BUDDY
PROGRAM
 By Vipul Saxena
!

Objectives of Buddy Program
Induction and Orientation Programs are conducted so
that new employees feels at home. This also mean
helping them understand our organizational Policies
and culture.
Mostly a new employee is less confident and feel
insecure relating with their colleagues - senior, peer or
junior. Not knowing what’s ''right'', or what’s ''accepted
here'', can make the new employee confused and
hesitant in interpreting the responses of others.
These concerns of new employee pale into
insignificance, however, compared with the sheer
confusion of not knowing what’s ''normal'' in the
organization as to what’s ''right'' and ''wrong'' here -
what’s expected of me - what’s the company’s culture?

Buddy program is a tool to accelerate the new employee’s ability to deal with
the early disconcerting issues. By implementing Buddy Program it is intended
that:
 The new employee feels at home with the company, in a quick process;
 Straightforward queries regarding basic operational issues are dealt with in
a timely and non-bureaucratic manner;
 The initial confusion and uncertainty faced by all new employees is
reduced;
 Other orientation activities, such as classroom and on job training (OJT)
can be related to actual real-world activities and resulting basic queries can
be resolved;
 New employees find out how to 'manage' us, the company, in a supportive
and risk-reduced environment;
 Manger / supervisor time with new employees is reduced to deal with added
value issues;
 New employee begins to add value more quickly, leading to increased
confidence & self-esteem;
Buddy program provides one-point contact to operationally necessary
information. In essence, the development / performnace of the individual is not
an expected output from Buddy Program.

Who is Buddy ?
 BUDDY" is one who partners with a new employee during their first Six
months of employment.
 A Buddy can be given more than one new joinees too.
 The BUDDY offers advice and guidance to help foster and promote the
professional development of a new employee in initial days. He is generally a
superior performer and have good people skills.
 The BUDDY being highly motivated and efficient employee , he can be an
effective source of advice and encouragement. The BUDDY can offer
seasoned experience in the form of training and socializing the new
employee to the work place.
 BUDDY should have personality that will impress and persuade the new
employee that he is someone whom he can trust. His role is to allow for a
comfortable, more informal environment in which the employee can ask and
receive information about the office culture and norms and those everyday,
mostly unwritten, procedures and policies that help to explain how things

Criteria for Selection of BUDDY
Buddy is someone who has :
 Has patience and good communication and
interpersonal skills.
 Has understanding and commitment to the Company's
mission, goal and values.
 Is proud of the organization.
 Demonstrates high performance.
 Is a positive role model who is well regarded and
accepted by current employees.
 Is skilled in the new employee’s job.
 Is a peer of the new employee.
 Is given time to be accessible to the new employee.
 Preferably, has been employed more than one year.

Role and Responsibility of BUDDY
 BUDDY’s responsibility is to help establish a
sense of belonging for the new employee. With an
effective BUDDY, new employee will quickly
become a contributing member to his or her new
department.
 Buddy is not the new employee's manager or
supervisor and will not be held responsible for new
employee's performance. If queries arise
regarding performance, disciplinary or policy
matters, while Buddy is free to give his opinion
and advice on how to approach the matter, Buddy
is not authorised to adjudicate or resolve the
matter. New employee must be directed to their
manager or supervisor for resolution of the
relevant professional issues.

Buddy is to :
 Be an informational resource for the new employee on
policies, procedures, work rules, norms, etc.
 Help socialize the new employee.
 Assist in training the new employee.
 Be a tour guide.
 Identify resources.
 Provide introductions.
Buddy’s first meeting with the new employee
After Buddy’s name and name & other relevant information of
the new employee has been ciculated, he will be working with, it
is up to Buddy to contact with new employee at the earliest
available opportunity. This may be on their first day or if they are
involved in orientation training on first day, Buddy may arrange
meeting new employee over lunch or otherwise on that day.

Contents of meetings and discussions
 Buddy’s first meeting with new employee should be introductory in nature.
He should take him around all the departments, introduce them to their
colleagues, and direct them to there work station/cabin. He would also
explain him operation of an equipment or system they need in order to
commence work. Buddy need to be familiar with the content of the
orientation training, so that they do not duplicate any training being provided
there.
 Buddy should inform the new employee his contact details, and make it
clear that he is available to them as & when required. Buddy should infiorm
them that he will be meeting them regularly, and that non-urgent issues
should be defered until those times. However, if any bottleneck that is
materially hindering their work or performance can be discussed with him
immediately.
 Buddy must ask them if they have any initial queries or issues, and resolve
them and leave the new employee to get on with their assignment. Buddy
need to remember, his role is to help the new employee get on with the task
at hand and not to prevent them from doing so.

Frequency and timing of meetings
 Buddy must meet the new employee regularly for at least 15-20
minutes, once a week during their first month and at least once a
month thereafter. This meeting is often best conduct over lunch or in
an informal setting, and used to discuss any non-urgent issues the
new employee may have.
 During the working day, it may be reasonable to expect as many as
3 - 5 brief queries a day from the new employee in the first few
days, reducing down to one or two a day thereafter.
 Although every new employees is different, however after 2-3
months, you may hear little or nothing from them on a daily basis. IT
WILL BE A GOOD SIGN. If Buddy is getting large number of
'urgent' queries even after first month, It is a pointer to bottle necks
in the system which Buddy must resolve by meeting new employee
and relevant Deptt head/heads.
 It is expected that Buddy and the new employee meet during
working hours. Sometimes, Buddy and new employee agree to
meet on a social basis, outside working hours. This is an entirely a

Expectations of the Company from the Relationship
 Relationship between Buddy and the new employee
should be open, confidential, positive and supportive.
 All queries raised during their discussions should be
confidential. The company neither has interest in
knowing the details of any discussions between Buddy
and the new employee, nor in monitoring Buddy
relationships.
 The Company expects the relationship to be supportive
to the company and new employee. Buddy must avoid
giving his view/opinion on a issue not known to him or
about any existing employee’s professional matter /
personal life which can be termed as gossip and may
become rumour, particularly as many new employees
are not in a position to form an opinion on most issues
during their early months.

What a new Employee Expects from BUDDY ?
 General advice.
 General Guidance.
 Encouragement.
 Positive attitude of BUDDY.
 Shared information/query is kept confidential.
 Honest feedback.
 Clear information.
 Help in understanding the culture of an organization
and finding out how to get things done.
 Assistance in building networks and insight into
how to make them effective and productive.
 Establishment of the best form of communication --
e-mail, telephone, in-person.

Tips for Buddies
 Be patient and positive. It takes time to develop a relationship.
Don’t try to cover everything right away. Buddies need to allow
enough time for growth.
 Don’t try to force a relationship.
 Look for a preferred style of communication and/or cultural
identification
 Don’t try to turn the new employee into your clone. That person
may have a different style from yours. Let the new employee
develop.
 Listening may be more important than giving advice.
 Don’t be judgmental.
 Don’t lose heart because of a new employee’s failures. You cannot
always ensure success, but you can help that person to begin
again more intelligently. You can help them see a failed experience
as valuable by honestly identifying where it went wrong. Buddies
can often prevent failure from happening to a new employee a
second time.
 Keep a good attitude and stay in a teaching spirit.
 Don’t worry about being perceived as the "expert." Your experience
is important to the new employee.

Termination of Relationship
 The Buddy relationship between you and the new
employee will be terminated if either:
 Three months expires, or on request by either party.
 The Buddy relationship operates under a 'no-fault'
termination mechanism. This means that if either
the Buddy or the new employee so requests, the
Buddy relationship immediately ends. The new
employee is allocated another Buddy, and the
Buddy can be allocated to a different new
employee.“NO EXPLANATION WILL BE SOUGHT
OR OFFERED, NO DISCUSSION/BLAME WILL
FOLLOW.

 Submission of Reports to HR Department
 On Termination of Relationship, Buddy must file a Report to the HR
Deptt in a prescribed without revealing exact details of the query by
the new joinee, so that HR system can reduce the concerns for future
new joinees.
 Benefits to Buddies
 Give something back to your Department.
 Share accumulated knowledge and experience for organisation
growth.
 Gain a better understanding of yourself through helping others.
 Maintain or create a fresh perspective.
 Helps him Groom him as Leader.
 Rewards /Awards for BUDDY
 HR Deptt monitors the performance of BUDDY in terms of efforts and
pain taken by the Buddy in achieving the Objective of the Buddy
Program and give due consideration at an appropriate opportunity.
Questionaire for Buddy on completion of assignment
While answering the questionnaire you are advised not to reveal exact
detail/situation that new employee shared these with you. The objective is to
collect the concerns of new employee which make him nervous/uncomfortable
unless addressed.
Name of New Employee :
Designation :
Department :
Reporting Officer ;
Date of joining :
Date of Buddy relationship termination :
Q1. Share the area of initial concerns of the new employee ?
Q2. The Departments new employee wanted to know ?
Q3. The Policies new employee desired to know ?
Q4. The Policies new employee did not feel convinced ? input/suggestions
shared ?
Q5. Comments of new employee on HR policies ?
Q6. Comments of new employee on work environment at his work place
/department ?
Q7. General feeling expressed by the new employee upon joining the
Organisation ?
Q8. Which Policies/Systems the new employee shared as better system in his
previous organization ?
Signature
(Name of Buddy)
Date :
Location :

THANK YOU