Job Sharing: Tips and Advice please

[Rachel]

This question is mostly for people who have experience hiring and managing staff.

I am responsible for hiring, training, and supervising a certain position. For various reasons, it is hard to find the right person for this.

I'm considering hiring 2 people to share the job--they are longtime friends, the idea came from them, and they are both qualified. Neither one wants it as one "individual" job.

In general I prefer a single person for consistency but it is like finding a needle in a haystack to find someone who fits all the dimensions of this position.

What are your experiences with managing people who are sharing a job? Would you do it again? Any advice or tips? Many many thanks.

[iris lilies]

I don't understand how exactly this works. Are you paying single benefits, such as health insurance? How does that work for 2 employees? The rest of the benefits such as personal leave are, I guess easy to prorate to half time. That assumes each works half time.

Do they each work 20 hours? In not, how do you evaluate how much each is paid?

are there specific times when the employee(s) must be there? Who does that scheduling, you or them?

[SteveinMN]

There was limited job-sharing where I used to work. It was not always 20 hours per person; sometimes one worked 32 hours and the other worked, say, 12. Some overlap was wanted because there is extensive coordination involved and you don't want to leave that to after-hours; on occasion, it was useful for both employees to be present so one could attend a meeting and the other could continue to work, etc. Below a certain level there were minimal benefits, easing the monetary issue; employee contributions were based on the percentage of a 40-hour week the employee worked.

I've worked with a few of these folks. IMHO, success is determined by commitment and rigor. There must be (preferably written) expectations of how soon requests for their services will be responded to and by whom. At least in larger offices, it's difficult to push everyone else to know that, if it's Tuesday, Trudi is in the office and if it's Wednesday, Tom is in. There should be core times when one or both employees are available (though that does not always have to be in person). It helps to have a plan in place for vacations and unexpected absences from the office. Both employees should understand that the arrangement may not be permanent -- if Ms. 32-Hours leaves for another job, there should not be the expectation that another 32-hour employee (or even a 24-hour employee, etc.) will be hired (or is even hireable) and that the arrangement is subject to review if the work is not getting done for whatever reason. In your particular case, if job responsibilities must be divided along lines of which employee actually can do that task, you need to make sure your organization's workflow and deadlines can be met when The One is out of the office for a few days -- or cross-training needs to commence right away.

It can work. But it adds a box full of levers and gears with which most organizations and supervisors would just as soon not have to accommodate.

[Valley]

My late husband had two women share his Executive Assistant position. He was the first one at his company who was willing to consider it. It occurred when his original assistant wanted to cut her hours to stay home with her baby. So he did have the advantage of already working with one of the "pair". He loved it because they covered for each other and he knew that there would always be someone there every day. They covered for each other when one of them or their children were sick or on vacation. They shared the amount of benefits (HR worked that out) and overlapped a few hours a week. The agreement was pretty specific from the "get go" and everyone was thrilled with the arrangement! I don't know what happened when my husband left. Good luck...I know that it would be a wonderful answer for a lot of women who want to work at a good job part time.