Know your worth – research what you should be earning based on your experience and skills. There are numerous guides out there from recruitment agencies that are helpful when it comes to navigating national averages.

Know what limitations the other person has – it’s likely (unless you’re dealing directly with a HR Team or employer) that the job-sharer will have limitations on what they can agree with you on in terms of pay. Ask what the likely budget is for the role and if there is room to move.

Negotiate together – once you agree on the split of the role and what the potential salary range is, the job-sharer can approach the employer directly with the joint plan and propose a meeting including the incoming job-sharer. If having two people do the job is going to increase productivity, skill-set or experience – this is the ideal time to propose a salary increase. 

Figure out what you ideally want – establish your ideal situation and write it down. This is your starting point. Prioritize what is most important to you – for example you want to be home before 5pm, or you want to have Monday morning’s free to organise your week, or you know you work best if you have Thursday’s off.

Know why you want it – have some reasoning behind you that you can back up when asked. For example you might be most productive in the mornings so you’d like to work early and finish early or having Friday’s off is important to you so you can spend it with your child.

Timing is everything – it might be important to figure out the other person’s situation first and then try to meet in the middle. Or you might be locked in to your priorities and it’s a deal breaker for you to not have them – in that situation you want to mention it up-front to see if what you want is possible.

Listen – If you’ve pitched your best case scenario, give the other person time to think and respond. If you think they need more time to consider it, give it to them. You could propose a trial run in the first instance to see how it goes. For example, how about, I try working from home in the mornings on Tuesday’s for 2 weeks and see if it works well for us both.

Re-assess if you need to – If you proposed a trial run and you can see that it’s working  – then great! If not, reassess. Ask the person you’re sharing the job with how they’re going and what could be better for them. You will need to have open dialogue with the person you’re sharing your job with for it to be a success. 

Sometimes you start a job and it’s not what you thought it would be. At TooCan we want you to avoid that. Here’s some great questions to ask about an advertised job-share role (or any job really!):

• What would I be doing on a day-to-day basis?
• What opportunities are there for career development and training in the role?
• Who would I report to and what is their management style like?
• Who would I be working with and what are they like?
• What do you like most/least about your job?
• What strengths and characteristics are needed to be successful in the role?
• What is my team like/how many people would I be working with?

The great thing about TooCan is you can reach out to the person who’s actually in the role – not a recruiter that knows nothing about it.

Once you’ve set up a profile, you can reach out to the job-poster by clicking “Connect”.

Your message will be sent to them via email (with a TooCan alias) to protect privacy.

You can choose to provide each other with personal email or phone numbers. You can continue to contact each other on whatever platform you desire, and (if you can) find a public place for a casual face to face meet and greet.

Here’s some wording we prepared earlier:

‘Hi, I think that the job you posted is potentially a good match for the opportunity I’m seeking. Are you open to discussing this further via email or phone?’

It’s important you find out as much as you can about the role and its requirements to make sure you’re comfortable being put forward as a job-sharer.

If you’re looking for a job:  create an account by uploading your profile. Once your profile has been approved and is listed on TooCan you can reach out to available posters of job-share opportunities or sit back and wait for job-sharers to contact you (we suggest you do a bit of both!). You will be notified by email when someone contacts you and you will also be notified of suitable jobs that match your profile.

You don’t have to fit into a particular box to benefit from a job-share arrangement. You might simply want to have more time ‘living’ rather than working! But the following are common scenarios:

Going on parental leave – if you’re going on parental leave, why not have a say in who fills your role while you’re gone? Approach your HR team or employer and recommend that you (or they) post the role on TooCan. The likelihood is that you might come back on a part-time basis so wouldn’t it be great if you already knew who you could share your job with when you’re back? Plus think of the confidence in knowing that you had a say in the person that filled your role. 

Returning from parental leave – you might choose to return to work on a part-time basis. Why not approach your HR team or employer with your proposed job-share candidate? Or recommend that they share the role on TooCan. Not only will you know the person can do the job and get along with them, you’ll also be helping out your HR team or employer. 

Caring for others  – if you’ve found yourself caring for others, including elderly parents, why not job-share so you can keep your job but reduce your hours. Post the role on TooCan and if you’ve found someone suitable, approach your HR Team or employer with your proposed arrangement. 

Transitioning to retirement – you might be wanting to slow down at work, but not completely leave your permanent employment. In this scenario, job-share is a great way to do both. Post the role on TooCan and if you’ve found someone suitable, approach your HR Team or employer with your proposed arrangement. 

Career break – need a career break to pursue hobbies or dreams but don’t want to lose the security of your job? Post your role on TooCan, find someone suitable and approach your employer or HR team with the proposed arrangement. 

Absolutely! If you are a HR professional, the likelihood is that you don’t know the specifics of a job like the existing employee in that role does. They know the job and what is needed to get it done. The best and most productive thing you can do is to either let the employee directly create a post on TooCan to share their job or work collaboratively with the employee to post the role and have questions directed to them.

Not only does this make them feel valued and heard, it also gives you comfort knowing that you together will be able to pick the right person to share the job.

Download our Job-Share Information Pack to provide to your employer or HR team.

In a recent report on their World of Work Survey, Ranstad Australia/New Zealand found that when it comes to job satisfaction, employees report flexicurity (job security with inbuilt flexibility) as the key to loving their work. In fact 26% of employees that intend to stay with their current organisation for the next 12 months, say good work/life balance is the main reason for staying.

Job-sharing can help you retain your best and brightest employees. It’s really win/win. Your existing employee can have the flexibility they want and remain in their position and the new employee that you gain could have further attributes to contribute (like experience or different skills).  And we all know that a happy employee is a productive employee!

Download TooCan’s Job-Share Information Pack for more information.

Figure out what you ideally want – establish your ideal situation and write it down. This is your starting point. Prioritize what is most important to you – for example you want to be home before 5pm, or you want to have Monday morning’s free to organise your week, or you know you work best if you have Thursday’s off.

Know why you want it – have some reasoning behind you that you can back up when asked. For example you might be most productive in the mornings so you’d like to work early and finish early or having Friday’s off is important to you so you can spend it with your child.

List your role on TooCan, find your incoming job-sharer and work out the details of the job-share arrangement.

Approach your employer with information – it’s important that you can approach your employer with a well thought out plan. Know what you want and how you can achieve it. Set aside a time to meet with your employer to discuss your proposed arrangement. We recommend you provide them with TooCan’s Job-Share Information Pack. The beauty of TooCan is that you can flesh out the details of your proposed work arrangement and confidently present it to your employer along with the person that you want to work with. Tell your employer why you think the person you propose is a good fit and how you will share your job with them.

Arrange a meeting with your employer and proposed work partner – either face to face or over video conference. There’s nothing like seeing the proposal IRL (in person). Discuss the finer details so that your employer can put together a contract that reflects your intentions.