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 Considerations
For the employers
The organisation’s HR team will have to decide on an ideal strategy based on the combination of both business goals and employee needs, i.e. Shared Responsibility or Divided Responsibility.
Example 1 – Shared Responsibility
| Employee A |
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Employee B |
- Personal Assistant to Director
- High level job grade
- Many years of experience in the job position
- Oversees and trains new Personal Assistants
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- Personal Assistant to Manager X
- Junior level job grade
- Fresh graduate with (1 year of experience)
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Under the Job Sharing arrangement, both Employees A & B would be Personal Assistants to the Director. Employee A would work on Tuesday and Thursday while Employee B would work on Wednesday and Friday. To ensure a seamless transition and co-ordination of tasks, there would be an overlap on Monday when both employees come in to work to sort out the Director’s schedule and activities for the week ahead.
In the initial week(s), Employee A would oversee and train Employee B in her new role; while Employee B would train her replacement as the Personal Assistant to Manager X (i.e. previous post).
Example 2 – Divided Responsibility
| Employee A |
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Employee B |
- Experienced Account Manager for S.E.A.
Sales
- Supervise salesmen dealing with S.E.A. clients
- Senior job grade
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- Experienced Account Manager for Singapore
Sales
- Supervise salesmen dealing with Singapore clients
- Senior job grade
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Unlike Example 1 above where both jobs are on-going, Employees C and D’s jobs are client-focused. Therefore a strategy based on divided responsibility may be more appropriate for this instance.
Under the job sharing arrangement, both Employees C & D would be Account Managers for S.E.A. Sales. Employee C would supervise salesmen dealing with Malaysian and Indonesian clients and work on Monday, Wednesday and Friday on Weeks 1 & 3, and on Tuesday and Thursday on Weeks 2 & 4. Employee D would supervise salesmen dealing with Thai and Vietnamese clients and work on Tuesday and Thursday on Weeks 1 & 3, and on Monday, Wednesday and Friday on Weeks 2 & 4.
In the initial Week(s), Employee C would perform a handover of the Thai and Vietnamese portfolio while Employee D would train his replacement Account Manager for Singapore Sales (i.e. previous post).
Although Employees C & D work quite independently in this example, they would still meet periodically (e.g. after their department meetings or individual meetings with supervisor, etc.) to discuss client needs and ensure that both groups of clients are receiving the same high quality of service.
Attached is a sample checklist on issues to consider before implementing Job Sharing.
As the number of hours worked may lead the employees to fall into the part-time work category, it is very important for the senior management to be aware of the legal requirements and regulations set forth for part-time employment by the government, before embarking on the prospective arrangements with employees.
Please refer to the Ministry of Manpower’s website for more details on employment regulations:
http://www.mom.gov.sg/publish/momportal/en/communities/workplace_standards/
employment_standards/the_employment_act/Part-time_Employment.html
If the barriers to job sharing cannot be resolved, the organisation / employee may consider other types of flexible work arrangements.
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