Unlocking Human Potential Thru Job Sharing
[Music]
2020
what a year how lucky are we to be alive
right now
a global pandemic and recession
quarantine
and social distancing working from home
and if you’re really lucky working from
home with kids
and just when you thought things
couldn’t get any worse
violent protests against systemic racism
it’s heart-wrenching how are we still so
divided and the upcoming election is
just making things worse
2020 marks a major turning point the
events of this year will be some of the
most significant
if not the most historically significant
events of our lifetime
right now we have the opportunity to
challenge the status quo
and to make significant changes but to
do this we have to come together as a
society
and recognize the problems that we’re
facing and create
real solutions that make life better for
future generations
the global pandemic has impacted many
aspects of our lives
but none as much as work there has never
been
a more relevant time to take action and
build an intentional path forward
which is why we’re starting a movement
to challenge and transform
traditional thinking of work and life
covet 19 has blurred the lines of work
and life unveiling the illusion of
work-life balance
and has forced us all to rethink and
re-imagine
a new work-life integration
even before covid a study by harvard
found that employees wanted flexible
work arrangements
outside the traditional eight to five to
fit their demanding lives
they found that 96 of employees
wanted some form of flexibility yet only
42 percent had
access in order to remain competitive
and relevant companies are now being
forced to think beyond traditional ways
of working and find creative ways to
recruit
and retain top talent to engage untapped
talent pools to train and upskill
employees
and quickly adapt to collaborative ways
of working
the eight to five work model is way
outdated and hasn’t evolved with our
technological advances
it doesn’t make sense for our modern
society
like so many we personally felt the need
for a different work model
before starting a company together jess
and i had different experiences
but face the same challenges how do we
make
work and life work
after dedicating many years to obtaining
a phd and advancing my career
i was finally ready to start a family
but i had no idea how difficult it would
be
to have a baby let alone twins and have
a full-time job
my girls were born early and started
their lives in the nicu
and doctors recommended that they not go
to child care
outside the home for two years
i’m so grateful i was able to stay home
with them
and love my new role as a mom but also
felt a huge
loss of personal and professional
identity
when i was ready to go back to work
there just weren’t any options
that utilized my expertise and allowed
the time
i wanted with my family i felt stuck
before i was even married i was obsessed
with finding a way to have it all
you know having an inspirational
marriage
happy children a fulfilling career but
by the time i had my third child
the balancing act was overwhelming i
felt stressed
and burnt out i understood why we
weren’t seeing more women in leadership
they were going through what i the same
thing i was going through you had
something had to give my career which
fed my passions or my family and
kids which gave me all of my joy it felt
impossible
maybe it’s the eternal optimist in me
but a possible was not an acceptable
answer
it was about that time that gina and i
got together and we really began to
wonder
how did we get here how did we get here
and where did the 8 to 5 work model even
come from
our society’s obsession to constantly
improve
our quality of life has led to four
industrial revolutions
and they have marked major
transformative times in the history of
our humanity
advances like the steam engine
electricity and mass production
have influenced almost every aspect of
our lives
including how and when we work
the work model we use today was actually
popularized by henry ford
over 100 years ago so while we’re
able to build smart cars like tesla’s
we’re working like we’re building model
t’s
we’re living in the beginning of the
fourth industrial revolution
which builds on the advances of
computers and the internet and
everything else that we’ve developed
over the last 250 years
although these advances have made our
lives easier in many ways
they’ve also disconnected us and left
many with feelings of isolation
and depression as technology replaces
work
that has been done for done by humans
for centuries
we must recognize and take advantage of
what technology cannot replace
even the most advanced artificial
intelligence
cannot replicate our creativity our
experiences
our values and our judgment these are
the keys
that can unlock the most powerful
resource
that’s right in front of us are actually
within us our own human potential
to do this we must revisit and re-learn
the qualities that human beings thrive
on connecting
communicating trusting cooperating
and one of the most basic behaviors
we’re constantly taught as children
sharing in fact behaviors like sharing
are what distinguish us from other
primates and has enabled us to develop
as a species
when we share we’re happier we’re more
fulfilled
we’re more connected and we’re more
productive
everything falls into place we often
think of sharing
as giving something up but actually by
sharing
we end up with more as co-founders
without even realizing it we started a
job share
a job share is when two people come
together to share the role
responsibilities hours and compensation
of one full-time position
when we were researching flexible work
options we had kind of an aha moment
if you shared your job you could
continue your career path
and get time back in your life it made
the impossible
possible you could have a career and a
family
we quickly realized this wasn’t just a
solution for women or
parents it was a model that could
support anyone in the multi-generational
workforce who had a passion for their
career
but needed more time in their lives like
your parents
who would like a slower transition into
retirement or your
friend whose husband’s in the military
and is having trouble maintaining her
career because they’re always moving
or your brother who after 20 years in
his career
is ready to make a change or your sister
who’s been home with her kids and is
ready to re-enter the workforce
or your co-worker who’s trying to find
care
for their children and aging parents
or maybe it’s you who’s looking to get a
little bit of extra time back in your
life
to finally pursue your passion and go
back to school
or start a business really anyone who
needs a slightly different model for
work
and life everyone can benefit from a job
share at some point in time in their
career
so how does this actually work think of
it this way
there’s a race with two runners around a
track
and at the starting line as you see them
going around the track they’re pretty
much running at the same pace
at the halfway point you notice the
first runner has someone else waiting
for them and
passes the baton the person grabs the
baton and with the burst of energy takes
the lead further and further and is able
to finish the race at full speed
the second runner after slowing down
finished the res finishes the race
exhausted and gasping for
air effective job share pairs can be
nearly 30 percent
more productive than one person in a
typical full-time role
at a time when businesses are being
forced to provide employees more
flexible work options
job sharing provides continual coverage
through the week while maximizing
productivity
because job share partners share their
weekly hours
they’re able to go further faster on top
of that
businesses benefit from job share
partners as they are more engaged
they stay at companies longer and bring
a diversity of thought
experience and skills that when looked
together
create a unicorn employee makes sense
right
and sounds simple enough but there is
one crucial thing
to making it work the match
a well-matched job share pair is the
number one
factor of success but it’s also the
hardest part to get right
which is why we built a company around
standardizing the job share
matching and onboarding process that
leverages
both technology and human input
we knew that if we got this right job
sharing could be widely adopted
and have an impact on long-standing
social issues
like closing the gender pay gap and
increasing diversity in leadership
and the overall workforce job share
pairs
learn how to work together towards a
shared goal with the same values
they benefit from each other’s
experiences and perspectives
we know this to be true not only from
the countless job share
pairs that we’ve interviewed and placed
but by what we’ve experienced together
as a job share pair starting a business
jess and i have been able to move
further and faster than we
ever could alone plus we get the
additional time back
that we needed with our families and
there’s a huge added bonus
of a trusted friend and advocate who
truly has your back
through it all job sharing has changed
our life
and has truly improved the quality of
our lives
and our overall happiness we are
lucky to be alive right now but we must
take action our mission is to
standardize job sharing
our vision is that through job sharing
we will empower individuals to lead
happier
and more fulfilling lives that will
positively impact the family unit
their communities and society as a whole
but we can’t do it alone we invite you
to join us
and join this movement and share your
passion for work
and life by transforming the way we work
and live
we can finally realize our unlimited
human potential
that is truly better together
you