Every HR leader who has proposed job sharing to line managers has encountered the role-exemption objection: “That might work somewhere else, but not in our roles.” This objection is both the most common and the most empirically unsupported barrier to job share program adoption. The research is consistent: job sharing produces its strongest performance and retention outcomes in the most demanding, complex, senior-level roles—the ones organizations most reflexively exempt.
3 Key Takeaways:
Job Share Project research on role types and job share success rates: which characteristics predict positive outcomes (complexity, client relationships, multi-stakeholder management)
Documented examples across finance, law, healthcare, C-suite leadership, and media of job sharing at senior levels in male-dominated environments
Why the assumption that senior roles can’t be shared is costing organizations their most experienced talent at exactly the career stage where retention investment has the highest return
Resources:
Episode Website: workmuse.com/48
Transcript here
