Job shadowing provides a unique opportunity to find out how other staff work. It can help improve communications across departments, faculties and institutes. It is an excellent networking tool, an opportunity for sharing best-practice and for self-development.

A simple definition of job shadowing is where one person (the shadow) visits another (the host) to experience their work by observing them for an agreed period of time. Generally, this will be for one half-day, full-day or two half-days. Job shadowing is very often a learning experience for both parties involved who, in turn, can feed their new knowledge back to their teams.

To find out more about the different types of job shadowing available, please review the QMUL Job Shadowing Scheme guidance documentation [PDF 573KB] and see below:

Benefits

Job shadowing has numerous benefits for individuals, departments, faculties and institutions, including:

• Career development
• Broadening the knowledge and understanding of the participants' roles and departments / teams as well as broader issues in the HE sector
• Increasing understanding of wider institutional goals and objectives
• Bringing people together who might not normally have contact and providing networking opportunities
• Allowing the opportunity to compare and contrast standards and achievements
• Improving communication within the organisation
• Providing the opportunity to observe good practice elsewhere and bring back to current role
• Breaking down barriers and myths about how others work
• Facilitating succession planning

Further Details

If you have any further queries, please contact the Organisational & Professional Development team via opd@qmul.ac.uk.