Job Shadowing and its Types

Job Shadowing and its Types

Job Shadowing (JS) is a unique kind of on-the-job training in which employees of one area of an organization are given the opportunity to work alongside another individual, usually in a different area of that organization.
JS is where an individual from one area of the organisation has the opportunity to work alongside and gain experience of the role of another individual, and gain an insight into that particular work area. It can also be used to provide an individual within a department the opportunity to work alongside more experienced colleagues so they can learn and develop within their current role.
The visiting staff member can be called the "Shadow" and the person that agrees to be shadowed can be called the "Host". In this approach, the visitor literally accompanies the Host like a shadow, thus this naming.

Types of Job Shadowing

There are three ways in which Job Shadowing can happen:

1. OBSERVING: The Shadow observes the day to day work of the Host. Therefore, he follows him in meetings, observe customer dealings, etc. This will give the Shadow a practical insight of the job roles of the Host in typical workdays.
2. BRIEFING: Not everything the Host is doing (or not) can be observed. There are some things that happen on autopilot. To make the Shadow understand such things, including nitty gritty details of the role, the Host can offer a regular briefing to the Shadow.
3. HANDS-ON: What better ways to learn something than by doing it? The Host can (periodically) delegate some of his tasks to the Shadow as an extension of the observation. By repeating and doing what the Host did in front of him, the Shadow gets an in-depth experience of how it feels to play the roles of the Host while being closely observed by the Host.

JS is often used as a part of an organization's Job Rotation program. While job rotation was primarily introduced so that conveyor belt workers would tire less quickly, JS is unique in its own right, because the primary objective of JS is to provide a means for career exploration for employees in different domains. Any further info? Do you have experience to shadow or being shadowed?
Source: Job Shadowing Guidelines by University of Bristol

		Comments Sort by date Sort by rating Rating
		4 Jaap de Jonge Editor, Netherlands
	Applications of Job Shadowing I've had no personal experiences with Job Shadowing (JS), but I wish I had! Looking closely how a mo... Sign up

		4 Anonymous
	Work Shadowing Job Shadowing is also called: "Work Shadowing". Shadowing differs from internships and work placemen... Sign up

		3 Anonymous
	Benefits of Job Shadowing for the Host - Network with colleagues from different areas - Share your experience with others - Learn from yo... Sign up

		2 Anonymous
	Benefits of Job Shadowing for the Shadow (Visitors Guest) - Understand how other departments work - Learn from the experiences of colleagues - Understand an... Sign up

		2 Anonymous
	Benefits of Job Shadowing for the Organization - Improve communication across departments, faculties and sites and encourage continuous improvement... Sign up

		2 Anonymous
	Practical Job Shadowing Tips for Hosts - When is the best time for a guest to get a good overview of the role? - What do I need to inform ... Sign up

		2 Anonymous
	Practical Job Shadowing Tips for Shadows (Visitors, Guests) - What do I want to know about the job? - What questions do I want to ask? - What do you want to k... Sign up

		2 Anonymous
	Coming Out of the Shadow Job shadowing as a concept reads interesting. It would definitely give protection for the learner to... Sign up

		4 David Wilson Manager, Canada
	Team Integration - Knowledge Sharing The previous posts provide some great information. We used to promote team sharing to increase the ... Sign up

		2 Ashok GANESAN Analyst, Austria
	Shadowing for Tacit Knowledge Transfer Shadowing is a powerful technique to enable effective tacit (non-codifiable) knowledge transfer. It ... Sign up

		1 Maurice Hogarth Consultant, United Kingdom
	Usages of Job Shadowing for Personal and Organisational Performance Enhancement Job Shadowing has been used in my experience: To enable individuals to have a practical experie... Sign up