A buddy is a friend or companion who walks beside you through various scenarios. People have study buddies, gym buddies, and even work buddies.
This piece highlights work buddies, not from a social point of view but a professional one.
In this piece, we’ll highlight the buddy system that fosters professional development in the workplace. We’ll define the buddy system, describe who needs it, and more.
Let’s begin.
Remember the seasoned employee assigned to you to help you get acquainted with the company culture?
That is the buddy system in play!
The first record of the term ’buddy system’ dates back to 1942. This arrangement is a cooperative system that pairs individuals for formal and informal learning. The buddy system emphasizes productivity, instruction, company culture, welfare, and safety in the workplace.
The first ideal candidate for the buddy system is a new hire. This process links the new employee to one of the current employees as part of the orientation and employee onboarding process. The existing employee has to be familiar with the company’s procedures, operations, policies, and culture.
Besides new hires, here are two personas that might also benefit from the buddy system:
The buddy system fosters faster integration into the team, leading to an increase in productivity. A study at Microsoft attests that new employees within the buddy system record a 23% employee satisfaction. These hires with buddies were happier with the onboarding process. 73% attest that this system has made them more productive.
The other pivotal roles of the buddy system include:
When you join a team or job, the buddy you get has to undergo vetting to fit the role. Management has to assign a qualified person to this role.
However, how do they match the new hires to potential buddies?
Below are some constraints management can use for buddy matching:
Buddy matching can be based on skills and interests. For example, you get a buddy in tech in your new role as an intern IT assistant. This match ensures you can learn from your buddy through career-based interactions. Technology topics you’re both passionate about can be the perfect conversation starters to break the ice.
This arrangement links employees with an onboarding buddy senior or equivalent to what one does. This way, you learn through an apprenticeship. This makes it an active-learning experience.
Sometimes, management might ask you to describe the attributes of a work or school buddy. They then find the buddy based on the characteristics you give them. Your preferences might be based on gender, job role, interests or even age bracket. This matching model helps foster a positive attitude toward the new role, making it more enjoyable.
Another model for buddy matching is automatic. In this arrangement, organizations use software to automate the buddy-matching process. The software uses pre-set factors to match you to the most beneficial buddy.
Cross-functional collaboration is matching a new hire to another employee in another department. For example, you get paired with someone in the finance department while your role is in customer service. Despite the discrepancies, you can still learn more about the company based on social interaction. It reinforces bonds across departments.
A buddy program’s success relies on a few factors, which we’ll highlight here. Understanding these factors is critical to ensuring the interactions remain educative and productive.
That said, here are some of the factors that make a buddy program a success:
Accurate matching links a person to the proper fit that benefits organizations. When the criteria for matching are well-organized, the buddy relationships introduce the new hires to the right experiences. Poor matching leads to conflict and delays in the onboarding process. If management overlooks the need to match a new employee to a qualified buddy, productivity will lower.
Another key component is having the proper management in place. This entails a team of neutral parties that can help squash conflicts within the system when they arise.
This overseeing body should also use powerful tools to manage these relationships. Specific software can offer features that help this team better manage the buddy arrangement.
If the general work environment isn’t supportive, onboarding activities get harder. Friendly collègues welcomes the new employees, making them feel valued and welcome. A supportive environment creates a safe and open space where you can ask questions and seek help when stuck. It boosts both formal and informal learning.
Even though the term ‘buddy’ sounds casual, a successful system has guidelines. These are the codes of conduct these relationships uphold. These rules help both parties remain respectful and compliant. They lay down the expectations of the relationship.
No matter the buddies’ rankings, management has to set up feedback channels. This promotes free expression for new hires who might still be shy about airing their grievances. If they require a buddy change, these are the channels they use.
In addition to the exchange of ideas, the organization receives direct feedback on the system’s effectiveness. They gain insight into mentoring, supportiveness, and other concerns. These channels can be anonymous messaging software, feedback surveys, or suggestion boxes.
A buddy program aims to help all parties grow and advance. So, some of the activities to include must support knowledge transfer and constant growth. These can be ongoing workshops and training sessions.
If a person has been an exceptional buddy, with the person under them winning, they deserve recognition. Companies that do this encourage other existing employees to volunteer.
Some rewards include bonuses, paid time off, or gift cards.
The buddy system is beneficial to all parties, including the company. Some of those advantages are:
The buddy system offers a great deal of value, but it also poses a few challenges. The most prominent one is usually mismatching, which leads to employee frustration and communication breakdowns. For instance, matching an employee with an extroverted personality to a buddy who's introverted can cause some friction.
The solution is to restructure buddy-matching using industry and personality-specific criteria.
Besides mismatching, the other challenges and their solutions are:
If an organization fails to offer ample buddy training, the system crumbles. A buddy can only effectively support a partner with the right skills, digital tools, and expertise.
The remedy here is first to offer formal training for buddies. Ensure the training defines their roles and responsibilities. This training must also provide valuable lessons on mentoring and leadership techniques.
The relationship strains if a buddy and trainee have demanding workloads or clashing timelines. This makes it challenging to check in and offer regular support to the new employees, which frustrates them.
Companies can set allocated buddy reserves time for buddy activities on specific days. Such an arrangement encourages the buddies to collaborate and reach their professional goals faster.
The buddy system also poses this challenge: The new employee becomes overly dependent on their buddy. This hinders the trainer’s growth, as they cannot work on their tasks.
Setting clear work boundaries can encourage autonomy, even for new employees. A trainer should gradually reduce meetings and interactions to grow the new hire’s confidence and independence.
A buddy relationship might introduce bias into the workplace. For instance, a buddy may impose their opinions on a new employee.
To avoid such instances, a company should use diversity and inclusion techniques during onboarding. These initiatives encourage independent thinking, allowing the new employee to make decisions based on factual information.
Getting a buddy system to work for you requires meticulous planning and execution. You start by first understanding what it is and what it takes to make it a success. Then, grasp who needs this training and outline the match-making criteria.
Once you set it up, you can start implementing its pivotal roles of easing orientation to gathering feedback. This set-up involves proper matching, managing the system, and encouraging feedback. These benefit your organization’s onboarding process, communication, knowledge transfer, and engagement. You’ll also experience a boost in mentoring and support, collaboration, and reduced employee turnover.
But it’s not all rosy because it poses a few challenges we’ve given you the solution to.
The buddy system is effective when implemented correctly. Qooper Mentoring Software can help organizations start seeing remarkable professional growth within their teams with New Hire - Onboarding Buddy Programs.