Latest / The Diversity Career Podcast with Fexingo: Inclusion, Equity, and Underrepresented Professionals / How One Company Created a Job-Sharing Program That Actually Worked
Transcript
- Lucas: So we talk a lot on this show about retention — how do you keep underrepresented talent from walking out the door. And one of the big reasons people leave, especially working parents or caregivers, is that the standard forty-hour, five-day schedule doesn't fit their lives anymore. Luna: Right, and companies have tried compressed weeks, remote work, even four-day weeks. But job-sharing — splitting one full-time role between two people — that still feels rare. When it works, it's almost a secret weapon. Lucas: Exactly. So today I want to look at a company called WorkBetter — a mid-sized tech firm based in Austin, about twelve hundred employees. In 2024, they launched a formal job-sharing program. And not just a pilot — they built it into their HR infrastructure. Luna: How did they structure it? Because the stereotype is that job-sharing means you get two people each doing half the work, but neither is fully accountable. Lucas: That's exactly the failure mode. WorkBetter's approach was to define the role as a single unit. So you don't have a 'junior person' and a 'senior person' splitting tasks — you have two co-equal partners who share one job title, one set of objectives, and one performance review that evaluates them together. Luna: One performance review for both. That's interesting — it forces alignment. Lucas: It does. And they also set up a shared email inbox and a shared calendar. The partners are expected to overlap for two hours every week — a handoff meeting — and they use a shared document to log decisions. The company found that when the handoff was clear, productivity actually went up, because each partner brought different strengths. Luna: What about compensation? I've heard horror stories where part-time workers get prorated pay but lose out on bonuses or promotions. Lucas: WorkBetter made a deliberate choice: each partner gets a full time equivalent salary prorated by hours, but they're both eligible for the same bonus pool and promotion track as any full-time employee. And here's the key — they measure output, not hours. So if a job-share pair delivers the same results as a full-time person, they get the same rating. Luna: That's a big philosophical shift. Most companies still equate presence with productivity. Lucas: Right. And the data backs it up. After two years, WorkBetter's job-sharing program covers about twelve percent of their workforce — mostly in roles like software engineering, product management, and customer success. And they've seen a thirty percent reduction in turnover among working parents, which is huge given that replacing a skilled employee can cost one point five to two times their salary. Luna: So it's not just a nice to have — it's a retention investment that pays for itself. Lucas: Exactly. And they didn't stop there. They also created a 'job-share matching' process — internal — where employees can indicate interest, and HR helps find compatible partners based on skills, work style, and availability. It's like a dating app for work partners. Luna: That is actually genius. Because one of the biggest barriers is finding someone you can actually split a role with. Lucas: And they have a trial period — sixty days — where either partner can back out if it's not working. About twenty percent of matches don't make it past the trial, but that's built into the design. It's better to fail fast than to have a dysfunctional arrangement drag on. Luna: What about managers? I imagine some managers are skeptical about overseeing two people instead of one. Lucas: That was the biggest internal pushback. So WorkBetter ran a half-day training for managers on how to lead job-share teams. The training covers things like how to give feedback to both partners without creating a 'favorite,' how to handle scheduling conflicts, and how to assess team performance. After the training, manager satisfaction with job-share teams actually exceeded their satisfaction with traditional teams. Luna: That's a strong result. And it suggests that the training itself was the missing piece. Lucas: I think so. Too many companies launch flexible work programs without supporting the people who have to make them work day-to-day. WorkBetter invested upfront, and it paid off. Luna: You know, this reminds me that a lot of our listeners are probably in roles where they could benefit from something like this, but their employer doesn't offer it. What's the best way to pitch it? Lucas: Great question. I'd say start with a concrete proposal — not 'can we have job-sharing?' but 'here's a specific role that could be split, here's my potential partner, here's how we'd handle handoffs.' Make it easy for HR to say yes. Luna: And if they say no, at least you've planted a seed. Maybe they'll come back to it later. Lucas: Exactly. And if enough employees ask, it becomes harder to ignore. Luna: Lucas, I want to circle back to something you said earlier about retention. You mentioned a thirty percent reduction in turnover among working parents. Do they have data on whether job-sharing actually helps people get promoted, or does it plateau? Lucas: They do. After two years, job-share partners were promoted at the same rate as full-time employees in comparable roles. That's a huge signal — it means the program isn't a career dead end. In fact, some employees actually said they felt more visible because their partner brought different strengths and they shared credit for successes. Luna: So it's not just about retention — it's about career advancement for people who might otherwise have to step back or leave entirely. Lucas: Precisely. And that's the inclusion piece. When you design a program that works for caregivers, you're also creating pathways for people with disabilities, people in graduate school, people transitioning careers — anyone who needs flexibility without sacrificing ambition. Luna: It's a broader rethink of what a 'job' is. And WorkBetter seems to have done it thoughtfully. Lucas: They did. And I think the lesson is: don't just offer flexibility — design for it. Build the infrastructure, train the managers, measure the outcomes. Otherwise, it's just a policy on paper. Luna: So what's the one concrete takeaway for a listener who wants to push for something like this? Lucas: Find a partner first. Before you talk to your manager, identify a colleague who shares your skills and your need for flexibility. Then go together. It's much harder to say no to two people who've already figured out the logistics. Luna: I love that. And if you've already done that and want to share your story, we'd love to hear from you. We're at fexingo.com. Lucas: And if this show has helped you think through a career move or decision, a small group of listeners keeps it ad-free by chipping in at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. That's literally what funds this — no ads, no sponsors, just listener support. Luna: Yeah, it's a simple way to keep the conversation going, and we appreciate everyone who's part of it. Lucas: So back to WorkBetter — I think the real test will be whether other companies adopt similar models. We're seeing more interest in job-sharing post-pandemic, but the details matter. WorkBetter's example shows it can work, but only if you commit to the full package. Luna: And the full package includes matching, training, and a real commitment to measuring outcomes. That's something we can all take forward. Lucas: Exactly. Thanks for listening, and we'll be back next time with another story of inclusion done right.