When two mums become one: Job sharing in media – can it work?
UM Sydney's Laura Arnott and Carol Kearney explain the benefits of job sharing in an industry not exactly known for its parental leave benefits.
Looking around our buzzing Sydney agency there are lots of young, ambitious and talented women (and men), mostly in their twenties or early thirties. The vast majority of them are yet to have children.
They love their job, love the industry, the opportunities and the perks that media and advertising offers. And in reality most of them have probably not given much thought to what their career might look like if they end up adding mum into their title.
Historically, media agencies have not been known for being family friendly, with maternity pay only really being brought in in the past five years and flexible working being the exception not the rule. But the tide is on the turn, with flexible working policies being openly promoted more and more with constant reviews and improvements made to maternity and paternity cover. This is such an important shift in focus, as whilst we fully appreciate that these initiatives can incur costs to businesses, the costs are definitely less so than losing young talented women due to lack of support from their agencies.
According to the government’s Workplace Gender Equality Agency, employers are starting to take meaningful action in this space. Property giant Stockland for example, offers a substantial range of parental benefits, including flexible parental leave options, return-to-work support and on-site childcare, to attract and retain employees. Stockland have attested that their parental benefits scheme has led to a higher return-to-work rate and increased employee engagement and loyalty.
But what does flexible working really mean for agency roles where we are at the call of client needs – and ever-changing timelines? Can employees really aspire to making their job fit in with their life and still being recognised and rewarded for great work? To have a flourishing career instead of being relegated to behind the scenes work? For us, two part-time mums, job-sharing a senior client director role at UM Sydney, the answer is ‘yes’!
From our own experience, for it to work, it starts with the business being willing to back you. Bosses need to be open to you setting boundaries around access to your time, to ensure the right team structure is in place to support you and work with you to frame the benefits to clients. They need to trust that it can work and is worth exploring.
In return, they get two proficient, dedicated employees for six days a week (a day’s crossover has been critical in our experience) who work very efficiently and effectively, with high productivity and job satisfaction.
Employers are also able to leverage on the individual strengths of each person and the specific skills and experience they bring to the table. Another surprising benefit we discovered was that unless both people take their holidays at the same time, you would only ever have “half a person” on leave at any given time, something both the teams and clients appreciate.
We believe that it is fundamental that both jobsharers take shared responsibility for the work – sharing both the wins and the challenges. This means supporting each other by presenting a united voice even when you might have a differing opinion. Having said that, healthy discussion on the “big things” can and should happen, but just not in front of a client or the team.
Communication is critical. Find what works for you – whether that be using a project management tool like Trello or daily check-ins, it is about maintaining regular contact so that nothing falls through the cracks and the team do not feel like they are constantly repeating themselves. Good communication is also important in your client and team relationships, ensuring they know who to contact when, making it easy for them and understanding that with all new routines there is always a teething period.
We are very lucky to have been afforded this set up and encourage more agencies to champion it and more part-time employees to ask for it. Aside from flexible working and job-sharing options, better opportunities for working mums should be widely accessible across the board. Not just decent paid maternity, how about salary sacrifice options for day care? Better breast pumping facilities? “Stay-in-touch” programs during maternity leave? Or even more allowances for working from home, for both mum and dad.
So, even if you are far from getting on the ‘mum train’, our advice to you is to start having these discussions with your management now, embrace those who work part time or job share, make it clear that these issues do matter to you – as one day these policies just might affect you too.
Laura Arnott and Carol Kearney are senior client directors at UM Sydney.
