IS JOB SHARING WORTHWHILE - A COST-BENEFIT-ANALYSIS IN UK UNIVERSITIES

Around 60 per cent of UK universities practice job sharing. This artic le is based on a survey of Personnel Directors in UK universities conc erning their perceptions of job sharing. These responses were then use d to carry out a cost benefit evaluation of job sharing from the unive rsities' perspective. If productivity of workers in the shared job ros e by as little as 0.35 per cent - one third of one per cent - the esti mated increase in Personnel Section costs would be covered. If there w as a 5 per cent increase in productivity, the ratio of benefits to cos ts would be 14.3 to 1. Universities also save as a result of greater r etention of staff, and there are also important benefits to society, p articularly less overall stress and reduced unemployment levels.