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.