Job Share Position Sample Proposal

Reduce Employee Turnover with Job Share Positions

MarkX has been experiencing rapid turnover among the testing staff. Propose that we create two job sharing positions in order to retain four members of our experienced staff increase productivity and increase employee job satisfaction.

The Objective

MarkX Corporation wants to retain its experienced workforce. Job options for older workers who are contemplating retirement. Job options for young parents who are contemplating leaving work to stay home with young children.

The Opportunity

Of all departments within MarkX the Software Testing Division has the highest turnover among employees. Based on interviews with exiting employees believe this turnover is due to two factors. Mothers leave work to stay home with their small children. Currently twelve of our thirty two testers are women with small children at home.

The difficulty of finding quality affordable full time daycare causes many of them to quit to stay home with their children. Older workers no longer want to work forty hours week. Seven of our most experienced testers are over the age of 50.

The Solution

MarkX should create more half time jobs. As the Software Testing Division is currently experiencing the biggest retention problem and the tasks involved in software testing can be easily divided and tracked propose that we create two job share situations to retain four of our experienced most productive workers who are currently considering leaving our employ. Create job share position by pairing Stephanie Glass and Amy Marcos. Stephanie has toddler in daycare and Amy has son in afternoon kindergarten.

Both of these young women do stellar work when they are here but both tend to miss lot of work due to babysitting glitches; and sometimes they even end up bringing child to work with them. Both have discussed with me the need for more flexible work arrangement even if it means cutting their hours in half. Split another testing job between Jeannie Speart and Joseph Newark. Both of these employees are above the age of and would like to work fewer hours per week.

Both have expressed desire to continue to work but not full time. Both are likely to quit if no options are offered.

It would be big loss for Software Testing if both of these employees leave as they are currently ranked #2 and #3 in the division in terms of productivity and reliability

Creating job share or part time positions for permanent employees will require some cooperation from our Human Resources and Payroll Departments. To retain experienced workers in half time positions we must offer reasonable salaries and benefits.

Benefits

Currently MarkX offers full time employees paid holidays per year; hours of vacation; hours of paid sick leave or personal time; our 401K plan and health insurance. Most benefits can easily be cut in half for half time workers. Paid holidays hours of vacation and hours of sick leave personal time. Our 401K plan can operate without change as it is based on percentage of salary.

Health insurance coverage however cannot be cut in half. For this reason we must charge half time employees 50% of the cost of their health insurance premiums if they elect to take health care insurance as benefit of working at MarkX. This means that our Payroll Division must create new category for half time workers and new monthly paycheck deduction for ½ of health care benefits.

Salary

Our current goal is to retain our experienced employees. Therefore we should pay the four individuals switching to job share positions 50% of their current annual wage. Our future goal is to attract stellar employees so for any new half time positions created in the future we should offer 50% of what we normally pay for full time employees. Salary changes should not have any new impact on payroll processing.

Career Track

Career tracks for half time employees should be the same as for full timers with standardized reviews bonuses as percentage of salary promotions etc.

Impact on Managers

When two full time employees convert to two half time employees that still leaves one open position that must be filled to keep current numbers. This means that some managers may end up supervising more employees than they currently do and that they still must recruit new employees to fill vacancies.

Impact on Facilities

Impact on facilities should be minimal as job share employees will occupy the same space desk and cubicle just at different times. Stephanie Glass and Marcos will each work half days switching during the noon hour. Jeannie Speart and Joseph Newark prefer to work two full days apiece and work half day on Wednesdays switching during the noon hour.

The only impact on facilities will happen if there are crossover time periods where both job share people are present for short time which should impact only our parking garage. Also when full company attendance is mandatory at company wide meetings an impact may be felt. However as we expect job share positions will be few this impact should be minimal.

Summary

To create job share part time positions we will have to make few adjustments. However the benefits in terms of retaining experienced staff instead of recruiting and training new employees as well as the increased efficiency achieved from utilizing two part timers instead of one full timer see Studies should benefit MarkX in the future. The following independent studies provide additional information as to the efficiency and feasibility of job sharing.

"Half Timers Deliver Full Time Benefits for Employers" Source. American Workforce Council Date. October This study measured productivity among full time and part time employees and found that part time employees were more productive and generally happier than full timers.

Location

"Two Half Time Employees More Efficient Than One Full Timer" Source. Workers Today Magazine Date. March According to this study on average each full time employee spends ninety minutes per eight hour shift taking care of personal business chatting with colleagues or surfing the internet.

Each half time employee on average spends only twenty minutes per four hour shift doing something other than productive work. Thus according to this study replacing one full time employee with two half time employees should save employers an average of fifty minutes per day or more than four hours of productivity per forty hour week. "Creating Part time Jobs Increases Retention" Source.

Gray Wave Institute Date. September This think tank which specializes in studying older workers and the "brain drain" threatened by retirement in the next decade commissioned nationwide survey of job satisfaction and retirement plans among workers over the age of 50. Their survey shows that many older workers would prefer half time arrangement rather than full time job that they would be more likely to stay in their jobs if half time position were offered and that they are likely to quit their jobs before age if they have no option except to continue to work hours per week.

As 65% of our workforce is over the age of perhaps we should create more half time jobs to retain our experienced workers. This job share creation can serve as pilot project for us to measure this possibility. As you know manage thirty two employees here in our software testing division.

As you also know we have been experiencing rapid turnover among the testing staff. Propose that we create two job sharing positions in order to retain four members of our experienced staff increase productivity and increase employee job satisfaction. Please find in the following pages my explanation of why this should be done as well as discussion of how it can effectively be done at cost savings to the company.