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Cultivating high performance in the workplace does not just happen by chance, and selecting the right candidate is just the beginning of the process.

Before positions are posted and applications submitted, there needs to be a qualified pool of applicants to fill critical staffing needs. After the jobs are filled, you must take steps to maximize skills and performance quality. This helps to successfully integrate the new hire into the organizational system and culture, and helps to ensure that they have a good grasp of the mission, vision and goals and how different roles interact to achieve those goals.

Two techniques — job shadowing and job switching — can help.

Job Shadowing

According to Sondra Clark in her article, "On Job Shadowing," at www.groovejob.com,

"A job shadow involves a person...following someone at their job to see what the position is all about."  Job shadowing gives employees opportunities to see first hand the actual job duties involved and the skill sets needed for careers they might be interested in pursuing.

Shadowing has been used successfully in many states to introduce middle school, high school and college students to "real world" experiences in the work place to help them decide on career paths that are good fits.  This also is advantageous for employers as it helps assure a more informed and committed future work force.   

Job shadowing works equally well as an inter-agency tool to help disseminate knowledge more broadly in the work place which, in turn, helps prevent job silos from forming and helps employees expand their knowledge and skills sets to make their work experience more meaningful and enjoyable. Job satisfaction plays an important role in workforce retention.

Job Switching

Job switching is similar to job shadowing and, while it could also be used as an additional tool to help students — the workforce of tomorrow — learn about different job opportunities within an agency, it is most useful for providing extra job skills for employees who want to expand their knowledge through additional training opportunities. It also is an excellent tool for creating job back-up resources for critical positions within an agency.  Employees or students who are interested in learning about other jobs within the agency or department simply switch jobs for a pre-determined amount of time to learn more about different jobs and how those different jobs interact to accomplish agency goals.

Job shadowing and job switching are closely related models that provide multiple advantages for achieving success in the organization and instilling employee commitment. Incorporating these options into your organizational management agenda:

• Creates career opportunity awareness for high school and college students
• Helps preserve the existing knowledge base while integrating new ideas
• Provides on-the-job training opportunities to increase skill sets
• Provides cross-training for current employee career development
• Improves recruitment success for hard-to-fill or high turnover positions
• Provides more flexibility and improved morale in the workplace
• Cuts costs associated with high turnover, training, and space and equipment needs

Included in this section are tools for implementing these programs and a listing of additional resources that may be helpful. Plant some of these seeds and watch them grow a better workforce today and yield the fruits of highly skilled workers for a strong organization in the future.