Best Practice
A catalyst for change
Jamie Shields has worked at talent solutions firm AMS for five years. He says he...read more
JP Morgan highlights job-sharing possibilities
The investment bank is not necessarily known for challenging the norms, but it’s impressive around job sharing.
When it comes to job flexibility, global investment banks haven’t always been the companies you’d turn to for innovation.
But at the recent FlexPo conference in London, which celebrated different ways of working, J.P. Morgan was excited to share its investment in job-sharing.
It’s generally recognised that underrepresented talent often require or ask for more flexibility. And with employers trying to recruit a more diverse workforce, it makes sense they are investigating different ways of bringing the best people to their company.
“The shift isn’t just where [talent] is working, it’s when,” says Rebecca Davies, Lead for Talent Redeployment and Jobshare EMEA at the firm.
The business wants, she reveals, “People [who] put team before I.”
All the J.P. Morgan case studies they highlighted at FlexPo were women, but as Kelly Keating, a vice-president says, “There isn’t a one-size-fits-all.”
What is key to success it seems, is building relationships during the recruitment process. “From a recruiting perspective we are encouraging candidates to get together in a social setting [beforehand],” says Davies. “It’s so important for job-sharers not to feel alone.”
They are keen to iterate that job-sharing also puts the spotlight on peer-to-peer accountability.
Keating interviews her job share applicants in pairs, but others do it separately. And like a lot of best practice in the employment space, role modelling is crucial.
As Keating says, “Having that role model advocate really helped me.”
J.P. Morgan has partnered with the 3rd party company Roleshare to execute their strategy in this space, but it’s clear that with the right will, this kind of approach to jobs even within a sector that is renowned for its long hours can be replicated elsewhere and with fewer extraneous elements.
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