Found on www.247Advisor.com
Workplace Trends: Job Sharing
By Julie Gerstein
Dec 26, 2005, 21:43
Touted as the future of the work place in the early 90s, job-sharing—when two employees split the responsibilities, tasks and hours of one full-time position—hasn’t caught on at the same speed as flex-time, but nevertheless is an option for many working people. There is no Labor Department legislation on job-sharing, and job-sharing arrangements are typically made between employees and their employers.
Job-sharing works well for many employees with children, but others choose it because they’re attending courses, going through medical treatments, must care for family members or simply need to scale back their work commitments.
Employers benefit too. Job-sharing enables employers to attract talented people who, for personal or family reasons, are unable or unwilling to manage a full-time workload.
How does it work? There are three types of job-sharing set-ups.
1. Shared responsibility. There is no division of duties and job-share partners are interchangeable. This works well for jobs where the work flows continuously. It demands a high level of communication and coordination ––and requires that partners be well-matched.
2. Divided responsibility. Each partner has his or her own case-load or project, which they focus on during working hours. If the partners don't know each other well, this can be a suitable way to arrange the job-share.
3. Unrelated responsibility. Job-sharing partners perform completely separate tasks, while working in the same department. It's rather like two part-time jobs running in tandem and fits situations where the partners have different skills.
No matter what type of job-sharing plan you and your employees decide to implement, there should be clear and concise job descriptions created for both people in the job-sharing scenario.
In order to best implement a job-sharing relationship in your company, you should examine the position description and decide which tasks should be shared. Typically job-sharers divide a full-time position equally, and there is some overlap so that communication can occur between the job-sharers about the status of projects and responsibilities. Generally job-sharing requires a great deal of planning and organization up front in order to make it work. Both members of the job-sharing team should be evaluated separately and relatively.
For more information about job-sharing, got to the Federal Office of Personnel Management.
© Copyright 247Advisor.com.
Visit www.247Advisor.com for hundreds of articles to help and resources to help you with your small business.