What is a buddy program?

Our onboarding program is one of the first steps in ensuring a positive employee experience for our new starters.

A buddy is someone who partners with a new employee prior to joining the Company, and during the few weeks of employment. This program assists new employees with understanding workplace systems, processes and culture better, resulting in a quicker settling-in period. Essentially it is a sharing and caring program.

How the program works

It’s pretty informal. A buddy is ideally chosen from the existing team or related area. For smaller teams, someone in another team may act as a buddy instead.

Depending on start date, the Buddy program generally commences two weeks prior to commencement date, or at HR/Manager discretion.

The Recruitment Consultant will confirm availability with the Candidate – if they are very busy with wrapping up their current position, then the initial meeting can be closer to the initial start date.
The Recruitment Consultant will arrange and host the first meeting over a video Zoom meeting and set the scene for interactions going forward.

After the first meeting, the Buddy will schedule a weekly 30-minute catch-up with our new employee. These will continue until the end of the first month of employment.

Expectations of a Virtual Buddy

• Socializing the new employee on company/team norms, culture, and unwritten guidelines;
• Sharing insights on how things are done in the team or company;
• Involving the new employee in any online social or informal activities, such as virtual competitions and social online get-togethers; and
• Answer general/routine questions.

Tips for Buddies

• You don’t need to be an expert on everything – your experience at ASW is what is most important.
• If you don’t know the answer to something, the new employee can chat directly to other internal people such as HR, Account Management as well.
• Relationships take time to build: Don’t try to cover everything in the first meeting.