It is not an innovative method or discovery by some guru. Likely, you have already done job shadowing at some point, as it is the technique of learning by watching. Therefore, we take advantage of this article to give name and guidelines to this well-known method and highlight the importance of correctly teaching and incorporating the new workers into the team.
In other articles, we have already stressed the importance of doing a good onboarding. Someone’s beginning in the company is vital to teach the main values and ways of working, and create connections with the team... and job shadowing can be a good way, among others, to practice good onboarding.
What is job shadowing?
It is about learning by observing what a co-worker does during one or several working days. As the name itself expresses, this concept refers to being another one's shadow while working: following and observing how a colleague works with the purpose of learning.
The objective of practicing job shadowing is to optimize and speed up the incorporation process of newcomers. Observing how the various tasks are performed makes it easier to retain the information, instead of reading or just listening to how everything is done.
IT IS IMPORTANT to have prior preparation for what will be done while job shadowing. Carry out the tasks that the new person will adopt, and avoid unnecessary meetings, or tasks that require high concentration levels. By doing organizing beforehand will optimize the day and the tasks!
Job shadowing can last from a single day to a couple of weeks. Each position and company can adapt to the way that fits best with the tasks, the culture of the company, and the people involved. Little by little, tasks can also be transferred to the new person so that they are well accompanied during the transition process.
Other benefits...
- Opportunities to improve. As the worker is teaching and being observed by a colleague, he/she will do consciously tasks that usually are more automatic. Thus, deficiencies or opportunities for improvement in day-to-day processes can be detected.
- Better integration of the newcomer, as they have a reference partner for solving any problems that appear at the beginning. It is also useful to create interpersonal relationships with other colleagues.
- Doubts and problems are anticipated. By practicing beforehand with a colleague, doubts or troubles might arise before having to work autonomously.
- Reinforcement of workers’ confidence. With job shadowing the company relies on its workers to be the preachers of the company culture. As a consequence, they might feel closer to the company and reinforce the relationship.
Other Job Shadowing Styles
Although this practice is not very common in Catalonia, job shadowing for students is carried out among last-year students who want to have a closer look at the working environment. Spending a few hours job shadowing a professional in their career field allows them to learn more about the different opportunities.
Facing the day-to-day life of someone working on what they will end up doing might be a motivation to end the career or, on the contrary, discover that maybe they don’t like it so they have to discover different specialization before entering to work somewhere.
Shadow Coaching is very similar to Job shadowing. Instead of observing a worker with similar functions, the goal is to follow someone with a higher rank (responsible, manager, etc.) to learn and develop leadership skills. In other words, in this case, it focuses more on the skills, or soft skills, to be applied on a day-to-day basis than the tasks themselves.
Knowing Job shadowing and other practices can help companies to organize the onboarding process more successfully and, thus, ensure better incorporation for the newcomers!
