We want job sharing so what’s the issue?
You’d be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t want a little more flexibility from their job. Who wouldn’t want the opportunity to better find their work life balance?
There’s currently a lot of employers out there who don’t offer flexible working options for their employees. It could be that they’re unaware of just how many people wish to work flexibly, it could just be an unwillingness to change. Whatever it is, there’s some incredible figures popping up that might help them change their tune.
According to a study carried out by Timewise, 14.1 million of us in UK want work flexibility that ties into our personal lives. That’s a huge number of people (roughly 46% of all people in employment in the UK) all looking to get more from both their personal and work lives. So why is it that only about 6% of jobs are offered on a flexible basis?
The disproportionate amount of people searching for flexible work may be leading us to an employment bottleneck as more people apply for fewer flexible jobs. With numbers so vastly skewed in favour of more traditional arrangements, even though there is such high demand for flexibility, it will take quite some time for that bottleneck to widen.
So what can be done? And how can you avoid getting caught in the in the scrum for the job? Well, as we’ve looked into before, just because a job isn’t advertised as a flexible role, it doesn’t mean that it’s not available on that basis, the employer may just need a little convincing is all.
It’s not ideal to have to tell every one of your potential employers about job sharing, but until the benefits are clear to each of the UK’s employers, it’s all we have. It’s up to you to help educate and explain why flexible working is of benefit to everyone.
If you need a little help convincing a potential employer or if your planning on changing your current role to a more flexible one, be sure to check out some of our older blogs, we’ve got loads of tips and advice (some even coming from job sharers themselves) on how to get you started.