Job shadowing programs are a valuable resource for businesses looking to onboard new employees—sometimes, the fastest way to learn the ropes is to watch people in action.
These programs can also allow existing employees to enhance their skills and knowledge with some on-the-job, dynamic continuous training. They’re also a great help for students, new hires, and existing employees in gaining practical experience and understanding of the processes and procedures involved in their work. It can be a great opportunity for students to learn more about a role before deciding what to study at college.
If you’re interested in implementing a job shadowing program, there are several key steps and strategies you can use to ensure the success of your own program.
One additional tip that can make a big impact is to include new employee welcome notes as part of your job shadowing program. This can be a great way to introduce your new employees to your company culture and make them feel welcomed and supported from day one. You can include information about your company’s values, mission, history, and any other relevant information that can help them better understand your company.
So without further ado, here are seven ways to get started.
1. Define your program objectives
Before you start putting your job shadowing program into action, you need to clearly define your objectives. Why? Because that’s how you will know if the program is successful. So you need to ask yourself: “What do I hope to achieve through this program?”
Are you looking to onboard new hires more efficiently? Are you perhaps hoping to enhance the skills of existing employees? Are you hoping to provide opportunities for professional development? By identifying your goals up front, you’ll be better equipped to design a program that meets your company’s needs.
For example, say you run an AI software company. Your first goal could look like “By the end of the first week, I want my new employees to understand the systems we use as well as know at least 3 ETL examples and how to carry them out.”
If you are looking to enhance the skills of your employees or onboard new hires more efficiently, you might want to consider incorporating video based learning into your job shadowing program. This can help your participants learn through a combination of visual and auditory learning, making the program more engaging and effective. You could include video tutorials, webinars, or recorded sessions with experienced professionals to supplement the shadowing experience.
2. Identify roles and responsibilities
Once you’ve defined your objectives, your next step is to identify the roles and responsibilities involved in your program. You need to decide who will be responsible for coordinating the program, selecting participants, and mediating the whole shadowing experience. You should clearly define these roles to ensure that all the people involved understand exactly what is expected of them.
3. Develop a process and procedures document
For your job shadowing program to be consistent and effective for all of the participants involved, you can opt to develop a document outlining the process and procedures involved, from how participants are selected, what activities they are expected to engage in during the experience, and finally, how feedback will be collected and analyzed.
You could have training goals that you intend to monitor as well as a timeline to reach them. You can put this into a shareable format so your colleagues can easily access the document and suggest improvements. Actively share the document with all participants for clarity and transparency. This is particularly useful for any people doing work placements and experiences as part of their degree.
4. Select your participants
When selecting participants for your job shadowing program, you might want to opt for individuals who appear to be motivated to learn, engaged with the content of the work, and committed to completing the program. You might also want to consider factors such as skill level, job responsibilities, and availability when making your selection.
In addition, you could also consider using a coaching management platform to provide ongoing support and training for participants as they progress through the program.
Do you want to open up the program to anyone interested, or do you want to be more selective and only open it up to people in a particular field? One benefit of opening it up to anyone who shows a lot of enthusiasm, regardless of job experience, is that it might help them to grow in exciting and unexpected ways, and you might be surprised at the benefits to your company.
On the other hand, only offering it to individuals with a clear line of professional progression through the program can save resources and efforts and be better in terms of ROI. Being too prescriptive, however, can end up inhibiting the growth and potential of your company.
5. Establish clear channels of communication
Effective communication is vital to the success of any job shadowing program. Communication between participants, mentors, and program coordinators will make the whole process run much more smoothly, with clear expectations expressed, as well as the ability to raise questions or concerns. This could look like implementing regular check-in sessions, feedback opportunities, and any other form of communication as needed.
Regular opportunities for communication are essential for the program not to become a shadowing mess and will help both shadowers and shadowees get the most out of the experience. One tip: schedule the communication sessions; don’t just expect them to occur organically. When there is any sort of power imbalance, it makes it very hard for these things to just happen unprompted.
6. Communicate clear expectations
Setting clear expectations for everyone involved in a job shadow program is essential for the program to run smoothly. These expectations can center on all sorts of topics, from guidelines for behavior and expectations around professionalism to hours spent together to participation expected.
If you need your shadower to be at the office at 9 am, you need to tell them that before you start. If you want to work on a MLOps data warehouse, make sure to tell them to brush up on their knowledge the day before so you can get stuck right in. If phones aren’t permitted during work time, it would be much better to say that beforehand to avoid seeming like you’re telling the person off when it does occur.
7. Merge with your new hire onboarding system
Finally, our final tip is to consider integrating your job shadowing program with your new hire onboarding process. By offering your new employees the opportunity to shadow experienced professionals, you can help to speed up their learning journey and ensure that they have witnessed first-hand what their new role entails.
This also allows you to avoid recreating the wheel when it comes to onboarding. You can simply use what you already have in conjunction with your shadow program.
Final thoughts
Implementing a job shadowing program across your business can be an invaluable investment in your business as a whole and in your employees’ careers. We hope these seven tips will aid you in designing and implementing a program that both meets your needs as a company, and allows your colleagues to develop their skills and grow professionally.
