Could adding six words to job ads transform gender diversity in the workplace?

It’s the day after International Women’s Day. Yesterday’s Insta stories have disappeared into the social ether, the performative virtue signalling done (well, at least until the next cause in the calendar).

What happens on the other 364 days of the year? How might we move towards sustained workplace equality and inclusion? This week’s newsletter explores the fascinating potential — for both women and men — of job sharing as a mechanism to radically transform the practice and culture at work. We suspect some of you will be instinctively resistant. Others will ask what’s taking so long.

But whatever your reaction, we challenge you to dispute that the data is compelling. As we think about the future of work after the pandemic, this is a provocative idea whose time may well have come.

The Future Normal: Job sharing

Suits is how most people imagine lawyers’ working culture (as well as offering a tenuous Megan Markle connection ??). Long hours and back-stabbing are the order of the day. Julia Hemmings and Helen Brown suggest a different picture. The two lawyers were jointly promoted to partner at London’s Baker McKenzie, heading up its Consumer and Commercial Advisory Practice. The two have job-shared since 2013, both working three days a week, with an overlap day on Thursdays. They admit the situation has its challenges, but both are firm advocates for job-sharing, saying that they gain an extra internal perspective, are able to connect in different ways with clients, and most importantly the arrangement has enabled both women to embrace such a demanding career path at the same time as having young families. 

Many working mothers feel this tension. Sophie Smallwood had spent her working life in fast-paced tech companies such as eBay and Facebook Workplace. Then she became pregnant, and suddenly it became clear that the demands of her career seemed to be intractably conflicted with her desire to be a fully present parent. This led her, along with her husband Dave who was studying for an Executive MBA at the time, to found Roleshare, a startup matching job-sharers and supporting employers who want to offer job-sharing as an option to employees. Sophie has become an evangelist for the practice, frequently highlighting the huge gap between the promise and the reality of job-sharing: around 40% of Fortune 100 companies offer job-sharing as a perk, yet less than 3% of their employees actually job-share.  

Intuitively, many will understand this gap. While companies might like to promote their inclusive credentials, many readers will have experienced the invisible but very real pressure for employees to put in face time if they want to be seen as truly committed. 

Long before the pandemic upended white-collar working practices, cracks were showing in this cultural monolith. In the United Kingdom, where employment legislation is very favorable to flexible working, the governmental Civil Service launched its internal job share platform in 2015 to support staff returning from maternity leave who were looking for a better work-life balance. As well as finding that within three years, 20% of those registering on the platform were men, it also found that job sharers had higher levels of engagement and wellbeing compared to those working part-time or full time.

Smallwood confirms that it is not only women with young children that are attracted to job sharing. She points to Sam White and Will McDonald, two fathers who have shared the executive role of Group Sustainability & Public Policy Director at Aviva, a large insurance company, for over two years. Similar to Hemmings and Brown’s legal experience, the two men report a number of benefits. McDonald points to a period when he was suffering from poor mental health, during which White was able to expand his hours for six months to cover while he recovered. The two men are not alone. Senior-level job-shares have increased rapidly, with a reported 1 million part-time employees in senior or manager-level jobs in the UK, an increase of 55% since 2012. Of course, this will not be especially surprising to anyone familiar with trends, given they often start at the ‘luxury’ end of the market, so-to-speak, where people have more choice and the economic means to experiment.  

Zurich: a 150-year-old instigator?  

To date most job-shares have been fairly ad hoc, the result of fortunate circumstance and sustained effort by those involved. But what might it look like if larger organizations committed to actively promoting flexible working across all roles and levels? How would employees respond? 

The insurance company Zurich worked with the UK government’s Behavioral Insights Team from March 2019 to February 2020 to assess the impact of advertising all their job roles as open to part-time, full-time or job-share. The impact was dramatic. 16% more women applied for management roles, and Zurich found that the number of women hired for senior positions actually rose by a third over the same period. Interestingly, the company saw double the overall number of applications from both men and women, confirming that flexible working appeals to both men and women. Another example that The Future Normal is more diverse than conventional wisdom would have it. 

This replicated an earlier similar study conducted by the Behavioural Insights Team related to job postings on Indeed, a widely used job board. There, an analysis of over 200,000 job adverts posted by 55,000 employers found job postings that referenced flexible working received up to 30% more applications than those without.

Steve Collinson, head of HR at Zurich, said: “Flexible working can help tackle diversity and inclusion issues we’ve all been battling with for many years. Embracing part-time and flexible is not a silver bullet. But we’ve seen hugely encouraging results, simply by adding six words to our job adverts. Workers want a new deal and there’s a danger that businesses that don’t get on board won’t be able to compete for the best and brightest minds.

Conversations around flexible working are nothing new. But one of the lasting legacies of the pandemic might be to accelerate this trend by dissolving some of the managerial skepticism and resistance to ‘alternative’ working arrangements. In late 2020, the global HR firm Adecco found that unsurprisingly 75% of workers wanted to retain flexibility over their schedule following COVID-19. What is more interesting is that eight in 10 executives reported feeling that businesses would benefit from increased flexibility, too. 

Some readers might feel that this is a very ‘European’ trend that has less relevance in more other, more pragmatic, markets. However, Singapore-based DBS Bank has announced that it is rolling out a job-share program as part of a wider shift towards flexible working, after its experiences during the crisis. The bank’s CEO, Piyush Gupta said, “as the way we live, bank and work continues to change dramatically, we must address the magnitude of the disruptions before us. We are prepared to radically transform the way we work." Are you, too?

What if…? 

?? You focused on the benefits, rather than the costs of job-sharing? Increased energy and diversity of perspectives, accountability between job sharers, a more inclusive workforce and more.

?? You became known as the ‘two heads’ organization? Imagine how you could differentiate yourself (to both employees and clients) through your employment practices? 

?? You questioned other fundamental assumptions about how work gets done? What other new ways of working might you embrace? 

?? You thought beyond post-maternity leave mums? And not just dads either! Job-shares might appeal to those with side hustles, part-time degrees, volunteering or caring responsibilities and more...

?? You took the leap? Zurich’s example offers a great case study. It was as simple as adding six words to their job adverts. What have you got to lose?!

Over to you! 

This newsletter is our attempt to explore how we might be able to rebuild a better world. 

We'd love your feedback, tips and insights. Could job sharing really transform the current gender inequalities in the workplace? Could this work in fast-paced startups, or is job sharing only really viable in more stable, larger organizations? Are there certain roles that are especially well-suited to job sharing, and some that absolutely can’t be shared?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below, or literally join the conversation with us on Clubhouse! 

Join us to discuss this and other Future of Work stories on Clubhouse on Thursday, 11 March at 1530 EST, 2030 UK & 2130 CET.

?? Add it to your calendar here

Thanks so much for reading,

Henry & Rohit