Starting a Buddy System at Work: What Should I Include in the Guide?

Hi Everybody,

We are starting a Buddy system in our organization where a new joiner will be assigned a Buddy for a few days so that he/she does not feel left out and can easily acclimatize to the new organization. I have to create a document regarding this. Does anyone have any document related to this, or can anyone help me in documenting this as I don't know what topics to include?

Regards,
Monica

Hi,

We also have a buddy system in our organization. It works on a specialization area basis (HR, Mktg, finance, logistics), i.e., for each department. You can choose such criteria and also take into consideration the possible problems that may be brought forth for advice/solutions.

Regarding documentation, you may come up with a short policy document wherein you outline the purpose of this system, the criteria, how it will work, who will be reporting to whom, how the follow-up will be taken, etc. I don't have a format, or else I could have forwarded it to you.

Hope it proves helpful.

Mrinal

Buddy is there at times in IT/IRES with COPC certification. Mostly buddies are somebody experienced in the process and friendly by disposition who are willing to help acclimatize the fresher. Buddies are normally not asked about appraising the fresher as the Quality Department works in parallel, maintaining records of QC during the production/operations phase.

One drawback is that the fresher often forgets what has been taught during training and learns shortcuts to productivity. I think you can guess the damages - all initiatives focused on organization-wide quality improvements will fail.

Surya

Hi Monica,

Mentoring/Buddy Program is a very strong tool for sustaining an unperturbed organizational culture and also to leverage the organizational strengths. I am sure it will work well in your organization as well. Attaching an article on the Mentoring Program. Hope it will help you in framing the guidelines. You can also come up with a Feedback Form in line with the given essence of the program, which shall help you in identifying needs for course correction, if any.

Thanks,
Abhisek

Hey Abhishek,

Thank you so much for that article. I am a new user of this site, and it was only your PDF file that brought me to this site. It will be very useful to me as I am preparing a project on the Buddy System.

God bless you, dear.

Anshu