Job Sharing

Considerations
Communication

The practice of job sharing is fairly new in Singapore, and organisations who adopt this practice may choose to draft informational handouts to inform employees of job share opportunities.  Employers should include the objectives, eligibility criteria and desired outcomes of the job share arrangement.

Regular communication is essential to ensure the working dynamics between employees on the job sharing arrangement and their co-workers is positive.  Therefore, department meetings should be scheduled on days where the employees overlap, where applicable.  It is also important that job sharing teams on a shared responsibility strategy communicate frequently with each other.

A job sharer must also be able to communicate in a timely manner with clients of fellow job sharers when on duty.  This is essential as clients should not be expected to change their schedules to suit the job sharer’s, and would also be expecting the same level of service from any employee who communicates with them.


Characteristics of Successful Job Sharers
  • Individual traits
    • Good communication skills
    • Agreeable personality
    • Strong team player
    • Loyalty to the company
    • Values job

  • Job sharing team traits
    • Similar positive personality traits, e.g. both are agreeable, responsible, etc.
    • Able to work both independently and in a group
    • Complementary abilities and knowledge of product / service
    • Complementary and consistent working habits / styles
    • Similar or compatible grade level (i.e. experience, seniority, etc.)

Job descriptions

After selecting a prospective job share team, the organisation should get clear expectations for the new job share position by providing job descriptions and guidelines.

When two job sharers at the same grade level are jointly responsible for all the duties and responsibilities of one full-time position
  • There is no need to restructure position
  • Each team member should have a copy of the original position description with an attached statement to show that the incumbent is a job sharer jointly responsible for carrying out all the duties and responsibilities of the position

When the job sharers are individually responsible for portions of the job, or when the job sharers are at different grade levels:
  • Separate position descriptions are required to reflect actual duties and responsibilities of each employee
  • Each job sharer must have a position description that accurately reflects his or her duties and responsibilities

The role of immediate supervisors

A job share team should report to the same supervisor and if the new job scope is similar to their previous job scope, they should report to their previous supervisor who may have better understanding of the needs of the team.

Supervisors play an important role in the dynamics in each job share team as well as their co-workers. Therefore, the organisation should also look into training in work-life effectiveness for the supervisors of job sharing employees.


Absences

The management should also discuss how vacations, absenteeism and sick leaves may be covered. Points to consider:
  • To what extent would the above be covered by another co-worker in the same department
  • To what extent would the above be covered by the fellow job sharer
  • Determine the pay he/she (job sharer) receives for working on an off day

A possible solution especially in the case of absences not due to sickness (e.g. unpaid leave) would be getting a fellow job sharer to switch work days with the employee on leave.


Performance evaluation

To ensure the performance is not compromised, the organisation can also set performance standards for each job sharing team and reward job sharers individually / as a team where appropriate. For example:
  • Individual Evaluation
    • Specific role, e.g. training fellow job sharer

  • Joint Evaluation
    • For shared tasks and responsibilities to promote teamwork

It is important that supervisors use the same evaluation standards for each employee to avoid biasness in their evaluation.


Shared space and equipment

In organisations where there is sufficient office space and equipment available, job sharers should be given individual job stations and equipment, especially in instances of heavy client load or access to confidential / sensitive information. This will help increase efficiency and reduce time spent searching for client files in a shared work space.

However, if this is not possible where space is an issue, the management should set strict guidelines for job sharers to respect shared space and equipment to maintain a positive team environment. It can also consider allowing telecommuting to reduce the need for a physical office station.