Job sharing as a way of working is on the rise, yet still a concept that is alien to many...leading to lots of questions about how it works. What are the practicalities? Do you share all the elements of the role? How and what do you handover? How is your performance managed? How do you ensure that you have coverage across all work and client interactions? The list of unknowns can seem endless. At The Job Share Pair, we demystify the nuts and bolts of job sharing and provide you with all the tools you need to make it work. Having worked as job sharers ourselves at board level as HR directors, we understand the day-to-day logistics of how to manage a transition into a job share, plan for various eventualities and set the organisation and job sharers up for success. With that in mind, here are five key areas you need to focus on to make a job share work.
1. Over communicate and
obsess over your handover
For
success within a job share, you need to be seamless. Without clear and open
communication and watertight handovers, the job sharing arrangement will be
ineffective and vulnerable to criticism. The handover is an essential part of
your working week, but need not be laborious. Our advice would be to make it
structured, focus on the ‘need to knows’ and give clear handover instructions.
We use voice memos to give an overview of the week and, importantly, we give
the tone of the week, providing any achievements or concerns to discuss during
our cross over time. We listen before our first day of our working week and it
truly sets us up for the week, with it feeling as though we’ve worked the full
week from an information perspective!
2. Protect your
boundaries
Set
your boundaries, uphold them for each other, communicate them with your
stakeholders and protect them by sticking to them. If you don’t, not only will
this undermine the job share arrangement and provide a risk of burnout, but
blurring these lines will confuse your stakeholders. Responsibility for action
lies with the individual working that day or the issue can be managed on a
robust and detailed handover. Your job share partner is well equipped and
experienced to handle all that may arise, and if not? They have your number.
3. Market yourselves as
one
We
over-communicate, present a united front at all times, understand our joint and
individual responsibilities, market ourselves as one and are consistent in our
messaging and language...We. Us. Our. From the outside, we are one, accepting
shared praise and critique as a pair.
4. Embrace evolution
Seek
feedback on how your partnership is working from all stakeholders. It is
important to commit to time together to reflect and review your partnership to
allow you to be the most effective you can be. Our partnership has truly
evolved over time...we have learnt how to capitalise on each other’s strengths
and believe we have mastered the art of the handover!
5. Get support
We
offer coaching and consultancy services, using our combined 25 years of corporate HR experience and our practical understanding as senior job sharers ourselves.
For more information,
go to The Job Share Pair, follow
@thejobsharepair on Instagram or contact us at hello@thejobsharepair.com to
discuss your bespoke needs.