Last week, one of my coworkers mentioned that she tried to design something for a client presentation. She is a member of the sales team and not a designer, but since it was just a simple workflow diagram and not anything overly creative, she thought it seemed easy enough to do it on her own. That is, until she got started and realized that the process was actually quite complicated.
"I have a newfound appreciation and respect for the graphic designers," she said, laughing at her futile attempt.
Everything seems easier when someone else is doing it. Often it isn't until we experience something firsthand that we discover the difficulty of a job or task.
Thankfully there is fairly simple practice – "job shadowing" – that gives your team members a broader understanding of the complexities within the company and how different job functions mesh within the organization and contribute to its overall health and success.
When you hear the term "job shadowing," you might think of ambitious new hires, fresh out of college, unfamiliar with the day-to-day functions of your organization. Job shadowing can be an important first step in bringing new employees into the fold and helping them achieve an understanding of the department structure. But these same tactics can have great influence when used with your current employees, providing you with variety of benefits, including:
Greater Efficiency – When employees understand the roles beyond their specific functions, they see how their job fits within the larger framework of the company. Providing more interaction lets employees become comfortable working beyond their team and facilitates collaboration to improve productivity. Sometimes this team approach will provide additional quality checks or eliminate extra steps. Other times it can result in a complete reorganization of a long-standing process. Plus, cross-training will give you the ability to make better use of downtime and have extra trained staff members to help in other areas during times of increased workload and backlogs.
Camaraderie – Pairing up employees helps to build solidarity, improves morale, and boosts overall effective communication within the company. The ability to interact with members of other departments and across a variety of teams helps employees work together as a larger unit and more seamlessly. Getting to know coworkers on a more personal level strengthens your company’s bond. Employees who understand how their coworkers’ daily tasks relate to their own and how their own work relates to others makes them more likely to work towards being mutually supportive of one another. Improving interpersonal relationships is a major step towards cultivating an encouraging, cooperative and productive culture.
Appreciation – Oh fingers, how they love to point, especially when the departments they are pointing at are made up of faceless groups of individuals they don’t interact with very often. When employees are given an inside look at what their coworkers do, they increase their understanding of the complexities involved and are less likely to point fingers or pass judgment. This provides key insights into how each person contributes and builds appreciation and respect, often resulting in fewer conflicts. When employees understand and appreciate each other, departments work together more efficiently and harmoniously.
Whether you implement a casual job-shadowing program or a formalized cross-training curriculum, I encourage you to partner up team members and departments and experience how job shadowing can contribute to the well-being and achievements of your company.
Aubrey Collins is the director of marketing and communications at MediaTree, a supplier of branded digital entertainment cards. She fell in love with the promotional products industry in 2011 at her first PPAI Expo. She shares her perspective on everything from the industry, what parenting continues to teach her about business, to what marketing campaigns make her cry on her blog. Connect with her on Twitter or email her atacollins@mediatreegroup.com.