Hi,
If you have a Buddy system in your organization could you please share:
-what the Buddy is expected to do
-who will allocate, who will track
-how we manage with MIS etc. and some measurements to ensure the process is running well.
Thank You.
From India, Trivandrum
If you have a Buddy system in your organization could you please share:
-what the Buddy is expected to do
-who will allocate, who will track
-how we manage with MIS etc. and some measurements to ensure the process is running well.
Thank You.
From India, Trivandrum
Hi kiran, few months back , i read an article on this topic in some hR magazine.. so , will try to give your answers based on that after going through it once again... dips
From India, Delhi
10From India, Delhi
Hi Kiran
Although we don't have buddy system in our organization but I can brief you about that.
In Buddy system basically, the buddy helps out he new employee to adjust himself to the organization i.e. in socialization of employee& secondly if he is new to town, he helps him out in locating for accomodation, meal facilities etc.
I hope, i could Satiate your query.
regards
Ekta
From India, Ahmadabad
Although we don't have buddy system in our organization but I can brief you about that.
In Buddy system basically, the buddy helps out he new employee to adjust himself to the organization i.e. in socialization of employee& secondly if he is new to town, he helps him out in locating for accomodation, meal facilities etc.
I hope, i could Satiate your query.
regards
Ekta
From India, Ahmadabad
Hi Guyz,
The buddy system is where the employer identifies that with whom(curent employee) the new employee is being friendly , and the employer calls upon this employee ans asks him move around friendly with the new employee, so that he/she can gather information from the New employee, like his likings and dislikings of job, person, Or the new employee may reveal that he may leave the job etc. This helps the organisation to know better abt the new employee.
This might sound unethical, but also this can be positively used, looking upon the needs of the employee. The new employee might reveal what he wants/expects from the company etc. Hope you guyz got my point.
The buddy should maintain confidential abt this system, and also the employer have to pay him small incentives. So Beware of your New Colleauges!! :D
Let me know if you need clarity on this!
From India, Bangalore
The buddy system is where the employer identifies that with whom(curent employee) the new employee is being friendly , and the employer calls upon this employee ans asks him move around friendly with the new employee, so that he/she can gather information from the New employee, like his likings and dislikings of job, person, Or the new employee may reveal that he may leave the job etc. This helps the organisation to know better abt the new employee.
This might sound unethical, but also this can be positively used, looking upon the needs of the employee. The new employee might reveal what he wants/expects from the company etc. Hope you guyz got my point.
The buddy should maintain confidential abt this system, and also the employer have to pay him small incentives. So Beware of your New Colleauges!! :D
Let me know if you need clarity on this!
From India, Bangalore
Well Kiran I want to Add Some more points: -
Buddying
Organizational tasks and projects have deadlines which assist us in keeping our focus on them, even through the day-to-day distractions and interruptions. Unless one is on a formal programme this is not so for learning and development. Yet there is a similar need to maintain our focus on our learning goals, and a buddy can be particularly valuable here.
Going back to the point made above, being accountable to your buddy for continuing to pursue those learning goals can help us stick with our own programme.
Examples
A common induction example is that of a graduate entry group. The newcomers will be paired up so that each person has someone to talk to, someone with whom to share their experiences. Some induction schemes employ buddying to link a newcomer with a person not long in the organization, in other words, new enough to remember what it was like to feel at sea in the new environment.
The concept of buddying is applied in many different areas of life these days, from military units, followers of spiritual practices, those in all manner of 12-step programmes or self-help groups, those with HIV/Aids, and right through to people helping one another keep to dietary or physical exercise regimes. Apart from the advantages of support and
having an initial relationship made for you when you are in a new context, and before you have had much chance to build any relationships for yourself, there is, as the above list of such buddying schemes suggests, a tendency for those in buddy relationships to ‘stick with the programme’, whatever that programme might be.
Possible benefits
The approach is relatively low cost. This means that you are likely to get support from senior people in the organization if you want to create a buddying relationship.
It is quite flexible with buddies meeting as and when it suits them. You can respond to work pressures more easily.
It can be used by anyone and at any level. Although senior managers are less likely to use this approach, due to custom and practice, there is no practical reason why they shouldn’t be able to.
You can start to learn how to assist another person to learn and this ability will stand you in good stead for other roles in the organization.
Possible limitations
The buddy relationship does not usually include challenge. Therefore, it tends to be, unnecessarily, limited to the support function of learning relationships.
There is no guarantee that your buddy knows how to learn. On the contrary, their idea of being helpful may be to give advice, which might have some appeal (of a packaged answer) but carries no inherent learning.
In contrast to a learning group, however good a buddy you have, you are still reliant on the benefits of only one other person’s perspective. Also, because there is no requirement to find a way to get on with a number of different people, as with a learning group, whether a buddying relationship works or not is often a matter of whether the chemistry is right. There is less tendency to have to make it right; and more
of a tendency to allow the level of chemistry to determine the level of value you will get from the relationship.
Typically, perhaps because the thing that is uppermost is support, buddying relationships lack structure. People are not usually explicit about their learning goals, nor about how they will work together and what they expect to accomplish by doing so.
The fact that buddy relationships are usually set up by organizations for induction contexts alone, either induction into the organization or into one of its departments, means that its contribution to an individual’s learning and development is, thereby, curtailed by the end of the induction period.
Operating hints
Whether you decide that having a buddy would be useful, or you have ‘buddyhood’ thrust upon you (in the case of a company scheme), in either case think through what you want from the relationship. That way you will be prepared, when first getting together with your buddy, to talk through with them how you each want to ‘play’ that relationship.
This means entering into some sort of negotiation, resulting in an explicit agreement about your responsibilities and what each of you can expect from the other. This avoids unrealistic expectations as well as allowing you to bring into the dialogue the things you know about how to learn (from this book, for instance).
Make the contract between you one of supporting each other’s learning and development. Decide how you will avoid drifting off into ‘war stories’ or whinging, and keep the focus on your progressing. One agreement may be to make certain that each person has a chance to talk about their needs with the other person listening and assisting and then to reverse roles.
If you and your buddy get on particularly well there is no harm in a friendship developing, as long as you both recognize that learning will benefit from a more focused and intentional stance (as with any ‘task’ that friends engage in together).
Agree to a time limit for your buddying. If the context is induction that may, of itself, provide a clear end point for the relationship. Even in cases where the buddying relationship has been beneficial and there would appear to be value in continuing it, be explicit about the learning goals you have and about evaluating whether or not you have met them at the end of the period. You can always begin a new period of buddying, for another defined length of time and with another set of clear learning
goals.
You may also want to consider having a mentor to complement what you are gaining from the buddy relationship.
You may find that you want to develop the buddy relationship into a learning group, where more of you can support each other.
From India, Delhi
Buddying
Organizational tasks and projects have deadlines which assist us in keeping our focus on them, even through the day-to-day distractions and interruptions. Unless one is on a formal programme this is not so for learning and development. Yet there is a similar need to maintain our focus on our learning goals, and a buddy can be particularly valuable here.
Going back to the point made above, being accountable to your buddy for continuing to pursue those learning goals can help us stick with our own programme.
Examples
A common induction example is that of a graduate entry group. The newcomers will be paired up so that each person has someone to talk to, someone with whom to share their experiences. Some induction schemes employ buddying to link a newcomer with a person not long in the organization, in other words, new enough to remember what it was like to feel at sea in the new environment.
The concept of buddying is applied in many different areas of life these days, from military units, followers of spiritual practices, those in all manner of 12-step programmes or self-help groups, those with HIV/Aids, and right through to people helping one another keep to dietary or physical exercise regimes. Apart from the advantages of support and
having an initial relationship made for you when you are in a new context, and before you have had much chance to build any relationships for yourself, there is, as the above list of such buddying schemes suggests, a tendency for those in buddy relationships to ‘stick with the programme’, whatever that programme might be.
Possible benefits
The approach is relatively low cost. This means that you are likely to get support from senior people in the organization if you want to create a buddying relationship.
It is quite flexible with buddies meeting as and when it suits them. You can respond to work pressures more easily.
It can be used by anyone and at any level. Although senior managers are less likely to use this approach, due to custom and practice, there is no practical reason why they shouldn’t be able to.
You can start to learn how to assist another person to learn and this ability will stand you in good stead for other roles in the organization.
Possible limitations
The buddy relationship does not usually include challenge. Therefore, it tends to be, unnecessarily, limited to the support function of learning relationships.
There is no guarantee that your buddy knows how to learn. On the contrary, their idea of being helpful may be to give advice, which might have some appeal (of a packaged answer) but carries no inherent learning.
In contrast to a learning group, however good a buddy you have, you are still reliant on the benefits of only one other person’s perspective. Also, because there is no requirement to find a way to get on with a number of different people, as with a learning group, whether a buddying relationship works or not is often a matter of whether the chemistry is right. There is less tendency to have to make it right; and more
of a tendency to allow the level of chemistry to determine the level of value you will get from the relationship.
Typically, perhaps because the thing that is uppermost is support, buddying relationships lack structure. People are not usually explicit about their learning goals, nor about how they will work together and what they expect to accomplish by doing so.
The fact that buddy relationships are usually set up by organizations for induction contexts alone, either induction into the organization or into one of its departments, means that its contribution to an individual’s learning and development is, thereby, curtailed by the end of the induction period.
Operating hints
Whether you decide that having a buddy would be useful, or you have ‘buddyhood’ thrust upon you (in the case of a company scheme), in either case think through what you want from the relationship. That way you will be prepared, when first getting together with your buddy, to talk through with them how you each want to ‘play’ that relationship.
This means entering into some sort of negotiation, resulting in an explicit agreement about your responsibilities and what each of you can expect from the other. This avoids unrealistic expectations as well as allowing you to bring into the dialogue the things you know about how to learn (from this book, for instance).
Make the contract between you one of supporting each other’s learning and development. Decide how you will avoid drifting off into ‘war stories’ or whinging, and keep the focus on your progressing. One agreement may be to make certain that each person has a chance to talk about their needs with the other person listening and assisting and then to reverse roles.
If you and your buddy get on particularly well there is no harm in a friendship developing, as long as you both recognize that learning will benefit from a more focused and intentional stance (as with any ‘task’ that friends engage in together).
Agree to a time limit for your buddying. If the context is induction that may, of itself, provide a clear end point for the relationship. Even in cases where the buddying relationship has been beneficial and there would appear to be value in continuing it, be explicit about the learning goals you have and about evaluating whether or not you have met them at the end of the period. You can always begin a new period of buddying, for another defined length of time and with another set of clear learning
goals.
You may also want to consider having a mentor to complement what you are gaining from the buddy relationship.
You may find that you want to develop the buddy relationship into a learning group, where more of you can support each other.
From India, Delhi
Dear Mr Pramod
With regards to your description of buddy system, i can recall another similar system called "Mentoring". I would like to know if the two systems are similar or different.
In my PG college and in my company too, we used to get/ assign a senior person called the Mentor, (not necessarily from same deptt.) to a new comer called Mentee, to help him/ her with the technical and non-technical problems.....which can extend beyond office, for accomodation and meals etc , if the mentee so requires.
In the company, we used to ask the mentor for some feedbacks about his/ her conversation with mentee, but not intently on the job switchings...but the comfortability of environment and work to the mentee.
As i could see, another expected role of the mentor was also to tell mentee, about the people, un-written policies, acceptable ways of conduct and future guidance withinn company.
I have not read about this Mentoring system anywhere, but i know from the practices....so it might be my perception of it.
Still, i would like to know your comments on the same.
With regards
Pragya
With regards to your description of buddy system, i can recall another similar system called "Mentoring". I would like to know if the two systems are similar or different.
In my PG college and in my company too, we used to get/ assign a senior person called the Mentor, (not necessarily from same deptt.) to a new comer called Mentee, to help him/ her with the technical and non-technical problems.....which can extend beyond office, for accomodation and meals etc , if the mentee so requires.
In the company, we used to ask the mentor for some feedbacks about his/ her conversation with mentee, but not intently on the job switchings...but the comfortability of environment and work to the mentee.
As i could see, another expected role of the mentor was also to tell mentee, about the people, un-written policies, acceptable ways of conduct and future guidance withinn company.
I have not read about this Mentoring system anywhere, but i know from the practices....so it might be my perception of it.
Still, i would like to know your comments on the same.
With regards
Pragya
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