Two become one

Job sharing enables greater flexibility in Technology function

When faced with having to fill two specific roles in his team but only having one headcount allocated, Global Applications Manager for Finance Joe Sweet came up with a novel idea.

Joe, who has worked in Technology for 10 months now managing the Tier 2 and Tier 3 application support teams across F6, Guernsey and Cirrus House, as well as numerous suppliers and escalations from the business, split the one headcount into two. He hired a request expert and a knowledge base expert – successfully plugging two gaps in the team.

‘Finding two motivated part-time employees to meet these requirements has been a breath of fresh air,’ says Joe. ‘They are flexible if I need them to travel, or if I need them to work additional hours some weeks and less in others. This has significantly improved the dynamics and overall performance of the team. I am very happy with how it’s worked out and would consider doing this again if there was an appropriate business need in the future. It’s been very mutually beneficial. I have two motivated and high performing team members now and they enjoy the work life balance they have. I am happy to be flexible with them and they return the favour when I need it.’

Joe has benefited from Specsavers’ flexible working approach in his own life too.

‘When I took the role at Specsavers, I agreed to work condensed hours so I could take Friday mornings off to carry out religious minister responsibilities. This has given me a great work/life balance and made me appreciate Specsavers as an organisation.’

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