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Nowadays, employees may ask to work more flexibly from typical working patterns. One type of flexible working is job sharing. A job share can benefit both your employee and your business. However, there are some considerations you should make when an employee asks for a job share and when you have employees in a job-sharing arrangement. Indeed, not following your employer obligations may result in a claim against you at an employment tribunal. This article will explain what you need to know about job sharing.
What is Job Sharing?
Job sharing is a form of flexible working. When your employees job share, it means they are sharing a role in your business. Essentially, they both carry out the same job but may do so at different times in your working week or take on different areas of the role. Notably, each person will have their own employment contract for the role.
It is up to you and your staff concerning how you structure the job share. However, the table below identifies four main ways of job sharing.
| Same-Shift Working | Same-shift working is the most common form of job sharing and is suitable where you do not require the job to cover the whole working week. Both employees will work the same shifts, but each will work in a different area of the job role. |
| Split Shifts During a Day | Split shifts mean that your job sharers both work on the same days but at different times during the day. |
| Split-Shift Weeks | Split-shift job sharing is where each employee works on a different day from the other but both cover the same hours. |
| A Mixture | A mixture of any of the previous three ways of job sharing. |
Why Allow Job Sharing?
Having staff who share jobs can benefit both you and your staff who are job sharing. Typical benefits for your staff include the ability to:
- better balance work and life;
- work part-time where part-time roles might not be available;
- move up the career ladder without the need to maintain a full-time job; and
- benefit from the other job sharers’ knowledge and skills.
As an employer who has staff who job share, the benefits your business might enjoy include:
- retaining good staff where you may not have been able to;
- accessing potential broader skill set of employees;
- efficiencies when managing replacements when workers are absent; and
- increasing staff productivity.
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What Laws Apply to Job Share?
As job sharing is a form of flexible working, you need to apply the rules on flexible working when considering job sharing. A staff member can request job sharing through a flexible working request, either as a statutory requirement or a non-statutory request.
Statutory Request
When a staff member makes a statutory flexible working request to work as a job share, there is a legal requirement you and your member of staff must follow. You should note that only certain employees have a legal right to make a flexible working request to job share in this manner.
When your employee makes a statutory flexible working request to job share, you should consider:
- whether your employee has made the request once every 12 months;
- accepting or refusing the request within three months of the employee’s request;
- if you refuse the job share request, your employee may claim in an employment tribunal and rules regarding flexible working will apply; and
- whether your employee’s request was in writing and contains specific information, such as how the request may affect your business.
Non-Statutory Request
Any of your employees can make a non-statutory working request, and they can make as many as they wish per year. However, where you refuse the request, they may still be able to claim in an employment tribunal via other rules, such as those regarding discrimination.
When you receive a non-statutory request for flexible working where your employee wishes to share a job, there is no set format for it. Also, you are not required to respond in any given timeframe.
What to Think About When Allowing Job Sharing
When an employee asks to job share or begins to job share, there are several elements you, as an employer, need to think about. Importantly, a job share will not always work for all job roles. Likewise, where it does, you need to ensure that it continues to work well.
Additionally, some factors to consider include whether:
- the workload is fairly shared and to regularly monitor this;
- each employee knows which work they should carry out;
- the two members of staff have the expertise between them to carry out the job role; and
- the employees effectively communicate with one another to avoid confusion.
When considering job sharing, you may also want to think about the potential difficulties of replacing one employee if they leave and the burden of managing two rather than one.
Key Takeaways
Job sharing is a way of flexible working and can benefit you and your employees. For example, it allows your employees to work part-time where you may not have part-time roles available, resulting in your having a more talented workforce and higher staff morale. However, you must consider requests for job sharing carefully to ensure that it is suitable for the job role concerned and ensure that you correctly follow the rules surrounding this. Also, once you have job sharers in place, you should ensure that the way of working is effective and keep monitoring this.
If you need help understanding job sharing in England and Wales, our experienced employment lawyers can assist as part of our LegalVision membership. For a low monthly fee, you will have unlimited access to lawyers to answer your questions and draft and review your documents for a low monthly fee. So call us today on 0808 196 8584 or visit our membership page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Job sharing is where you allow two people to carry out the same job role with an agreed pattern regarding when they work. Both employees share the workload but have their own employment contracts.
Your employees only have a right to ask for a job share where they have worked for you for at least 26 consecutive weeks and can do so through a statutory flexible working request. However, they can only request a type of flexible working once every 12 months.
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