Two Minds Are Better Than One: The Key to Successful Job Shares

If the last 15 months or so have taught us anything with regards to work, it’s that having more flexibility has only been a good thing. In fact, research by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development suggests many organisations are completely re-thinking traditional ways of working and don’t plan to return to their pre-pandemic office structure any time soon.

Flexible working is in no way a recent concept, however. It has existed for a long time in many forms, one such form being job sharing. Job sharing refers to when one job role is divided up between (usually) two employees, effectively meaning they both work part-time to cover a full-time role between them. The employees mainly work different days, but many organisations include an ‘overlap day’ where both employees are working to allow them to discuss their work. A typical schedule for this may be: Employee A works Monday & Tuesday, both employee A and B work Wednesday, and then Employee B works Thursday & Friday.

I recently spoke to Marta Pajón-Fustes for Episode 13 of the ‘Why Care?’ podcast, and she mentioned a situation where two job sharers went for, and got, a promotion and how it was a positive experience for all involved. As you know from my support of the amazing work of Roleshare (listen to Episode 3 with Sophie Smallwood), I’m a huge advocate for job sharing. Marta’s positive perspective on this same topic provoked further thought on how it can be used as a powerful tool for inclusion at work.

How does it promote inclusion?

The reason job sharing has such powerful potential for inclusive work design is actually quite simple: people with certain diversity characteristics may need to work fewer hours but can do so whilst maintaining the level of job to which they are qualified. Often senior levels positions are advertised as full time only. So by partnering with someone who is of equal capability but also wants to work part time, the possibility to successfully achieve a full time role whilst meeting individual needs and reaping the benefits of two minds over one is clear.

Someone with time restraints may be a working parent, someone with caring responsibilities, someone who already volunteers/works for another organisation etc. Those with disabilities may either be physically unable to commit to a full working week, or a full week causes them stress, pain or exhaustion, affecting their ability to work.

Job sharing allows these individuals to work the right amount of hours to suit them, whilst also giving two people the opportunity to work in the place of one. This means people who may typically be unable to find part time work that is aligned to their qualifications and level can be in employed in a fulfilling job!

For more on the benefits of job sharing, you can read my article on “The Role of Job Sharing Post-Pandemic: Time to Embrace the Future”.

The key to successful job shares

Job shares have a bit of bad wrap from managerial perspectives of being more complex to manage than a single employee role. But as Marta explains during our podcast episode, this is outweighed by having two perspectives and brains in the role that challenge and stimulate each other to produce the best outcomes. The old adage comes to mind – “Two heads are better than one!”.

Marta and I spent some time in the episode discussing the design of an interview process for job sharers, particularly when in her example it was a promotion rather than a new hire. She outlined the process she and her team designed for this position which was to interview the candidates separately, as she would for any other role, then to interview them together and discuss how the job share would operate logistically. This allows you to make sure that both employees are on the same page about how they’d work together, which is essential for any successful job share. 

In fact, this article from the Wall Street Journal on the rise of job sharers receiving promotions, suggests job sharers get on the same page about more than just their current role. The article outlines various successful job sharers soaring up the corporate ladder, partly by making sure they outlined and mapped what they wanted their joint career path to look like. From all accounts it seems planning and transparency is the key to successful job sharing.

In most cases job sharing will likely be new for both the employees involved and your organisation, so there may be some teething issues at first. However, if the organisation supports the job share by maintaining transparency and with strong planning about the current, and future, expectations of the role for all parties involved, the benefits of job sharing will shine through.

How can I tell what roles or employees would benefit from a job share?

You may be wondering how you tell when a role or existing employee would benefit from being in a job share; the solutions are simpler than they seem. For existing employees, a job share solution could be one of the ways to resolve high level stress, burnout or minimise mental health issues. Similarly, it can just become a question that is asked in your organisation’s annual job reviews. Those who anticipate becoming, or have recently become, parents; or those who are contemplating retirement may find job sharing a viable solution to reducing their hours.

As for new roles you are hiring for, it can be listed on the job specification that you consider job sharing amongst flexible working policies. Ideally, all roles should be advertised as potential job shares from the get go.

Here at Avenir, we offer bespoke inclusion programmes to help you create a DEI strategy that is tailor-made to your organisation. As a part of this we can examine and help you create inclusive hiring strategies that account for flexible working like job shares, and help you identify where job shares may be beneficial in existing roles.

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