All employees and job applicants may request an opportunity to job share through the following routes:

Transcription

1 Job Sharing

2 Sections 1. General 2. Applying for a vacancy as a job share 3. Returning from maternity leave as a job share 4. Moving from full-time to job share 5. Making job shares work 6. Managing a Job Share 7. Induction for Job Sharers 8. Routine Supervision 9. Designated Partners 10. What happens if I am a manager and a job share partner? 11. Conditions of Service for Job Sharers 1. General The Council is committed to Job Sharing as a continuation of our equal opportunities policies and development of flexible working practices. It is valuable in recruiting and retaining skilled employees who are unable or unwilling to work full-time due to domestic or other commitments but who have considerable skills and experience to support efficient and responsive service provision to the Community. All posts with the exception of Chief Officers are open to Job Sharing unless special circumstances preclude it. Job Sharers divide the duties and responsibilities of one post between them by task or times covered. As a Job Sharer you receive the same pay and conditions of service as full time staff on the same grade, paid in proportion to the hours you work. All employees and job applicants may request an opportunity to job share through the following routes: 2. Applying for a vacancy as a job share You may apply for vacancies advertised as half of an existing job share or for fulltime vacancies on a job share basis. Candidates applying for vacancies on a job share basis do not need to indicate why or what shift patterns are preferred when making an application. Your suitability will be assessed based upon how well you meet the employee specification. Working patterns will be discussed after a successful interview. 3. Returning from maternity leave as a job share You may return from maternity leave full-time, on reduced hours or as a job share. If you wish to job share you must give 2 months notice of your intention so that a partner may be recruited. You may decide to job share following your time on reduced hours, again you must give notice of your intention at least 2 months before the end of your 6 months reduced hours eligibility. 4. Moving from full-time to job share

3 Any employee may request to job share their current post, unless it is an exempt post such as Chief Officer. You should complete the Job Share request indicating the hours and work pattern you seek and how the duties may be shared. Your Chief Officer will write to you within 20 days of your application confirming agreement to the job share or explaining the reasons for exempting the post. Any exemption will be notified by the Chief Officer to the Director of Policy for review. The Director of Policy will confirm or reject the exemption to the Chief Officer based upon the feasibility of sharing the duties in the job description. You will be able to begin any job share agreed within 2 months of your application, or later by agreement between you and your manager. Your manager may wish to renegotiate the details of the job share if the proposal submitted for sharing is not fully acceptable. On transfer to the job share your terms and conditions and pension rights will be affected and you should explore this fully before deciding to proceed with job sharing. If you are not happy with the job share arrangements or decisions and have discussed them fully with your manager, you may complain through the Fair Treatment Procedure 5. Making job shares work Before accepting a job share you are entitled to meet with your partner and manager to discuss how the share will work and the expectations of all parties. The normal pattern is 50/50 split of hours and any split resulting in a sharer working less than 16 hours is discouraged due to logistical and employment complications. However, you may consider: 2.5 days per sharer; an am/pm hours split; 3x6 hours each to cover the week. In all cases you need to consider safeguarding your continuous employment rights and building in an overlap time every week for continuity and consistency of performance in the job. Communication time and methods are critical, not only between job partners but with managers, colleagues and clients. Other sharers have found the following useful: Joint meetings Communication via supervisors Access to home phoning partners Message books and information logs Notes and memos sealed if necessary In tray or information basket Minutes of conversations/ actions To do lists Weekly handover letters on progress Formal job share review meetings Social events Action Folders

4 Tape messages Diary with commentary Signing job share and putting partner name as well. To help you are encouraged to write an informal contract as a framework for the partnership. This should be short and simple. It should set out agreements on: Overlap times Methods of communicating Frequency of joint meetings/ with manager Acceptable contact outside usual hours Flexibility on cover for absence Review of job share arrangements How problems are to be raised with partners Expectations of sharers and manager Distribution of tasks. However, although it is important to clarify expectations, co-operation and flexibility are critical to success. 6. Managing a Job Share As it is the Council s intention to open all possible jobs except Chief Officer roles for job sharing, all managers must be aware of their responsibilities. If you manage a post where you believe job sharing is impractical or inappropriate you must raise this with your Chief Officer and if appropriate apply to the Director of Policy for exemption of the post. You should be aware that neither facilities issues such as space and furniture nor individual working practices will be taken into account in assessing the suitability of the position for Job Sharing. In recruiting you should follow the standard Code of Practice on Recruitment and Selection. However the following points are most salient: If a Job Sharer leaves their post, the remaining hours must be offered to their partner before the vacancy is advertised. Advertisements must indicate that all posts are open for job sharing, and if the post is specifically part of an existing share they should indicate whether days/hours are predetermined. Each applicant for a job share must be individually assessed in their ability to do the job, and not assessed as part of a pair. You will not be told of an applicants desire to job share until after short-listing is complete, to ensure equality of consideration. Shortlisted candidates wishing to job share must be sent a copy of the job share booklet. At interview you can ask the pattern of working preferred but you may not ask about their reasons for wanting to job share. If you appoint two job sharers to a post, or a new partner to an existing share, you must arrange to meet with both parties together to discuss working arrangements prior to them returning the signed Contract of Employment. You

5 may wish to encourage agreement of an informal contract as above at this meeting. You must offer a post to a successful job share candidate regardless of whether their proposed partner is successful. It is their decision whether to proceed. If only one partner is recruited you should re-advertise as soon as possible for the second partner. You must monitor and record job share requests and applications within your department to allow corporate reporting on progress. Managing the routine activity of a shared job is no different to any other job, however, good communication is even more critical to success than usual. The job sharers are sharing one post and must work together to do so. You should manage the sharing of duties from the job description either by project, task, client or time but should ensure that there is not a better half of the job responsibilities. If this becomes a problem rotation of duties or hours may address the division of activity fairly. You will usually be able to have extra furniture to accomodate job sharing but where overlaps are minimal or not requiring a fixed desk a more ad hoc arrangement may be sufficient. 7. Induction for Job Sharers You should recognise that as Job sharers work fewer hours, they may take longer to become productive in their roles. Your role in making induction effective is particularly important. It is recommended that Induction takes place with both partners present and that you consider asking both to work full time for 1-2 weeks to acclimatise to the post and learn about its responsibilities. Where there is one partner in post already you may be able to share the induction with the other partner. Induction should include: Introduction to the section Details of the sharing agreement Employment policies and procedures Staff introductions Department structure Training opportunities Tour of workplace and facilities. In providing induction and training you should remember that each partner has different personalities, strengths, weaknesses and development needs. It is your responsibility to identify these and ensure the needs of each partner are met, encouraging them to attend training and not let work pressures or hours restrictions preclude their development. I f training takes place on a day not normally worked you may revise their work pattern for the week, give time off in lieu, or pay at base rate, but you must not pressurise partners to change work hours for management convenience.

6 8. Routine Supervision You must identify how to make this work best for all parties, with joint meetings, regular reviews, targets and monitoring, and where appropriate involvement of both partners in team meetings. It is important to remember to include both partners in all memos, letters and notices. 9. Designated Partners Where one partner is absent or vacant it may prove stressful to the working partner, trying to cover a full time role on a part time basis for an extended period. If this occurs you will need to identify a designated partner internally to support the partner working, keeping them informed of events on non-working days, and assisting in continuity for the activities of the post. The job sharer must also ensure the effectiveness of the designated partner in briefing them of current activity. 10. What happens if I am a manager and a job share partner? Communication with your partner and staff will be very important. You may consider: Alternating regular sessions with staff Both attending team meetings Giving staff access to both diaries for planning Regular updates to staff on your work programmes Clear explanation of your working arrangements to all staff Regular communication with your partner to ensure that your management tyles complement each other. Establishing a system for passing confidential information between you.eg sealed envelopes. 11. Conditions of Service for Job Sharers You will be entitled to receive the same conditions as full time staff on a prorata basis to the hours you work. This applies to pay, annual leave, public holidays, and paid sick leave. Unless you have continuous service in a Local Authority you will have a probation period of 6 months from your start date. Superannuation is more complex and all staff considering job sharing should seek advice on the impact for superannuation before accepting a transfer. New staff with more than 15 hours per week are usually eligible to join the scheme and will be sent details by the appropriate member of the Finance Section. Should you work additional hours you will be paid at plain time or given time off in lieu unless you work more than 36 hours (39 for manual/craft), at weekends, unsocial hours, or outside the normal working day, in which case you will receive the appropriate overtime rate (if you are not having time in lieu). You may usually participate in your departments flexible working scheme. You must abide by the Management of Absence procedures and arrange medical appointments outside work time where possible.

7 You are eligible for maternity leave and, if you have more than one year s service, to maternity pay. You are eligible to receive Special Leave in proportion to the hours you work, at the discretion of your Chief Officer. You are eligible to apply to the Childcare allowances programme in your department. You may undertake other work whilst employed as a job share partner, subject to the guidelines in the code of conduct regarding other work.