Staffing Trade-offs – Job Sharing
Job sharing is a full-time job split between two part-time employees, each responsible for completing work goals (01). Pay and benefits are distributed equally between the job partners, and they may each work for half a day or work alternate days or weeks as needed or desired.
What Are the Advantages of Job Sharing?
For the Company
- You gain two sets of creativity, brains, enthusiasm and employees committed to the success of the company (02).
- Reduction in absenteeism and tardiness because of the flexibility offered.
- Job share partners provide coverage for each other to deal with family matters and other personal issues. Collaboration and exchange of ideas between partners enhances output (03).
For the Employees
- Employees experiencing work-life balance effectively contribute when they work as they are less stressed (02).
- Job sharing benefits employees who want to take up leisure activities and also stay in touch with family and friends.
What Are the Disadvantages of Job Sharing?
For the Company
- Communication: effective communication between each job sharer is critical since they need to cover for each other (03).
- Resentment among employees: Full-time employees sometimes accuse job sharers of working less hard because they put in fewer hours.
- Scheduling challenges for training and meetings.
For the Employees
- Necessary compromises on personal preferences ranging from record-keeping methods to the items kept in the desk between job sharers (04).
- A job sharer, who is more industrious or skilled than the other, may begrudge that imbalance especially if the income of both partners is the same.
- The job share will not work if the job share partners do not genuinely like and trust each other and can work together well.
Employment Discrimination of Job Sharing
Although job sharing improves work management and family responsibilities and also leverage the skills and experiences of two part-time instead of one full-time employee, it has been identified to increase training cost as two employees, instead of one, have to be trained to fill a job (03). Nonetheless, in many organizations, an individual’s decision to take a job-sharing position is counted as a low commitment to career and organization, thereby leading to reduced opportunities for advancement and training. Employees involved in job sharing also experienced higher levels of sex discrimination than full-time employees.
Some job sharers have reported job sharing as a demanding experience as they had the feeling they had to accomplish a full-time job on a part-time schedule (05). Also, organizations interested in implementing job sharing face various costs and benefits of program implementation. Usually, both job sharers receive benefits, leading to increased benefits costs if services such as health insurance have to be provided to more than one employee. Personnel administration costs also rise if job sharing is in place. This cost is caused by pay and benefits needing to be provided to two employees instead of one.
Conclusion
Job sharing can lead to a competitive advantage for an organization, exploiting both full time and part-time labor markets. It also provides opportunities for successful management of work and personal responsibilities, employee retention and productivity, and obtaining additional education in their free time. However, job sharing is right for the company as well as clients and employees.
Check the following reference articles to learn more about Staffing Trade-offs – Job Sharing:
- Job Sharing | Human Resources. (2021). Retrieved 16 March 2021, from URL
- Know the Advantages and Disadvantages of Employees Sharing a Job?. (2021). Retrieved 16 March 2021, from URL
- Job Sharing—The Advantages and Disadvantages. (2021). Retrieved 16 March 2021, from URL
- Job Sharing: Twice the Benefits or Double the Problems? (2021). Retrieved 16 March 2021, from URL
- Job Sharing. (2021). Retrieved 16 March 2021, from URL
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