“The idea of a job share confused me and made me curious. I hadn't actually planned to change companies!” (Jana Müller, Director Strategic Organisational Development at Hermes Einrichtungs Service GmbH & Co. KG.)
Jana was headhunted from a position with immediate promotion prospects at a big player – because the job sharing model with which Hermes Einrichtungs Service advertised the position fascinated her immensely. Jana's example shows how big an impact job sharing can have on a successful recruiting strategy!
With our new StartUp PairToShare we completely digitalize this process for companies, so that full-time positions can automatically be advertised and filled in tandem job sharing. End-to-end, with one click. No effort. And it's also possible to search for a tandem partner for an internal candidate!
From now on, interested job sharers can find great job-sharing positions with us and their tandem partners at the same time! Simply tag your dream job, network with other people interested in the position, match and apply! Whether anonymously or with a full profile.
For Jana, the process was still manual and quite laborious back then. But it was worth it! For the past 9 months, she has been happily and successfully working with her tandem partner @Linda de Beer. Here are my three quick questions for Jana:
Jana, you were actively recruited from your previous role to take on a job-sharing position. What made you decide to do this?
For quite some time, I had been toying with the idea of becoming self-employed. However, this was difficult to do while working a 40-hour job, and to go all in on the “self-employment” card and give up a secure job was also too tricky for me. So, I had resigned myself to tackling self-employment much later in life and first climbing a few steps further up the career ladder. My next goal was to take on a leadership role, which my previous employer had also made possible for me – the next step was already in the bag, full-time of course. But it wasn't meant to be. When I received the request for a co-leadership position with a three-day week, self-employment unexpectedly found its way back into my head. It felt like the best of both worlds had come true: taking on a leadership role, maintaining security through a permanent position, continuing to gain experience in a corporate context, and at the same time being able to build up my own business without time pressure and financial worries. I didn't have to think about it for long; my gut feeling was clear: you don't get an opportunity like this again in a hurry!
How did the switch go for you? What is it like working in a job-sharing model?
It's a shame you can't see me right now. Every time I hear that question, I break into a smile. Long story short: Liebs!
@Linda de Beer and I have been working together for nine months now, and I couldn't imagine it any better! The job fulfills me in terms of content, and I'm also really enjoying the new management role. My quality of life is much higher, I rarely feel stressed, and the exchange with Linda is extremely valuable. We learn so much from each other and benefit greatly from the fact that we have different strengths. Even when one of us is having a low time, it's so good to have each other to let off steam. And I'm making good progress with my self-employment. I'm taking my time and also allowing myself leisure time on my “free” days, and I distribute sports, meeting friends and errands much more evenly throughout the week than I used to, when I had to fit everything into the weekend. This is a huge added value for me and I can't imagine ever going back to a 5-day working week.
What role do you think the integration of job sharing into a company's recruitment strategy plays? What would you advise companies to do?
I was able to experience it first hand: job sharing is (unfortunately) a differentiator that modern companies can use to stand out and reach a much larger target group of potential employees. I can hardly imagine how I would have become aware of the employer Hermes Einrichtungsservice (HES) if the job request had not stood out from all the other requests due to the addition “in job sharing”. This confused me and at the same time inspired me to think: “Wow, this must be a very forward-thinking and progressive company if they are open to filling a newly created position with two people.” In short, I would most likely not be at HES today if the position had not been offered on a job-sharing basis. And that would have been a shame, because HES is a very modern, forward-looking employer where both part-time and full-time work is a lot of fun. So it was confirmed for me that the modern job-sharing approach that HES supports and promotes is actually a holistic, progressive company. I therefore advise other companies to take a closer look at the advantages of job sharing and make their own lives easier: Job sharing will be the key to convincing many potential applicants who are currently out of the question for you and vice versa. Especially in times of a shortage of skilled workers, we cannot afford to exclude highly qualified employees who, for a variety of reasons, cannot or do not want to be available five days or 40 hours a week. Honestly, how inflexible is that kind of thinking? How much potential is lost as a result? For both sides – companies and employees – job sharing is a great opportunity that they will not give up once they have seen it for themselves.
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