1 in 10 Singapore companies ready to consider employees’ requests for job sharing

SOME FIRMS’ RETENTION RATE IMPROVED

Despite the difficulties in job sharing for PMETs, public relations firm Brand Cellar has made the work arrangement an option for its employees. 

Some only work a few days a week, given their need for more time to take care of their young children or elderly parents.

These employees make up about 20 per cent of the firm’s headcount.

Brand Cellar managing director Joanne Ho said that staff retention has improved, even if they have had to provide more laptops for more staff. Due to job sharing, tasks are divided among multiple team members.

Ms Ho said the company has practised job sharing for the last 20 years. Some challenges cropped up initially, such as not getting “the right staff” or experiencing “a lot of attrition”, but that has since changed.

“We kind of make the job piecemeal, so they’re able to work from home. It’s very heartening to see that we have a lot of capable people who are working from home,” she added.

“It’s very fulfilling because (this work arrangement) helps them, and by helping them, it helps us as well. A lot of them (have a) very, very good attitude, because they appreciate the job, and we appreciate that a lot as well.”

Mr Shazuan from D’trans also said that job sharing has been a win for the logistics firm in the long run, even though the company’s costs initially increased by 50 per cent due to a need to recruit more drivers.

Their drivers have also not complained about being tired and are “definitely happier” since the switch to job sharing, said Mr Shazuan.

“Despite the challenges … We foresee that in the future, it will make our operations stable. So because it’s stable, and we are running fine, we will get more contracts in the long term and increase our revenue,” he added.