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HRO Today Forum Europe Preview Job sharing gives employers the benefit of full-time coverage, the productivity that comes from having two highly motivated individuals, and perhaps most importantly, the ability to retain talented individuals who might otherwise have left the business in search of part-time roles. For the employees, our comprehensive job share research study (www.thejobshareproject.com) found the key benefit was the ability to execute a big role without a full-time commitment. The research also highlighted a number of key findings, many of which dispelled some of the commonly held myths around job sharing: 80 per cent held senior positions of responsibility (director/partner, senior manager, manager level) 67 per cent held team management responsibility (up to 500 people) 67 per cent said that clients have been positively impacted by the job share arrangement 46 per cent of job share partners did not know their partner before hand One quarter of job share partners came from outside the organisation Two years was the average lifetime of a job share partnership cause for 60 per cent of female staff members who leave is the lack of part-time working options, coupled with a lack of visible role models working in this way higher up the organisation. So what is the cost of losing this talent? Well for an employer it's huge! The cost is significant—on average 150 per cent going up to 200 per cent for a senior role. Our research has found that for an employer with around 3,500 head office staff, the cost to replace lost senior-level talent due to lack of part-time working options equates to around £6 million per annum. These numbers are significant. But for many employers part-time is a challenge, especially in senior, client-facing or highly transactional roles. Jobs are getting bigger, not smaller. In today's global businesses, there's an expectation that we will be available to answer calls and respond to e-mails at all hours and even on weekends in some cases. So how can part-time working be made commercially viable and meet the needs of the organisation, as well as the individual? Job sharing is one solution to the part-time conundrum. At Capability Jane we have defined job sharing as a way of working in which two (or more) people share a whole or full-time job. Job sharing is no panacea. It requires hard work and commitment from the employees, managers concerned, and HR. And to embed truly sustainable job sharing requires changes to be made across the organisation. We see it as the next big resourcing challenge. Using a maturity model can help organisations assess their current levels of capability across five key areas, and develop a roadmap for sustainable job sharing: Strategy and leadership commitment; Organisation climate and culture; Talent strategy; Employee engagement and communications; and Resourcing, infrastructure and process. Organisations need to offer new and flexible working patterns in order to retain their key talent. Failing to do so can cost dearly. Job sharing is emerging and gaining ground as an innovative way to combine part-time working with career progression, but it requires careful implementation and support. Sara Hill is CEO of Capability Jane. She will be presenting at the HRO Today Forum Europe, 12 - 14 November, in London. AUTUMN 2013 | www.hroglobal.com [13]