Can You Job Share at a Senior Level
There are many benefits to a senior job share. A steadily growing number of employers are starting to consider allowing their employees to job share at senior level to allow for greater flexibility in more demanding positions. In recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in job shares, which could see more agile job designs in the future.
All it takes for a job share to work is an open-minded employer who is prepared to try something new. When there are two people willing to split a job equally, there shouldn’t be any issues other than the willingness of the company and the individuals’ employer to let both people work part-time and complete tasks for the same senior level job.
Part-time and flexible contracts have been a popular employment choice for years. These kinds of contracts allow employees to fit their non-work responsibilities, hobbies, and other commitments around their job. Thanks to these types of contracts, workers who don’t need to work full-time to pay their bills, people with more than one job, self-employed individuals who need extra cash, and even students, can work a set number of hours without succumbing to exhaustion or overwork.
When it comes to the benefits of senior job share contracts, the reasons behind individuals wanting to share their workload is very much the same; they don’t want or need to work a full-time contract and are happy to share their job with another.
The flexibility to work from home or have a second pair of hands working the same job has the potential to help many individuals struggling to fit their typical day-to-day life around a full-time contract. In the UK alone, 8.5 million people were in part-time employment between December 2017 and February 2018. Those months are especially ripe for temporary Christmas contracts, where workers will be hired on part-time contracts for a few, busy seasonal months, before their contracts come to an end. But that figure isn’t all “Christmas temps”, job sharers are included in that figure, as are standard part-time contracts.
Job sharing has the potential to be an attractive option for senior workers who want to balance their career with other priorities. Not every employee fits into the traditional Monday to Friday nine to five contract. Flexibility and job sharing are the answer to covering high-stress positions. Another benefit of senior job share contracts is allowing a business to use the role to progress their employees in their career – in case they feel that the employee isn’t entirely ready to take on a full-time contract.
Job sharing in a senior role means that someone else is there; it’s that simple. Your workload still progresses while you’re not there, and you can come back to the office knowing that things have been taken care of while you’ve been away.
Not only is it possible to job share at senior level, it would actually be more beneficial to a willing company and the two (or more) employees involved. The employees sharing the senior position have another trained individual to bounce ideas off of and share their experiences and successes with. Although this small team of people will often work together, they should still be approached as two halves of the one role; it’s their job to communicate between themselves regarding their role. The employer needs to be confident enough to supervise and appraise two people that are completing one job.
In conclusion, the benefits of a senior job share could actually outweigh having just one person completing the duties that the position requires.
