Friday, April 4, 2008

Job sharing a flexible option for full time roles

Job sharing is certainly being considered and implemented more as the skills shortage tightens. Not all roles can be part time, so when there is a tight labour market and a strong demand for work flexibility, it is a viable solution to keeping the role on in a full time capacity.

Is it popular? Not at the moment. Organisations may specify job share as one alternative in offering flexible work arrangements in their workplace policy, but it does not always equate to actual work practices. Generally, managers are not equipped to manage flexible work arrangements. Job share success stories tend to generate from the actual employees who approach their manager with a business case to work in a job share role.

The potential for job share roles to become more common in organisations is enormous. They key to a successful job share arrangement is good communication between both employees, a period of cross-over, and a similar level of skills and experience. If organisations kept an internal database of candidates (current employees) who require work flexibility, they will potentially be more successful at matching a strong job share partnership. This way, the organisation can retain knowledge, skills and expertise. Furthermore, the employee’s flexibility needs are met, the role is still classified as full time, and the organisation saves on recruitment costs.

Start building your business case.

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