I am involved in the planning of a potential project to introduce a mentoring / buddying system for new employees to support the induction process. The mentor / buddy will be a centralised member of staff with a specific role in this area, based in the Training and Development Unit.
Does anyone have any advice that they could give in the planning and introduction of this process - it may be that there will be different levels of support for the project from different departments.
Also, does anyone have any research / statistical data that illustrates the impact of mentoring / buddying in the workplace?
Many thanks,
Dee
Danica Matic
2 Responses
Mentoring at Induction
My experience is that having an experienced mentor to buddy with a new starter is a good idea for both teh new starter and the mentor. Additionally, I buddied up with another new starter from a different team when I started my last job and this realtionship has proved more valuable. We were able to gather information from different sources and share it effectively. Also, having a colleague experiencing the same frustrations of ‘how do I do this’ and ‘who do I speak to about that’ issues, gave me a great opportunity to learn and also forge a strong friendship.
Support for buddying as a useful practice and a simple model for
Congratulations on setting up your buddying system. This may well set up a habit of talking over problems with colleagues that will lead to clearer thinking and more effectiveness generally.
Buddying works best when people take turns talking and listening. I call it co-consulting. One person talks while the other listens, asks questions and encourages or uses an agreed model. Then after a review the other does the same. It works really well. I have used it in my practice for many years to help me think more clearly.
There is an article about co-consulting on my website http://homepage.ntlworld.com/nick.heap/Coconsulting.htm