Personally, I believe that shadowing alone has shown to be the most costly for any company to rely on for many reasons. First, the best you can hope for is that the employee learns the minimal information necessary to perform their job. Second, any success relies on the knowledge of the guiding person and their ability to convey this information properly. Third, constant retraining and reminding is always needed since the minimal information is conveyed to begin with. Forth, this process requires the labor of two employees, the training cots add up quickly.

Since people only learn the ‘how’ of a process, they lack the full understanding as to why an action, procedure, or step is required. As a result, the employees seldom put little emphasis on adherence to procedures in such scenarios. The result is generally a higher level of csrap and damage than that of a well-trained workplace.

-Andy