Flexible working has been high on the agenda for the last few years. The situation with Covid-19 has hastened its impact further, and we can now add remote working to the flexible-working picture. As a London recruitment agency, we know that PA and office support jobs in London frequently lend themselves to being good job share opportunities.
Here, we dive into the details of job shares and what makes them work for both employer and employee.
Job sharing facts
There are 153,000 employees working in a job share in the UK. It’s still not a hugely popular option, perhaps because it can be difficult for employers to organise.
Fundamentally, it means that there’s one job with full-time hours shared between two or more employees. How it’s shared varies from position to position.
How to make job sharing work
We would argue that the best job-share arrangements are those where the candidates present themselves as the complete solution. It’s much easier for an employer to envisage the arrangement working if they don’t have to deal with the logistics. It’s also important for each party in the job share. There needs to be a joined-up approach to your work practices, with no single party carrying more of the load than the other. This means that immense trust between the job-share parties is required.
The candidates in the job share need to be exceptional communicators. There should be extremely clear handover processes so that it’s a seamless transition for the employer and those around the job share.
What types of jobs work as job shares?
It’s a long-held myth that job shares only work in the most junior of clerical positions. However, we’ve seen job-share arrangements work incredibly well in senior PA jobs in London, as well as across a huge range of different office support type functions. Indeed, the number of people working in higher-income part-time jobs has been rising in recent years. We’re seeing this across a range of sectors, including law and insurance.
The benefits of job sharing
There are notable benefits of job sharing for employers and employees.
Being able to hire and retain high-quality staff who value their flexibility and work-life balance is a must. It enables greater diversity in the workforce and prevents recruitment to type. There’s consistent coverage, and this can be particularly useful at times like holidays. There’s also the very real benefit of “two heads being better than one”. Typically, the sum of the two parts is greater than the sum of the whole. Generally speaking, there’s less presenteeism and more productivity.
Employees value the flexibility, job satisfaction and work-life balance of a job share. Furthermore, individuals looking for less than full-time hours can still build a valued career.
How to find a job share position
There are several ways to look for a job-share role. Some positions will be advertised as a job share or simply “part-time”. You can also approach employers and agencies as a ready-made pair. For example, with the large numbers of recent redundancies, you can network to find someone to be your recruitment partner. As long as your expectations and abilities match, you should then be able to apply, in tandem, to job-share a full-time position.
Love Success is a leading London PA & office support recruitment agency.
Our expert recruiters can help you find permanent and temporary jobs in London.
View our latest job opportunities here
PA & EA Jobs l Office Support Jobs l Temporary Jobs Marketing & PR Jobs l HR Jobs l Finance Jobs