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How-to: Implement job sharing in your organisation

Singapore's Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and the Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) jointly released a Job Sharing Implementation Guide last week. The guide details the benefits of job sharing, how to implement it, a sample policy for HR and employers to use, and more.

Human Resources highlights the key points to note, below:

What is job sharing and its benefits?

Job sharing takes place as a flexible work arrangement (FWA), which allows to or more employees to share responsibilities of one full-time job, either divided by function, geography, time or workload.

It requires employees involved in the arrangement to prepare properly detailed handovers for ease of handling the tasks. Further, it differs from part-time jobs, which are "self-contained jobs with less than 35 hours of work per week."

As showcased in the guide, job sharing can take the following forms:

  • One employee shares part of the workload with a new hire;
  • Two employees each split part of their workload with the new hire; or
  • A few employees share a part of their workload with existing employees.

Why is job sharing useful? According to sources cited in the guide, it reduces voluntary turnover by 20%, improves talent attraction, staff morale and succession management, and reduces absenteeism. Further, it increases employee productivity by up to 30%, while saving costs from hiring by up to 20%.

How do HR and employers prepare for job sharing?

1. First and foremost, the guide states that HR and employers should identify a list of jobs in the organisation which can be shared by function, geography, time or task.

2. The job categories that are possibly suitable for job sharing include: HR, legal, information technology, finance, research and development, sales and marketing, and communication.

3. It is important to understand the aims, responsibilities and outcomes of the job by engaging with the relevant stakeholders before making a decision. Here, the job arrangements, benefits, workload and the FWA policy should be communicated to them, and an addendum about the job sharing issued to employees as well for clarity.

4. Next, the necessary changes to current work arrangements should be made in order to integrate the job sharing process as needed.

5. Lastly, HR and employers should either arrange for existing, suitable employees who can take on the additional workload, or recruit new hires to do so.

Once it's implemented, how do you sustain it?

HR and employers can start by arranging regular check-in timeslots between the employees involved in the job sharing process and their supervisors. Additionally, set up direct communications whereby HR is able to ensure proper support is provided to employees involved.

It is also important to study issues that may arise, so proper preparations can be made when urgent needs pop up. More importantly, do make it a point to regularly review the current job sharing arrangement in order to learn new ways to make future job sharing more effective.

To help assess your readiness to implement job sharing, here's a handy checklist provided in the guide:

Priya-May-2019-job-sharing-SNEF-MOM-guide-checklist-provided

Refer to the full guide for frequently asked questions, sample FWA policies, sample addendum to the employment contract, and more. 


Photo / 123RF

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