Job sharing might feel like a recent phenomenon. But Janine and Nayna have been doing it at BT Group for over 20 years.

As Co-ordinator, Frameworks Helpdesk, Janine and Nayna provide vital support to sales teams, dealing with high profile public bodies.

Can you tell us a bit about your role and what you and your team do?

We act as a single point of contact for Crown Commercial Service (CCS), Public Sector customers and BT Sales teams in relation to Framework Contract enquiries and order placement processes.

Our Role is to provide day-to-day management of the various Crown Commercial Service Framework Contracts in support of the Framework Contract Manager and Business Development Managers (BDM’s).

We proactively manage incoming Framework Agreement & Framework Contract queries (i.e., voice and electronic) to ensure timely recording, progression and resolution, and support the Sales, Product and Marketing teams.

Can you tell us how your job sharing arrangement came about and how it works today?

We both come from BT Retail Shops background and when BT announced the closures of all the BT Shops in 2000, we moved to various divisions of the Business and ended working on secondment in Government Sales in Brindley Place in Birmingham. After 6 months of working, a full-time position came up, and there was only one post. At the time, Janine and myself were working part-time and the management team at the time agreed that they would offer us both the post if we agreed to go as Job-Sharers.

We considered this offer and decided to take it on as it was a win-win for both of us.

We were and still are contracted to work 36 hours over 2 weeks. Our days work out as follows:

• Janine – Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday  (Overlap Monday – used as a catch up day).
• Nayna – Monday,  Thursday, and Friday  (Overlap Monday).

Janine and myself were working part-time and the management team at the time agreed that they would offer us both the post if we agreed to go as Job-Sharers. We considered this offer and decided to take it on as it was a win-win for both of us.

Over the years, have you encountered challenges or perceptions related to job sharing versus full-time roles?

When we first started our Job Share role we were part of team of 4 and we were solely supporting the sales account team with their admin (prepping their quotes and contracts). In the earlier years we were adhering to our Job Share hours. Then as management teams changed and new work was taken on and our team was reduced from 4 to 2,  Janine and myself were doing extra days to cover the extra work.

We then moved away from doing the admin work to support the sales team and a new team was formed to support our new workload and we were known as the ‘Frameworks Helpdesk’.

For many years Janine and I managed the helpdesk on our own, our Management team left us to manage our daily tasks between us. We faced many challenges to make sure we did not fail behind in our roles. We had and still have a flexible approach to our working pattern and that is vital as we were working additional hours to keep our work up to date. We would cover each other during leave period or when one of us was not well enough to come to work and during our busy periods we would both be in at the same time working.

What do you consider the key to the success of your job share arrangement? Any advice you would give to others considering a job share?

If considering working as a Job-sharing it is important that you have compatible personalities, similar /compatible backgrounds, a caring attitude and willingness to look out for each other. Trust and open communication between yourselves is important and also being flexible in the job role.

Janine and I have kept a notebook where we would make notes of all our daily tasks and activities taken so when we are covering each other we can easily pick each other's work from where it was left off and can complete.

This has worked for us as we have confidence in each other that if one of us is on leave or sick, we would know our work is covered and would not have to come back from leave to a backlog, which is a relief in itself. The pressure is not there.

For our customers, both internal and external, they know that there is seamless cover so there would be no delays in responses to their communications.

What have been the benefits of your job share for each of you? And what benefits has the business seen?

For our own personal benefits or benefits of others: managing childcare responsibilities, but also beyond that: helping with work life balance, wellbeing etc; having a supportive partner/that extra support in your role and at work. Job sharing benefits aren’t just for women with child care responsibilities, it can be for anyone who needs the flexibility within their working role or life.

There has been no pressure from management to cover when we are busy but if possible, we can help out at these times, so the benefit to the business as we say is '2 heads are better than one'.

Finally, a question for your manager. Keith, what do you have to say about Nayna and Janine's job share arrangement?

'This is a role with a lot of responsibility, dealing with high profile public bodies. Janine and Nayna are a very safe pair of hands - we're extremely fortunate to have them in the team. They're completely joined up so that whoever you go to knows what the other one has done or is doing. It's no different from having one full-time person from a management perspective, except you get two super and dedicated people for the price of one!'