queensland. Claire and Rogan travelled to Aurukun to provide advisory services to a charter boat company while Maria visited Gordonvale, where she helped develop a set of marketing collateral for their local indigenous college.

These secondments were part of KPMG’s Corporate Citizenship partnership with non-profit organisation Indigenous Enterprise Partnerships (IEP). KPMG encourages its employees to get involved in the community as part of its Corporate Citizenship vision to bring innovation and compassion to critical social issues. The firm’s partnership with IEP is one way of realising that vision. KPMG employees have the opportunity to make a difference by contributing their professional skills and expertise to help build the capacity of indigenous organisations through this unique secondment program. The secondments generate a deeper understanding of indigenous culture and some of the issues facing indigenous communities.

Rogan, a senior manager in KPMG’s Risk Advisory Services practice, says he has always been interested in community work but was waiting for the right opportunity. “As a South African, I’ve lived and dealt with racial, social and cultural challenges so making a difference to the community has always been important to me,” he says. “When the opportunity for this secondment came up, I went straight for it.”

KPMG’s National Attraction and Resourcing Manager, Christine Childs, says this is an increasing trend in employees. "In addition to attractive benefits, career paths and stimulating work, employees are increasingly seeking out organisations that enable them to contribute positively to the community,” she says. “Programs such as this one not only provide valuable support to the community, they also enrich the lives of individual participants and the organisation they work for.”

Maria, who works with a client service team in KPMG, feels the firm’s partnership with IEP made it possible for her to get involved with the indigenous community. “I could not have done this on my own,” she says. “There wouldn’t have been any support in place. Before we went off to our assigned locations, we were taught skills that were essential to the placement. For instance, we learnt about indigenous culture, what we could or could not do. We also undertook lessons on how to drive properly in the bush. It’s not something I thought I needed to know until I realised how dangerous and difficult this can be!”

Maria was initially concerned that management would not be supportive of her application for the secondment. But her fears were unfounded. “Everyone, from the lead partner to my co-workers all thought it was an excellent idea.” Claire was also impressed by the level of KPMG’s commitment even after her secondment ended. “I was impressed that the firm was offering this sort of opportunity, even more so when they decided to expand it,” she says. “The work we do does make a difference so offering this on a larger scale will definitely produce positive results.”

IEP’s Corporate Partnerships Director, Lyn Snailham, believes the program has been a success so far. “The indigenous organisations that the KPMG participants worked with got an enormous amount of value from this partnership,” Lyn says. “Through the expertise of the participants, these organisations have now achieved outcomes that they were struggling with for a long time.

“This partnership is not for the faint-hearted. It takes a great amount of corporate will for organisations to work through issues that inevitably crop up and KPMG has demonstrated that it will stay committed.”

Amazingly, when asked if they would consider another secondment all three participants chorused without hesitation: “In a heartbeat!”