Dear ALL,

With reference to the buddy scheme which is followed by many
companies.

Requesting for inputs from group members on the process and methodology
followed for designing and implementing the scheme in your organisation.

Requesting for your inputs on same.

Regards

M.Krishnan

Hi Krishnan

They are both two totally different initiatives carried out by the HR groups.  To describe the purpose of each :

Mentorship Program
Purpose :Mentoring is a process where we ensure personal and professional growth, by identifying a senior employee as a Mentor for a Mentee(new joined person), whose vast knowledge, skill and experience would assist and guide the mentee during first six months at the organisation. It is crucial for the organization to ensure that the new employees pick-up the nuances of our business, work culture and practices early and in a comfortable manner.

Benefits to the Mentee:
Knowledge:-Organization dynamics, culture, history and practices
Experience:-Networking with people in the organization, how to face difficulties, meet new challenges, contribute to the organization, be responsible/accountable, dealing with stress

Personal Qualities:-His work style and appropriate behaviors

Role of a mentor :-A mentor is different from the supervisor.
While the mentee would have a direct reporting relationship with the supervisor, the mentor would be more like a coach guiding him / her not only in terms of short term goals but more in terms of shaping the future.

Buddy Program (Known as Bank on the buddy)
This was recently introduced at the organisation and has proved to be a great success in helping the new joinees settling in well.

“Buddy" -is a person selected to facilitate the adjustment of a new employee to the organization.

Buddy program to end when new employee completes three months in i-flex.Buddy to mandatorily meet new joiner on first day and everyday during second week of joining.

Benefits to the new employee:
- Impart greater comfort and home feeling to new employees
- Introduce new employees to people in the office
- Reduce strangeness of the office
- Provide necessary help to get the workplace and other facilities organized

Benefits to the organization:
- Facilitate Organizational Socialization - The process by which people learn the values, norms, and required behaviors of an organization’s culture.
- During initial orientation to the organization, coworkers can become invaluable resources to new employees.
-The advantage of the buddy scheme is that we need not have a senior member being a buddy...it could be someone of the same level as well.The buddy scheme is only for the first three months and helps new employee settle in on job..but the buddy's role is limited to that he doesnot guide the new employee for career goals like the Mentor ship scheme does.

Do let me know if you need any help on this front , but we have no policy as such on this, this is just an HR initiative.

Regards

Prof Tandon

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.

masterhr