Job Shadowing

A learning method where a new or incoming employee follows an experienced colleague directly at work.

01Definition

What it means

Job shadowing means accompanying an expert in day-to-day operations and observing how they respond to real situations. The goal is to capture what can't be described in a procedure — timing, spotting a deviation, handling an exception.

02Why it matters

Why it matters

A large share of key know-how is tacit and only shows up in a specific situation. Shadowing is effective but costly and time-limited: it only captures whatever happens to occur during a few days.

03In practice

A real-world example

A new dispatcher spends two weeks alongside an experienced colleague. But the critical situation that would have made the shadowing most valuable doesn't happen to occur during that time.

04Vedomex

How it relates to Vedomex

Vedomex supplements shadowing with systematic capture of situations that don't happen every day. The expert describes them in a guided interview, and they remain permanently available to the organization.

See how Vedomex helps capture company know-how.