Successful job sharing is just that, an art form. You must get all the right components aligned; the people, the job, the organisation, the attitude and you can create a work of art. It is more Picasso than Rembrandt, in that things at first may appear disjointed yet once it works, it is a masterpiece: you end up with seamless, professional delivery and individual and organisational success.
Let’s start with the odd maths behind the concept. That is, 1 +1 = 1. Job sharing is about two people doing the one job. It can’t just be any two people. This is one of the main keys to success.
The people that do job share have to be real partners. They have to complement each other, trust one another and have the same work ethic and passion for success. It is not the same as part time work and only works for the internal and external clients, if it is seamless and the partners always work as one person.
Job sharing allows an organisation access to an untapped market. Highly experienced people who enjoy working, are highly experienced in the role so they know how to do the job, have a very high degree of work efficiency and have proven ability to get results.
Do they need to share all parts of the job? Operationally and day to day yes, projects sometimes, management not necessarily. Again it is about the people and the attitude and combinations of more senior and less experienced people or one being a manager of the team and the other a team member, can all work, with the right combination of personalities
Can it be in any role, discipline and company? If you get it right, yes it can. So how do you get it right and what makes it a success? Using the Moir Group values, I will demonstrate this:
Partnership and Persistence
- The right people who have the same work ethic and trust each other is the key. Competition between job share partnerships is a big no and a similar persistence to succeed is a must.
- You must have access to each others emails to partner properly and you only need to worry about the emails on your working days.
- Best to have a cross over day if possible and challenge is to optimise this day with your partner.
Rigour
- It is essential that all days of the week are covered. It is important no one else in the organisation feels they have to cover for any gaps.
- Communication is the key and everything needs to be detailed in a hand over email and you must use the database properly and record everything, so nothing is missed.
- Must have remote access so, even if you have to leave early, you can finish things off and be responsible for completion on your days.
Care and Passion:
- Must share successes and disappointments no matter who starts and finishes the sale, project or task.
- Can still be an individual as far as professional development and internal and external projects go.
- Must share the same care and passion for your clients, candidates and internal business partners.
All this has been proven in the Contracting and Temporary division at Moir Group. Here we have built up a team of highly experienced and successful consultants and six of our team members job share with each other. They have over 70 years of recruitment experience between them and contribute extensively to the growing success of the Moir Group.
The job share experience for Moir started in 2009. The goal was to build our interim business from a starting point of one contractor we had on the books in Brisbane to the highly successful and diverse national contracting and temporary business Moir Group has today.
Seamless delivery is the key as well as team work internally and high work ethic of the partners. The team is made up of focussed consultants, some of whom have young families and can only work short days, who use remote office access and their strong desire to succeed, to make it work.
The overall attitude of the business executive team and the other consultants at Moir, who work full time, is also essential to success. The team at Moir support the model because it has proven success. It allows the whole organisation to partner with experienced colleagues and have a great diversity of experience to work with and learn from.
I hope this has helped paint the picture for you and I’m happy to share the experience and answer any questions about how to make the most of job sharing within your organisation and profession. I believe if done properly, job sharing can work no matter what the discipline, the organisation or the level of role you have and the benefits to all concerned are endless.
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