Catapulting towards success - jobsharing a job hunt!
Last year we had the pleasure of interviewing Catherine Cullen and Gayle Willis on our podcast. As a pair of charity leaders and communications professionals, their reputation preceded them - and this conversation didn’t disappoint.
Gayle and Catherine first jobshared the role of Executive Director of Communications and Engagement at St Guys & St Thomas’ Foundation. Their story is quite unique – having not known each other or worked together before, they established a very successful partnership, growing their role and remit before landing an incredible new role together. When we interviewed them in episode 13 of our Jobshare Stories podcast, we had a wide-ranging conversation which demonstrated the power and potential of jobsharing and co-leadership.
Coming together: a serendipitous meeting of minds
Prior to jobsharing, Gayle and Catherine separately held various roles in the not-for-profit sector. However, their alignment as a partnership happened as the result of a forward-thinking CEO who saw the potential power of jobshare and brought them together.
The journey started almost 9 years ago when Catherine successfully applied to cover Gayle’s maternity leave. Gayle and Kieron Boyle, the CEO at the time, spotted the opportunity to boost the capability of the role by bringing in Catherine’s complementary skills and her deeper expertise in brand strategy.
When Gayle returned, the charity had grown and sharpened its strategic ambitions. Kieron, Gayle and Catherine identified the opportunity to upweight its strategic and external comms capability and bed in this shared and distinct skillset. And so, the jobshare was created to increase capacity from a three day per week role to a 1.2 FTE role with additional flex to increase when needed.
Whilst this isn’t a typical route to jobshare – it does speak to the power of jobsharing to flex up (and down) as and when business objectives change.
Gayle Willis (left)
and Catherine Cullen (right)
From strangers to sidekicks
Whilst creating a jobshare was a great solution, Gayle and Catherine had never worked together. As they embarked on their new role together, some colleagues seemed to forget that, whilst they knew them both individually, Catherine and Gayle had never worked together and needed time to form a relationship.
But they were given time, and with the support of their line manager and wider team, they shaped how they wanted to work together. It began as a 12-month trial with upfront investment by the organisation into jobshare coaching. This enabled Gayle and Catherine to align on key ways of working for the partnership, understand shared values and motivations and identify the right model of jobshare for them and the organisation. They benefited from a supportive culture and an organisation which was small enough to shape some of the ways of working at a corporate level to support the jobshare. Within a year, a powerful partnership was formed and, in many ways, embedded into the growing organisation.
It’s a real testament to their collaborative nature and investment from their CEO and organisation that these complete strangers formed such a strong and effective partnership.
Jobsharing unlocking capacity to do more and deliver beyond the day job.
Over nearly eight years, the partnership enabled them to do more within their role. The 1.2 FTE providing the physical and cognitive bandwidth to lead the expanding department and take on additional responsibilities. This enabled them to support the CEO and strategy and provided opportunities to develop new skills and experience outside the traditional comms remit.
Working together they took on broader briefs from developing people, culture and impact strategies, to stabilising fundraising performance and incubating new functions. This is an experience we hear often from jobsharers – not only the additional day to deliver more – but the creativity and bravery from being part of a powerful partnership. This can facilitate expanded remits and experiences that support personal growth and deliver for the organisation.
Catherine and Gayle also talk about the tremendous professional and personal benefits of jobsharing. They described how it encouraged them to try things they might not otherwise have done, because of the inbuilt cheerleader and advocate of their jobshare partner. They also talked about how jobsharing requires you to be accountable to a peer and the unique position this creates. We hear this often from jobsharers – you care about the organisation and delivering in your role, but you also have a high commitment to delivering for the other partner and that results in even stronger delivery.
There’s also the learning aspect – it’s rare at work to be able to get counsel from someone who deeply understands your role. Perhaps a line manager has a level of knowledge, but it’s not the same as a jobsharer who is doing it with you. This knowledge can help you learn and develop in ways unmatched to other ways of working and this is one of the many benefits of jobsharing that Catherine and Gayle espouse.
Importantly for Gayle and Catherine, jobsharing has created a resilience that is invaluable in the most senior, demanding roles. In an increasingly burned-out workplace, the value of this can’t be underestimated.
Onwards and upwards!
Gayle and Catherine have now joined a grown group of jobsharers who have successfully navigated the challenges of jobhunting as a pair. They were recently appointed to the role of Managing Director - Strategy, Marketing, Communications and Portfolio at innovation accelerator - Connected Places Catapult.
We caught up with them as they were about to start in their new role and shared the following reflections from this experience:
Discuss and agree criteria
It’s essential to be on the same page when you begin your job search. This includes whether the jobshare is the only goal or one option. Make sure you are clear on the salary requirements, nature of job and scope of role. Our preferred option was to move together but we knew this was going to limit our options. So, we didn't rule out applying for separately for other roles but kept each other informed and agreed not to compete.
Get a green light for the jobshare upfront
Begin with the question ‘are they open to applications from a jobshare.’ We got to the final stage a couple of times when it became clear that the jobshare was an issue for the employer, either from a budget perspective or an attitudinal one. On one occasion the CEO and board members on the final panel were clearly not aligned. We experienced a wide range of awareness and attitudes towards jobshares from recruiters too. We learned that we needed to get in front of them so they got to know us and what we would offer as a jobshare. We had a lot of calls and a lot of coffees to help demystify and champion jobshares and articulate our combined and distinctive skillset. We were ultimately successful when we met a CEO who really understood the value of jobshares, and the value of role modelling flexible and inclusive leadership in organisations.
Share the workload
Job hunting can be hard work so share the load. Having worked together for so long we approached this was an extension of how we work. For anyone new or newer to jobshares, plan ahead who does what and use whatever tools work for you. You both need to do prep but you can reduce the workload by working through who would answer which type of questions.
Preparing for a new role
This is new territory for us as this will be the first time we have started at a new organisation together. So, it’s less ‘how have we’ and more ‘how could we’. We did have conversations upfront with our new CEO Erika Lewis about how we can work together and were encouraged by her experience of and advocacy for jobshares. We’ve also thought carefully about the practical implications of onboarding a jobshare, e.g. working the same days for the first few weeks to avoid colleagues having to do everything twice.
We thought carefully about how we can introduce a jobshare to the new organisation. We’ve learned a lot over the years about what helps maximise it. For example, systems are rarely built to accommodate a jobshare but there’s always a workaround. And we know it can be helpful to have a level of transparency that helps people new to jobshares see how it works. We’re always open to feedback and flexible about working differently depending on what an organisation needs.
Catapulting towards success!
Gayle & Catherine said - “Connected Places Catapult is a fantastic organisation, and this is a really great role for us that builds on what we’ve done before as well as providing exciting room for growth. Although still in the impact space, it’s our first role outside of the not-for-profit sector and there will be much to learn. We’re looking forward to meeting everyone, excited to get started and far less daunted to be taking this step forward together.”
We’re thrilled to see the success of Gayle & Catherine’s search and know they’ll have a huge impact at Connected Places Catapult. It’s great to hear such a success story of jobsharing a job search!
