As a manager, it's never fun when a valued team member steps away, whether it be for personal reasons, the likes of flexbility or burn out, or to explore new projects. If you saw this coming, what could you have done differently? And if you didn't see it coming, how can you gain more visibility into these things ahead of time? The pressure of having to hire and onboard somebody new can be overwhelming and distracting for a manager.
There is a solution to all of the above: Job sharing.
A job share, at its most basic, is when two employees share the responsibilities of one full-time job. For example, if a member of your team wanted go part-time, you could help set up a job share where each person works three days a week instead of five. Job shares can be an excellent way to accommodate employee requests for reduced hours while still maintaining continuity on your team. A job share is not only a great way to keep your current employees, but it's also an opportunity to find new top talent that may have been hidden before.
There are platforms that specialize in making job sharing possible for companies. Roleshare's Platform, for example, enables companies to retain employees by matching them to share jobs together or with Roleshare's own talent community of professionals looking to work part-time in a job share. If you've never done this before, though, it can be confusing where to start. Here's a step-by-step guide to creating a job share on your team:
1. Talk to your team members about the possibility of job sharing.
2. Identify which roles on your team could be candidates for job sharing.
3. Point interested employees to the Roleshare Candidate Guide to have them create a job share plan for you.
4. Present the proposals to your boss or HR department for approval.
5. Once approved, implement the job share arrangement. You might wonder if it's more work for you to manage a job share, it shouldn't if they set up their plan in advance (see point 3).
6. Check in with the employees to ensure that the arrangement is working well for everyone involved.
7. Support adjustments as necessary to ensure that the job share is successful.
For more tips, check out this free guide on setting up a job share from Roleshare.
