Bring work sharing models to your organization

What is work sharing?

 Work sharing is an employment arrangement where two or more people perform work normally fulfilled by one person working full-time. Work sharing arrangements can differ from one organization to the other, and change during the course of one's employment depending on the life situations and needs of your employees.


Example case: In a team of 3 full-time workers earning 15 euros an hour, Mar, Bei and Nur, 2 of them, Mar and Bei would like to reduce their working hours. Mar is currently caring for an elderly relative and has been exhausted juggling both work and caring duties. Bei wants to have more time after work to acquire important skills needed for career advancement. 

 

Work sharing solution: One extra person, Naiko, is hired to their team on a 30-hour contract, giving the chance to Mar to be employed on a 30-hour contract, and Bei on a 20-hour contract, while Nur continues on a 40-hour contract. Everyone's hourly salary is raised to 20 euros, to make the work time reduction feasible. The flexibility of this arrangement is enjoyed by both the employer and the workers as job satisfaction is higher and there is less downtime. The total amount of working hours remains the same, while there is a small salary increase for the employer to cover in order to make the scheme feasible.

 

Work sharing allows you to bring flexibility to your operations, as you minimize the risk of downtime during sickness absences and holidays. 


Work sharing increases your attractiveness as a workplace since it represents a more humane alternative to the current work time,  giving choice to workers and emphasizing work-life balance. 

50% out of 371 respondents of a survey conducted in 2023 were full-time workers who wanted to reduce their work time.

By implementing work sharing models you also contribute socially and economically to your city or town, as you allow for more people to be employed.

   

Benefits of work sharing

For employees:

For employers:

   

   

Where & How has work sharing been tested?

According to the book 'Work Sharing during the Great Recession. New Developments and Beyond', edited by Jon Messenger and Naj Ghosheh, 'work sharing has been successful as a crisis-response measure in a number of countries.' The book is available online here.

   

   

Midday work sharing chat

Open online session every first Wednesday of the month at 12-13 Finnish time

In this session, you can bring questions, concerns, learnings and opinions related to work sharing in Finland, and hear from others, so we may all benefit from the knowledge exchange, and discover new ideas and ways of doing.
Join if 
  • you would be interested to implement a work sharing model in your work or organization
  • you have already implemented work sharing and you would like to share your learnings
  • you study, research or work on this topic
  • you are interested to learn about this topic

 


Book a 1:1 remote or in person meeting to discuss work sharing implementation in your organization!

Further work  sharing implementation support for your organization

 

 

 

Your work sharing implementation partner is...

Elisabet Miheludaki, a career coach with 7 years of experience in advising jobseekers, and creating programs and educational content for job search and work life. 

For the past 4 years she has been doing PhD research on work time at the University of Helsinki. Results of the research will be soon published at her website: https://www.elisabetmiheludaki.com/ The information and methods proposed in this site stem from her experience and research.