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What is work sharing?
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
Benefits of work sharing
For employees:
better work-life balance
flexibility and autonomy at work
less strenuous workload
learning opportunities
more jobs available
For employers:
attract talent
have no downtime in case of absences
train the workforce for your future needs with junior-senior pairs
gain multiple skillsets with the same cost
Where & How has work sharing been tested?
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.
Work sharing chat
Work sharing chat
Book a 1:1 remote or in person meeting to discuss work sharing implementation in your organization!
Book if:
- you are interested to learn about & implement a work sharing model in your work or organization with the support of a work time researcher
- you have already implemented work sharing and you would like to share your story & learnings
- you study, research or work on this topic
- you are interested to learn about this topic
Your work sharing implementation partner is...
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.
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