Job shadowing is a valuable practice that can significantly benefit employers and employees. Exposing less experienced workers to the day-to-day realities of a senior worker or allowing a recent graduate or new hire to see a junior employee’s specific tasks and work gives them an idea of what they can expect as they progress through the company.
Job shadowing is a professional development practice where an individual observes a more experienced colleague or professional as they perform their daily work tasks. The goal is to give the observer—often called the “shadower”—a first-hand look at what a specific role involves, how decisions are made, and how skills are applied in real time.
It can also be a valuable format within your company’s mentoring program that works for your company and the mentorship culture you already have in place. In this article, we’ll share the benefits of using job shadowing in today’s workforce.
Benefits of Job Shadowing
Job shadowing benefits all parties involved. Companies who take the time to design and implement a program can expect to see returns in productivity, creativity, and skill development.
Break Down Silos
Job shadowing experience encourages cross-functional visibility by allowing employees to observe roles outside their own teams or departments. This transparency fosters empathy and collaboration between teams who may otherwise operate in organizational silos. By understanding how different functions contribute to shared goals, employees are more likely to:
- Communicate effectively across teams
- Identify interdependencies in workflows
- Reduce redundant efforts
- Create more holistic solutions to problems
Ultimately, shadowing helps build employee engagement and a unified organization where information flows freely and collaboration is second nature.
Upskill Employees
Shadowing provides a low-risk, high-value learning opportunity for employees to acquire new competencies through real-world observation. Instead of theoretical training, employees witness firsthand:
- Best practices and problem-solving approaches
- Technical skills and tools used in different roles
- Soft skills like communication, leadership, and negotiation
This kind of informal, experiential learning accelerates employee development and prepares them for future leadership roles or stretch projects, making job shadowing a powerful tool for talent development and succession planning.
Engage Employees
Employees who shadow others feel more invested in their own career paths and more connected to the larger mission of the organization. Engagement rises when employees:
- See opportunities for internal mobility
- Gain clarity about desired career paths and internal roles
- Feel supported in their growth and curiosity
Shadowing programs signal that the company values development, helping to improve employee retention, job satisfaction and boost morale.
Foster a Culture of Learning
Job shadowing offers a continuous learning mindset across the organization. It:
- Encourages employees to explore and ask questions
- Normalizes knowledge-sharing and mentorship
- Embeds learning into the daily flow of work
This cultivates an environment where employees don’t just complete tasks—they seek to grow, improve, and contribute to collective learning.
Benefits for Companies
It can be difficult for some employees to understand how their work fits within a wider context, particularly if they have limited interactions beyond their immediate team members. Job shadowing helps them to widen that perspective by seeing how another department works and thinks, encouraging creative problem solving and innovation. In industries that require high technical competence—such as manufacturing and energy/utility—having newer employees shadow senior employees can be an excellent way to get the newer employees comfortable and competent with what they have to do on a day-to-day basis.
Benefits for Employees
For employees, job shadowing experiences allow them to learn about what progress at their company might look like, which motivates them to perform better and encourage loyalty to the company. For employees needing help on determining where to take their careers, job shadowing allows them to test a path in a low-stakes environment. It can also be a great thing to use during employee onboarding to make sure employees are getting acclimated to their responsibilities and duties.
Benefits for Potential New Hires or Students
Job shadowing experiences can also benefit prospective employees or college students who need clarification on their career prospects or are interested in learning about your company. Giving them a positive experience can encourage them to apply for opportunities as they arise and talk about your company positively to others.
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Job Shadowing & Mentorship
Research shows mentoring improves employee engagement, retention rates, and leadership development. Job shadowing opportunities can and should be a part of a well-rounded mentorship program. Exposing employees to another part of the business can prevent stagnation and displacement for employees in their roles. Job shadowing can also be the beginning of an ongoing mentoring relationship that can help new or junior employees as they progress through the company.
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How Does Job Shadowing Work?
When it comes to how job shadowing works, the best practice for a company will depend on its goals, size, and resources. For example, in instances where a company implements job shadowing as a way to train its employees, they’ll want to match participants who are in the same department, but at different stages of seniority. In instances where the purpose is promoting cross-functional collaboration, it makes sense to match employees who are in different departments but at a similar level.
Companies should also think about their goals in terms of the type of job shadowing that takes place. A junior/senior employee job shadowing arrangement should include a lot of observation, and ideally some supervised hands-on experience with a clear structured framework and checklist in place. In cross-departmental programs, a briefing structure where the employees have more freedom to tailor their experience might work best.
How to Build a Job Shadowing Program at Your Organization
To build a program in a way that works with your company’s realities and goals, consider taking the following steps.
Step 1: Set goals for the program
Start by identifying your goals for the program. For example, if you want to attract younger talent, then you might want to design your program to have college students or new hires shadow an employee. If leadership development is what you’re after, it makes more sense to have a junior employee shadowing a senior employee or a senior employee shadowing another senior employee
Step 2: Create a framework for job shadowing
The next step is to create a framework for the program. At what scale are you looking to introduce the program? If you want to introduce it across multiple offices, greater coordination (and likely higher costs) will be required than if you were to introduce it within one office or department.
To ensure that participants get the most out of the experience, it’s also worth outlining what it will entail. Will it be strictly focused on observation or would focusing on providing hands-on experience make more sense for your goal? You may want to include both. Even if you want to avoid setting a prescribed framework, at least create a guideline that participants can refer to.
Step 3: Educate employees, managers and stakeholders on the benefits of job shadowing
If you have a plan but still need to convince your colleagues, now’s the time to educate others on its benefits. Talk about the potential opportunities it can create, and refer to specific examples of companies that have successfully instituted it. Ensure you highlight how it contributes to the company’s bottom line when securing the buy-in from leadership.
Step 4: Incorporate job shadowing opportunities into your new hire employee onboarding program
Once you get the buy-in from the appropriate parties, it’s time to formally introduce it to the company and include it in your new hire employee onboarding program. Ensure that both present and future employees are aware of the program and how they might be able to participate if they are eligible.
Step 5: Help train participants for job shadowing
As with any pilot program in a company, it’s essential to take the time to prepare participants for what they can expect before taking part in the program. Ensure that both parties are on the same page regarding what they expect from the program and what they can commit. Help them to understand what they’re aiming to get out of it by arming them with the right questions, goals and milestones.
Step 6: Gather program feedback and make improvements
With any new initiative, it’s likely that you won’t get it perfect the first time. Take this opportunity to learn what works and what you can do better next time by gathering feedback from participants. You might discover that what works for other companies doesn’t quite translate to yours, and that’s okay. Trial and error is part of the process.
Step 7: Determine next steps
Don’t forget to consider what comes after. How can you capitalize on the benefits that it provides? How do you know if the program has worked? Connect it back to the overall goals of the program and measure the progress. Take the feedback that you’ve gotten from the participants to decide how you can implement it in an ongoing learning and development initiative.
Build Your Job Shadowing Initiative with Chronus
From upskilling and reskilling to a positive employer brand, the benefits of job shadowing are numerous. Regardless of your company’s size, job shadowing experiences can be a powerful tool that makes an effective, well-rounded mentorship program.
Chronus mentoring platform can help you design an impactful program. The platform’s AI-powered matching technology can help you match the right program participants, and the customizable reporting and dashboards can help you keep track of the program’s ROI and impact.
Chronus can help you minimize administrative burdens and maximize job shadowing benefits. The sooner you start the process, the earlier your company (and employees) can reap the rewards.
FAQs
What is Job Shadowing?
Job shadowing—also sometimes referred to as work shadowing—generally refers to observing a professional to better understand what they do on a day-to-day basis. Typically, it falls into one of the following categories:
- Observation—one person follows another as they go through their workday. Depending on the role, that may involve watching tasks, meetings or customer/client interactions.
- Regular briefing—the person shadows only in specific situations, projects, or meetings. There is a briefing at the beginning and a de-briefing at the end.
- Hands-on experience—this allows the person shadowing to conduct some tasks under the senior employee’s supervision.
What is the difference between job shadowing, internships & apprenticeships?
While some companies provide job shadowing opportunities to college students, it’s not the same as internships and apprenticeships. Internships and apprenticeships are often temporary positions in the field that the student or apprentice is working towards, and tend to have a longer duration than job shadowing.
Depending on your size, resources, and level of leadership support, job shadowing can work on a small scale, such as within one department or team, or on a larger scale. Insurance providers Allianz Partners implemented a program in 2018 for executives worldwide where they spend a week working in (or alongside) their colleague in another function or location. Companies with similar sizes can also consider implementing something similar as part of their leadership development or mentoring program.
Why start a job shadowing program?
Rapidly learning new skills is needed now more than ever. With the working world constantly evolving, it’s important that employees new and old learn new skills and knowledge necessary to meet the jobs of today and tomorrow. Job shadowing helps employees learn new skills, break down silos, engage employees and build a continuous culture of learning.
Should you pair job shadowing with other development programs?
Nothing is a perfect ‘check box’ for everything, so that’s why it’s great to pair development programs together. Job shadowing can be paired with mentoring programs, coaching programs, internal career pathing or learning and development training programs. Make sure you are clear on the goals of the programs to make sure they align when combining them with other initiatives.
How does job shadowing fit into mentoring?
Job shadowing can be integrated as part of a mentoring program as an activity or task. It is a great way to provide people on the job experience or exposure to another person’s set of duties. Job shadowing helps serve as a practical extension of a mentoring relationship, offering mentees the chance to observe and learn from their mentors (or others) in action. While mentoring typically involves discussion, reflection, and guidance, shadowing adds an experiential learning layer, allowing mentees to see theory in practice and gain exposure to role-specific tools, processes, and environments.
How long does a job shadowing program usually last?
The duration of job shadowing often depends on the goals of the program and the intended knowledge or skill learned. With this in mind, programs can last:
- half a day or a full day – for quick exposure and career exploration
- 1-2 weeks – for skill development and onboarding support
- 2-4 weeks – to build internal mobility and leadership skills
