Since COVID, we have learnt a lot about the way businesses can operate and how individuals want to work. Working smarter, not harder is the new normal to ensure consistency, productivity and work/life balance.

 

Employee sharing used to be a no go; employers were concerned about losing staff to competitors and sharing industry secrets and employees were worried about being over worked, having two bosses to please and having to pay secondary tax.

 

We’re here to bust those myths and show that employee sharing can tick a lot of boxes and make a lot of people happy – not just employers and employees but can also be the best set-up to ensure customers and visitors are happy too!

Employee benefits:

1.       Flexibility – being part of a bigger team (or two teams!) means there’s more people who have your back & are able to cover you, if needed. This means if you need to take time off for sickness, study or travel, you don’t have to worry about letting your boss down. This sort of flexibility also enables staff to create a great work/life balance.

2.      Variety & value – Enjoying variety across different businesses & teams & feeling valued when you do show up, rather than pressure that you have to, will lead to feeling more engaged, less stressed & this, in turn, will likely increase your energy & productivity at work too (which your employer will love!) If you’re happy at work, you’re also more likely to stay working there for longer, which means the positive vibes will be long-term, rather than just short lived.

3.      More colleagues (& potential friends!) – working across multiple businesses means more work mates - woohoo! The Tourism & Hospitality is an industry where likeminded individuals flock, so you know you are going to make some of your best friends working life in this industry.

4.      Upskilling opportunities – gaining exposure across numerous businesses opens you up to more chances to learn, build your network & enhance your skillset. Because every business operates slightly differently, you’ll get to work under team leaders with different management styles, perform different daily tasks, take on different responsibilities & interact with colleagues & customers from different backgrounds & with different personality types. Your product knowledge will increase, you’ll get to build strengths & develop any capability gaps, all of which will be great for your CV & career prospects. Win-win!

5.      Consistent Income – working across multiple locations will offer the chance to make up full time hours &, most likely, mean consistent employment & consistent pay each week. Ideally, employment sharing models are based on business peaks & troughs, working more hours in one location during their busy season & less while another is quieter. This set-up should provide both consistency with working hours & can also offer the chance for down time or flexibility for study or travel, as required.

Employer benefits:

1.       Engagement – having a larger pool of workers, who get to enjoy multiple workplaces, tasks, teams & managers means they’ll be more engaged when they spend time with you, because work will be less monotonous & more varied. Higher engagement leads to higher productivity, which can only be a good thing.

2.      Security– implementing an employee sharing model means your pool of talent is larger (e.g. instead of having 10 full time employees, you might have 20 part time employees). This means when someone is sick, asking for holiday, or headed off on maternity leave, you have plenty of other people who are willing & able to cover them. And, chances are, that because they’re not overworked, bored, or begrudging being called on to help out, that they’ll most likely say yes!

3.      Operational capability & corporate social responsibility – working with another employer to provide full time employment for one person across multiple businesses not only means you’ll be able to operate at full capacity, but is also great for the employee, the people who rely on them, the local community & is great for feeling good (& branding!). For example, if you’re a hotel that needs rooms cleaned 7am – 11:30am, partnering with a café that’s busiest from midday until 3pm to share an employee member is the perfect solution. Or, alternatively, if you’re a bar that only opens Friday – Sunday, working with a coffee cart who only opens weekday mornings could be a great fit for everyone. The possibilities are endless!

4.      Reduced financial cost & risk– having a larger pool of workers means less time & money spent on recruitment if someone leaves, or takes a sabbatical, because there are other people who will typically want to take their hours. It also means that other employee benefits are also divided across multiple staff & worked out on a pro-rata basis.

5.      Guaranteed staff – by setting up an employee sharing scheme with another operator, who is busy during the opposite season, you’re able to sleep easy knowing that you wont have to advertise & recruit every year & can simply say ‘welcome back’ to someone who already knows the business, has spent the last 6 months building their skillset & experience (at absolutely know cost to you!) & will come back revitalised & ready to jump straight back into another epic season.

6.     Increased talent pool - offering a greater number of part time, flexible hours roles means you open up your business to parents of school aged children, older workers (with lots of experience), students who you may not previously have engaged with because they’re unable to fulfil a typical 9am – 5pm position.

7.      Loyalty – guaranteed employment means staff can focus on building their capabilities & passions & doing the best job they can with having to stress about where their next pay cheque is coming from. Job security is key, especially for those with seasonal skillsets, & employers will be rewarded with staff loyalty, higher retention rates & consistency of talent.

6.     Business resilience – by spreading business knowledge across a greater number of staff, rather than a condensed fed, less knowledge lost if someone decides to leave the team. Employee sharing essentially means the responsibilities of one role are split across multiple people & means you’re also easily able to meet Employment Relations Act requirements around flexible working. It enables preservation of IP, skills, information & also means there’s less of an effect on the social ecosystem & interpersonal relationships in the team when one person leaves, than with a smaller crew.

7.      Increased capability – more people in the team means more knowledge, more experience, more expertise & more opportunity for sharing of skills & strengths between staff. More professional development with less cost & time to employers means you can focus resources on other opportunities to build culture & individual capability, as required.

8.     Happy staff – a bigger team means a there’s a more diverse pool of staff who will socialise, form friendships &, as a result, be happier at work. Happy staff means happy customers & happy customers spend more money!

9.      Retention, retention, retention! – because employees are exposed to more dynamic environments, they wont be bored as easily & will be likely to stay for longer. Bonus!]

 

It sounds great so far, but to make an employee sharing set-up really work for everyone involved (multiple employers & the employee), it’s important to consider these key things:

1.         Accommodation – if you’re expecting employees to move locations as part of the employee sharing model, offering to help them out with house hunting or providing accommodation as part of the salary package can take away another layer of stress & enable them to focus solely on doing great work.

2.       Wellbeing – employers (& employees) need to make sure no one is being overworked. Although situations can arise that require employers to call on employees to work extra shifts, it’s important to make sure this doesn’t result in employees being overstretched & burning out. Time off is just as important as consistent income & employers & employees need to make sure the conversation stays open to ensure wellbeing remains a priority.

3.       Relationships & Connections – employee sharing models only work when everyone involved is honest, upfront & has good intentions. It’s important to ensure relationships between businesses are built & maintained, relationships between employees & employers are healthy & that employees aren’t used as a go-between for employers, or a commodity that can be taken advantage of.

4.       Tax – it can be scary for employees to take on another job & be ‘shared’, typically due to misunderstanding & fear of secondary tax. However, individuals can easily apply to IRD for a tailored tax code that ensures they pay the right amount of tax if they’re working multiple jobs. This avoids people paying too much secondary tax throughout the year & having to wait until April for a rebate.

5.       Access & Advance Notice – it’s crucial that all participating employers fully understand the access they’ll have to an employee & how far in advance communications need to happen if they want to request any changes to what’s been pre-agreed.

6.       Financial Obligation – all employers involved must be fully informed about their financial requirements to support the employee. With great reward, comes great responsibility!

Employee sharing should be mutually beneficial to both employer & employee &, ultimately, result in superior outcomes for everyone. If done well, it’s a no brainer. It’s not rocket science! Sometimes the small & obvious things (like what’s listed above) make workplaces more desirable &, therefore, more successful. So why not give employee sharing a go today?

Keen for more information, check out these useful resources:

• Job Sharing for Employees
• Sharing Staff Members Across Schools – although it’s aimed at the education sector, this concept of sharing staff across schools is just as applicable to the tourism industry
• Job Share - The Good & The Bad!