Freelancers & Employees
Job sharing appeals to people who want to advance (or at least maintain) their careers while forging a better work-life balance and are willing to share the limelight!
Typically, candidates fall into the following categories:
- Parents returning to work
- People who want to reduce their working hours in the lead up to retirement
- Students who want to work alongside studying
- People who want to pursue other activities (e.g. athletes, volunteer workers, business owners)
- People who have other caring responsibilities (e.g. for aging parents, family or friends)
Employers
While most advertised jobs do not state that they could be job shared, evidence suggests that over 90% of employers are open to interviewing and employing job share candidates.
In recent years there has been a strong push towards flexible working arrangements, with a number of large organisations openly stating their support for job sharing (e.g. Westpac, ANZ, Tower Insurance).
Small to medium sized businesses are equally as engaged and, at present, they employ the most job sharers.
The basic numbers
- 40% of working aged people would like to work more flexibly
- 26% of people who would like to improve their work/life balance
- 3% of working aged people will go on to job-share
- 19% of companies currently employ job sharers
- 91% of hiring managers have stated they were willing to hire job-sharers
- 79% of requests to work flexibly were accepted
- 44% of people who think their employer would not allow them to job share
So why don't we see more people job sharing?
The demand for job sharing is present. However, a critical factor in employees not asking to job share has been their inability to find a job-share partner who
- they can trust
- has the right skill set
- is open to job sharing at the same time as they are