Virtual Job Shadowing: How to Do It Successfully

Excerpt

Virtual job shadowing can be an effective tool for discovering new career opportunities. Learn how to do it successfully and benefit your company in the process too.

Do not index

Ready to Publish

What Is Virtual Job Shadowing?

Virtual job shadowing is "Bring Your Kid to Work Day" for grownups. We joke, but only sort of.

Job shadowing is a learning process where the shadower works alongside an employee so that they can learn what they do. Typically, this happens in a real-world environment—but nowadays, it can be done online, too. The details of how shadowing works vary widely depending on the organization’s goals, ranging from a few hours to a regular long-term commitment.

Shadowing is different from an internship because the job shadower typically has no duties. They're merely there to observe and ask questions, although they may be able to participate in a limited fashion at times actively.

Sometimes, job shadowing is done as a training tool. Employers offer job shadowing opportunities to familiarize employees with different roles before transitioning them to them.

Other times, though, it's a chance for an employee or prospective employee to learn the nuts and bolts of a profession they may be curious about, which might inform their decision on whether to apply. Shadowing programs for employees leads to greater internal mobility between teams, which lends itself to higher job satisfaction.

Ok, you're saying—I get it, but what about *virtual* job shadowing? It's essentially the same thing, but online. A clever manager can take the challenge of online job shadowing, preserve the pros of traditional shadowing, and even eliminate some cons.

In this article, we'll discuss how you can do that with your business and share some tools to help you do so.

But first: what's so good about job shadowing anyway? Does my organization require it?

Benefits of Virtual Job Shadowing

Have you ever heard the term "fake it 'til you make it"? With a good job shadowing program, you can minimize the amount of faking an employee has to do in their new role. In other words, it puts new hires in a position to succeed.

Here's an example in more concrete terms. As a child, there's a solid chance that you had a moment when you were convinced you wanted to be a veterinarian when you grew up. Working with all those cute animals—we sure can't blame you.

Assuming you followed through with that dream, wouldn't it have been nice to know that "Pet Executioner" is probably a more apt title for the job—before you shelled out all that money for vet school? Yep, a job shadowing opportunity would have been nice.

Some of the benefits of virtual and non-virtual job shadowing for employees includes:

Learning what the job is really like (not just what it seems like).

Meeting new professional contacts and networking.

Understanding your skills and limitations.

Getting to know the company's work culture.

Increasing the chance of you getting hired by the company.

Virtual job shadowing isn't just good for the shadower, though. It can also offer benefits to the organization:

Increasing the success rate with new hires.

Eliminating cost and time spent searching for external talent (with internal referral shadowing).

Making sure the employee is a good company culture fit.

Reducing time spent training the shadower post-hire.

Gaining feedback on company processes from fresh eyes.

How Does Virtual Job Shadowing Work?

This all sounds great—you may say—but how does one do that virtually? Certain things done in a traditional job shadow, like a tour of the facilities, aren't so easily done online. Sure, you could strap a GoPro to your head and livestream a jog through the office, but we don't necessarily recommend that.

In the case of virtual shadowing, you can still offer a tour of the company's virtual hub. This includes tools essential to the role, like project management software, chat programs, and video conferencing apps.

Have the shadower and the shadowed get to know each other over a video call. By screen-sharing and talking through the work tasks, there's little work done remotely that can't be conveyed effectively.

Tips for Making It a Success

Define the program goals

Make sure it's clear what you hope to accomplish with the program. Are you aiming to increase internal mobility, reduce training time for new hires, or simply boost communication between teams? Set the goals, and define how they're measured.

Outline the program framework

Create clear guidelines on what the shadowing program will entail. Determine who's eligible to participate, how long it will last, and how any potential problems can be addressed.

This is a great time to assess how it will impact the host. How can they expect to be compensated? Effective job shadowing shouldn't feel like a one-way transaction.

Get everyone on the same page before they start.

Before the shadowing begins, communicate with everyone involved what is expected of them and how they can benefit from it. After all, you don't want your employee to feel like they've been given a surprise babysitting assignment on top of their regular job duties.

Make it a regular part of employee training.

Job shadowing helps improve employee engagement, strengthen interoffice communication, and promote productivity. Make it a consistent feature of your employee training—some may even see it as a perk, giving them a chance to explore other opportunities.

Encourage proper preparation

Don't let the shadower and host arrive without a plan of action. You should have a "lesson plan" for the day as a host. As a shadower, come with a list of potential questions and a clear goal for the session. And pants... not just sweatpants.

Ensure it's as participatory as possible

Especially with virtual job shadowing, it's easy for the shadower to feel like a fly on the wall rather than an active participant. Encourage all parties to turn their mics and cameras on, so they can communicate as they would if they were meeting in person.

If possible, allow the shadower to experience external interactions relevant to the role, like joining a client call or a team Zoom meeting. An excellent job shadowing experience should be like "show and tell," but with more show and less tell.

Make technology an asset, not an obstacle.

It's easy to focus on the downsides of conducting a job shadowing virtually. However, technology has many solutions that can allow virtual shadowing to surpass the in-person format in terms of efficiency and effectiveness.

Pre-recorded training guides, videos, and apps for delivering feedback are potent tools for transferring knowledge and bettering internal programs—so use them to your advantage.

Implement a backup plan

We don't need to tell you: technology doesn't always work as intended. Be sure to test any tech part of the shadowing thoroughly. There's nothing worse than planning a day's work around demonstrating the project management software, only to find you can't connect to the server come showtime.

Many jobs have ebbs and flows in terms of workload, too. If the job shadow occurs on a day when there doesn't seem to be anything to work on, make sure you've got a backup plan. For example, use Splainy to create a pre-recorded guide on performing an internal process (we'll talk more about Splainy later). That way, the new employee will have something to review meanwhile.

Stick the landing

Don't just leave the shadower hanging once they've finished shadowing. Make sure they're clear on what to expect next, whether that's a future job opportunity or further options to expand their development.

If there isn't an immediate new position available for the successful job shadower, keep them informed of the situation. Help them feel like they've accomplished something tangible by facilitating ongoing networking between the new employee and the team they shadowed.

Get feedback from both sides.

Ask the new employee and the job-shadowing host how they felt about the process. Use their feedback to improve it. Implement the feedback, and make the rigmarole part of the company's job shadowing procedure. Then rinse and repeat.

Tools for Virtual Job Shadowing

At this point, you're probably raring to go and get started on your hot new virtual job shadowing program. But wait—there's more! Let us introduce you to a tool to help conduct your shadowing in the best way possible.

Job Shadowing with Splainy

As mentioned, you can use pre-recorded media to your advantage in virtual job shadowing. Rather than stumble over your words attempting to explain a task while simultaneously performing it, use Splainy to document internal procedures in an easy-to-understand format.

Splainy is a tool that combines elements of both video recording tools and step-by-step guides. Think of it as an automatic step-by-step guide creator with video recording included.

When your goal is transferring knowledge efficiently, Splainy can be used to create media that effectively teach a new employee how to perform any number of virtual processes.

Unlike manually writing a step-by-step guide, Splainy does the work for you automatically. Simply click record in your browser or desktop app, perform the intended process, and let Splainy turn each action into individual steps.

Once finished, Splainy creates a visual guide that combines the granular detail of a step-by-step guide with the immediacy of a video tutorial. Creators can even include a video of themselves talking through each step.

With real-time virtual communication, Splainy can be a potent tool in the virtual job shadow conductor's arsenal.

Summing It Up

Virtual job shadowing benefits everyone: the shadower, the host, and the organization itself. It's a great way to improve new hire retention, gain new skills, and find better career fits for existing team members.

Don't keep it a secret, though. Communicate continuously with all parties involved, letting them know how these benefits and opportunities can expand their horizons. By doing so, you can encourage employees to take advantage of learning opportunities themselves and reach their full potential.