Hi Pranati,
Buddy mentoring is what is commonly known as Assistance during induction, the origin of this is not known, but generally this practices is followed in the west, you see this type of activity happen in a service oriented sector viz Retail stores, BPO's, any service sector that has n number of employees in the same department.
I will just give you a gist of what typically happens here:
When a new employee joins the organization, he/she is tense due to the new culture, new surroundings, new people, new work ethics.
On day one when the new employee is being inducted by the HOD (generally recommended) as the new employee gets this opportunity to interact one on one with his boss. The HOD will in brief explain to the employee the Do's and Don'ts of what is expected of the employee, in most cases the HOD will hand out the Policy manual (The work Bible), and will ask the new employee to fill out all required forms of the organization.
The initial induction generally takes half of the 1st working day, the latter half the HOD may ask the new employees immediate supervisor to take over and assist the new employee with finer details of the job (may be some videos, literature, presentations) all this is being done so that the new employee knows the organization structure and its functioning.
The question you asked buddy mentoring is what normally happens after day one, the HOD will identify one existing employee of the department in which the new employee is supposed to work, normally the employee will be of the same region, speaking the same language just to make the new employee feel comfortable, after a formal introduction between the 2 employees the new employee is handed over to the existing one, this employee will be assisting the new employee during the next week or so, during this induction period the new employee will learn more of the job, the facilities, the colleagues and usually there will be a daily follow up by filling up a log just to ensure that the new employee has seen the different procedures and SOP's of the department.
In brief a buddy mentor is supposed to be an employee who will befriend the new employee and make the induction of the new employee more fun and satisfying.
Regards
Stan