Job Shadowing

What job shadowing is

Job shadowing (الظل الوظيفي), also called work shadowing, is an arrangement in which an employee accompanies a colleague through the colleague’s ordinary working day, for a short period, in order to see the colleague at work. The employee who does the shadowing does not take over the tasks. The colleague carries on with the work as on any other day, and the person accompanying them watches it being done.

Two people are therefore involved in job shadowing: the person shadowing, who accompanies the colleague and watches, and the colleague whose work it is. The tasks remain with the colleague for the whole of the shadowing period.

What job shadowing passes on that a training course does not

A training course passes on what can be put into words. A course can state it and explain it, because it can be said. Job shadowing passes on what is hard to put into words, and the knowledge in question is of three kinds:

• How the colleague decides when priorities conflict. It is the choice made when two demands arrive together and both cannot be met at once. The person shadowing sees which demand the colleague takes up, at the moment the colleague takes it up.
• Whom the colleague calls when something unexpected comes up. It concerns the people the work depends on. Watching the colleague shows whom they turn to when the work departs from its expected course.
• Which step the colleague leaves out because the situation does not allow it. It rests on a judgement about when a step does not fit the case in hand. Shadowing shows the step being passed over in that situation.

Knowledge of this kind may not be carried by any written procedure at all, and so it stays with the person who practises it. Each of the three items above is decided by the colleague at the moment of doing the work. Job shadowing reaches that knowledge by letting another employee watch the colleague while the work is being done.

When job shadowing is used in practice

In practice, job shadowing is used in the following situations.

• Onboarding a new employee. Job shadowing is used as part of employee onboarding, before the new employee is handed their tasks. The new employee first sees the tasks being done by a colleague, and the tasks are handed over afterwards.
• Preparing for job rotation. Shadowing a role before job rotation (التدوير الوظيفي) lets the employee know what they are moving to before they move. The employee sees the work of the role they are going to while they still hold the role they are in.
• Before a holder of unshared knowledge leaves. Where an employee is close to retirement or to leaving the organisation, and knowledge has gathered with that employee that nobody else shares, a colleague can shadow them. The colleague then sees that knowledge in use while the employee who holds it is still at work. Once that employee has gone, the knowledge can no longer be watched in use.
• Exploring an internal path. An employee who wants to explore a career path inside the organisation can shadow the work of that path before asking to move to it. The employee sees the work of that path at close range before the request is made.

What makes job shadowing work

Job shadowing works when the arrangement carries the following conditions.

• A set duration and a written purpose. It states what the person shadowing is expected to know at the end of the period. The duration fixes when the shadowing ends, and the written purpose fixes what the person shadowing should know by then.
• Time for questions after the shadowing, not during it. It is set apart because interruptions hold up the person whose work it is. That person is doing their real work while being watched, and a question asked in the middle of a task stops the task. Questions are kept for a time set aside after the shadowing, when the person whose work it is can answer them without stopping a task.
• An agreement on privacy. It is needed where the role handles employee data or customer data. The agreement makes clear that shadowing grants no new right of access: the person shadowing watches the work of the role, and the access the role holds does not pass to them through the shadowing.
• A tangible output. It can be as short as a single page written by the person shadowing, not by the person whose work it is. Without such an output, the shadowing turns into attendance that leaves no effect behind it.

What job shadowing can and cannot build

Job shadowing is observation, not practice. It answers the question “what does this work look like?”, and it does not build a skill on its own, because a skill needs the work to be actually performed under supervision. For that reason job shadowing is used as a way into on the job training (التدريب العملي), not as a substitute for it. As a way in, job shadowing comes before the practice: the employee first sees the work, and then performs it under supervision in on the job training.

The distinction turns on who performs the task. In job shadowing the person whose work it is performs the task, and the person shadowing watches. In on the job training the learner performs the task, and someone supervises the performance. Watching a task shows the person shadowing what the work looks like, but the skill of doing the task still needs the task to be performed under supervision.

How job shadowing differs from mentoring

Mentoring (الإرشاد المهني) is an extended relationship in which the person with longer experience guides the path of a person with less experience. Mentoring continues over time, and its subject is the path of the person being guided.

Job shadowing is a short event concerned with one particular job. It may be over within a single day, without any continuing relationship arising between the person shadowing and the person whose work it is.

This is an explanation of the concept, not legal advice.