Job Shadowing Is Effective On-the-Job Training

Job shadowing provides a far richer experience than reading a job description or doing an informational interview during which an employee describes his or her work.

Job shadowing allows the observer to see and understand the nuances of a particular job. The job shadowing employee is able to observe how the employee does the job, the key deliverables expected from the job, and the employees with whom the job interacts.

He or she can attend employee meetings, visit customers, attend conference or training events, and become completely familiar with the job. 

Who Participates in Job Shadowing?

Job shadowing is effective when an organization is onboarding a new employee and when longer term employees want to learn about different jobs in the company. An employee may have expressed interest in doing a different job, for example, but he or she is not sure about leaving the tried and true for an uncertain future.

Job shadowing can provide enough information about the new and different job to allay the employee's fear of the unknown. So, job shadowing is a handy tool when you want employees to have career opportunity via job transfers or lateral moves.

Job shadowing is also effective for college and high school students who may want to test their interest in a career by finding out what happens in a particular job day-by-day.

Job shadowing is an essential component of any internship experience; interns need the opportunity to experience a range of jobs within a company while they work in their internship. (Having an intern sit at a desk and do the same tasks for the duration of the internship is indicative of poor planning and providing a failed intern experience.)

When Is Job Shadowing Most Important and Effective?

Job shadowing is effective for any job in which the seeing is more graphic than the telling, or when the seeing is an important component of the learning. When job shadowing, the individual sees the actual performance of the job in action. But, in job shadowing, the participant also sees and experiences the nuances of how the service is provided or the job performed.

The participant experiences the employee’s approach, the interpersonal interaction required, the steps and actions necessary, and the components needed to effectively perform the job that the employee might never think to mention.

While all jobs can have a component of job shadowing as part of their training and employee development plan, job shadowing is especially effective for jobs such as these.

When Is Job Shadowing Essential?

Finally, job shadowing becomes essential when an employee is trained internally for his or next role. For example, the HR manager shadows the HR director when the director is expecting a promotion to vice president; an HR assistant shadows the HR generalist when the generalist expects a promotion to HR manager.

Find out more about why organizations might want to use job shadowing as an essential component in their on-the-job training methods.