Breaking the status quo with job sharing
Can job sharing offer the best of both worlds, at work and at home?
Beyond the usual mentoring and leadership programmes, it’s often the most practical, that address the root of a problem, that are making an impact when it comes to boosting careers for women, especially those that have taken time out for family reasons.
The World Economic Forum, for instance, in this recent paper has identified one solution to the gender pay and seniority gap, which, as highlighted in research by the Association of British Insurers, equates to women earning 20 per cent less than men purely because of having children. Data from UK women’s rights charity Pregnant then Screwed expands on the situation further, showing that around 62% of women who return to work after having children either work fewer hours, change jobs or stop working, primarily because of childcare affordability, illustrating the impact on a woman’s career.
Photo by KOBU Agency on Unsplash
Job sharing (also known as role sharing), as the WEF acknowledges, can overcome some of the biggest challenges of post-parental leave career progression. For example, as the Pregnant then Screwed data points to, having to work at a lower level as part time senior roles are rare, then ultimately stagnating at that level until you concede it’s time to go back to full-time, even if that’s not what you want at that point in your life. It’s the reason I’ve covered it so much in my work - and wanted to dedicate this bumper newsletter edition to the topic - as it’s still hardly mainstream, yet can go a long way to solving such a significant issue.
Job sharing allows post-parental leave returners (and anyone really who wants to pursue other commitments outside of work) to essentially work part-time hours but in a full-time role that is shared with another person, usually three days a week each with one crossover day. They are performance managed and even promoted as one unit, so it’s that quintessential best of both worlds.
It’s gaining momentum as one way women can maintain the career seniority they’ve worked so hard for, while achieving the balance they need to fulfil other commitments outside of work (as I’m sure will resonate with many of you, women who go part-time after parental leave often either end up doing a full-time load anyway, or sacrificing their career development/seniority).
In covering the topic of job sharing extensively over the past year, I’ve met some incredible women who’ve proven that family doesn’t have to come at the cost of a career, and vice versa, which is equally important.
For example, the Open Banking Implementation Entity’s head of communications role was established as a job share in 2020. One of the job sharers, Sherelle Folkes, is a single parent who was looking for part-time roles, but struggled to find anything that reflected her 20 years+ experience, and ended up burnt out by full-time work. She describes job sharing as transformative to her career and life. She believes normalising role share is a key way to achieving greater gender diversity at a senior level and believes it should be an option for all jobs.
Meanwhile, Ellen Wilson and Helena Zaum previously shared a role at Microsoft, allowing them to navigate part-time work while raising small children and taking the path towards gradually going back up to four days and full-time. And there’s this edition’s Q&A subject, Sally Holden, who is in a job share as head of media for the disability charity Mencap, determined to be present for everything that’s important in her life, without compromising any of it.
As I said this is a bumper edition, so beyond Sally’s Q&A is advice for managers for overseeing a job share pair, from Sophie Smallwood, co-founder and co-CEO of job share partner matching platform Roleshare. Sophie was in senior roles at Facebook, Ebay and Trip Advisor before returning from her first parental leave. Keen to get the best out of both work and family life, she looked at job sharing but found it impossible to navigate finding the right partner and finding the right job to share - hence starting her startup (with her husband, who is ex Facebook and Paypal).
“I left my big tech job because Roleshare didn't exist. And then, I built it. There are millions out there like me, with and without kids (I've got two), who will quit because they want part-time availability with full-time ambition. And, equally, millions who won’t apply to full-time jobs for the same reason,” Sophie says.
“I didn’t believe you should sacrifice a career you love in exchange for a shorter work week.”
Don’t forget to read beyond Sally and Sophie’s features, as I’ve included all my articles to date on job sharing, which have appeared in the likes of Business Insider and The Daily Mail.
Is job sharing something you’d consider, or wished you’d known about when returning from parental leave? Let me know, I’d love to hear it.
“I can be fully present at work, and fully present with my family”: Q&A with Sally Holden, head of media at Mencap
Why are you in a job share?
Sally Holden (SH): When I came back to work in 2020 after having my son, my priorities had obviously shifted. To spend the time that I want to with him, it means I need to work less. But does that mean I want the work itself to be less stimulating, less challenging, or less rewarding? Absolutely not! Most of us work in communications roles because there is a buzz, a dynamism, an unpredictability about the job which motivates us. There are also opportunities to learn, develop and adapt on the job at every turn.
Job sharing at this senior level allows me to experience all of this when I'm working, but also to know that everything is in very capable hands when I'm not working. In all the other scenarios I considered - working part-time, taking on a less senior role, shifting away from comms - I felt I would have had to make compromises.
What work-life balance do you feel job sharing allows?
SH: I'm not sure I believe in women - or anyone for that matter - 'having it all'. I think that narrative adds unnecessary pressure. But thanks to job sharing, I can have a bit of all the things that are important to me. I can be fully present at work, and fully present with my family. Of course there's a need for flexibility (for example - when there's a global pandemic...!), but when you have a job share partner and a manager who really believe in this way of working, and offer their full support, that comes easily and without fuss.
Did you look at other options, like freelancing?
SH: Freelancing is actually a really commonplace and really appealing option in our sector, but personally my style of work is that I love to bounce ideas around and can sometimes lack a bit of confidence. It might be something I consider in future, but feel for now that the security of the job share feels really comfortable.
What tech tools do you use to stay on top of everything with your job share partner?
SH: To be honest, we're not very high-tech at all! We use Microsoft OneNote for our handover document which is useful as you can categorise tabs, colour code things, etc, and can also lockdown certain sections with passwords.
We haven't looked into further resources/tech to make our job more seamless but would definitely benefit - there are some really bespoke processes and challenges for job shares, eg. handovers, shared to do lists, shared priority settings, updates from team etc which I'm sure could benefit from tools which are designed specifically for these purposes. There is a lot of 'starting from scratch' in these areas that I think tech could really help with. You rely more heavily on these tools and processes than usual and even the smallest change to format can really make a difference to how you work. They'd need to be flexible to adapt to particular preferences, of course.
You’ve had to find maternity cover for your original job share partner. How did you do that?
SH: We went down standard recruitment routes because we didn't want to limit ourselves to job share sites or tools in case we missed someone who was skilled in our field but hadn't thought of job sharing before - because I don't think enough people are necessarily seeking it out.
I really hope that the more familiar people are with this way of working, the more available it will become as an option. I hope this will encourage more employers to open their minds to this type of flexible working.
Overall how have you found the experience of job sharing?
SH: Job sharing has been such a revelation - there are a whole host of benefits as well as the important work-life balance it allows. Job sharing is absolutely brilliant for this stage of my life and career - I couldn’t recommend it more.
Four tips for managers overseeing a job share, from Roleshare co-CEO and co-founder, Sophie Smallwood
By considering role share – opening full-time roles to joint part-time candidates – managers can retain talent, but also include overlooked clusters of talent for their roles. It's growing knowledge that diverse teams perform better. McKinsey research shows that "companies in the top quartile for diverse leadership teams outperformed less diverse peers on profitability”. The same is true for a micro-team like a role share.
Whether a manager is hiring externally for a role share or enabling it for existing employees, here is advice based on qualitative interviews conducted by Roleshare.
Don’t get stuck on headcount and costs. A roleshare is 1.2x a headcount, not 2 headcounts. HR professionals have creative ways of solving this – like looking at talent budget vs headcount. Holidays are earned pro rata and yes, you’re getting incremental costs on equipment, and in some cases health, dental, life insurance, but you’re gaining 2x the value in years of experience, and also gaining on skills, continuity, output, performance, and perspective. We’ve interviewed countless professionals in a role share who said they performed at their best in this arrangement.
Ask for a plan. To ensure seamlessness, clarity, and direction within the role share, their core and greater team, external partners, and of course you, the manager, a role share pair should present a joint vision and plan. It should be part of the interview process. The same applies with existing talent, before formalising the arrangement. The plan would include their vision, operational model (things like how they’ll handle communication, meetings, division and tracking of work and projects, etc.), and working principles (things like Immediate Feedback, Being Flexible, Giving Recognition, Handling Disagreements – like their version of the 10 commandments). Roleshare.com has free templates available for anyone looking to make their case to managers for a role share.
Manage the role, not the pair. Set your expectations and desired metrics for the role as you would normally. Treat the role as one person with one weekly 1:1 about the role, your performance review would be of the pair in the role, supplemented by any individual development feedback. You can also alternate a weekly individual 1:1 to talk about their personal growth, development, and aspirations. Based on interviews we’ve conducted, rolesharers are relatively self managed – their weekly handover, frequent communication, and a sense of responsibility they feel toward their partner is a real performance motivator and natural checks and balances. They normally really want to make the arrangement work, and that includes for their manager too. Now, as with any diverse team, it takes them a little longer to get into a groove, but once they do, this leads to a higher quality of output.
Don’t let fear guide your decision. Fear of being exposed, making a bad hiring decision. The pair will want to make it work even more than you do. With a roleshare you get employees with focused energy and higher levels of wellbeing. You have diversity of thought in a role that normally would not have it to that degree. You have business continuity. Even if one person leaves the company, you still have the skills insurance from the other; you can also bet he or she will want the best possible talent to join the team. Sharing a role is for those who care the most – they’re highly ambitious in work and in life. By opening roles only for full-time candidates, you’re missing out on a huge cluster of diverse and qualified talent.
Read more about the business benefits of job sharing here.
More from me on job sharing:
‘The marketers making job sharing work’: One job, two people: welcome to the world of job sharing and its potential to bridge marketing’s gender pay gap.
‘How job sharing is boosting careers for women in tech’: The tech industry can only benefit from attracting and retaining more women, but some companies still miss the value of supporting job-sharing.
‘A single mother and a consultant break down the three key rules that helped them make their job sharing a success’: Job sharing, which can boost female representation in senior jobs, has grown 35% in the UK since 2012. Two women set out to Insider the three key pillars everyone should follow to make it work.
‘The perfect work-life balance?’: Job sharing could see the end of burnout and lead to more women in senior roles.
‘How to harness the rise in job sharing’: Job sharing has the potential to be a leveller of workplace gender equality, but current statistics tell a different tale. So what’s holding it back?
This approach is genius. I wonder if we can implement it for internal services functions such as comms, HR, and legal first.