Small and Big Buddies or learning a little differently
Alexandra Kuhajdíková
July 10, 2023
Setting up a good training process for new employees can challenge many companies. We've taken on this challenge head-on because we believe that people are the heart of a company, and we care that every team member gets the best start to their journey at Jobrela.
As we have several newcomers, we have created a program called Small & Big Buddies, where new talent grows under the wings of our experienced colleagues. After initial training, each of our recruits was assigned a proven buddy who became not only their coach but also their mentor and right-hand man.
We interviewed our recruiting leader, Peter Nováčik, who told us more about the system.
- Where did the idea come from to change how we've always trained our people?
- "The problem arose because we created a new team that was given a separate office, and we started to feel so much pressure and a bit of discomfort from the fact that those people didn't quite have the same processes even though they weren't working badly."
- Tell us how the Small & Big Buddies program works.
- "Well, a similar way of training isn't exactly something extra new for us either, but the difference is that this is training in such an intensive and thorough way. Buddies work on the principle that there is a big buddy who already has all the information and controls all the processes the way they need to be controlled. And his job is to help the small buddy get that information right and tune into our working style without being distracted by the others."
- Have you had your small buddy as well?
- "Sure, I got a talented recruiter, so our collaboration was often in that spirit of good tips rather than just swotting up the processes. For example, I would tell her what to ask in interviews to find out more about the person or how to get that person interested, and I could see that she was putting those things into practice, and then she got even more confident in what she was doing."
- What was the biggest challenge of the Buddy Program?
- "Well, there were some challenges, and we met the biggest ones right at the beginning. The first was the actual assignment of the little buddies to the big ones. We didn't want to assign them to each other randomly but based it on the one-to-one outcomes or the personalities, attitudes, and needs of our small buddies. The second problem arose right after we solved the first one, as we needed to mix up who sat where in the office. The small buddy was supposed to sit next to his big buddy, but again, we had to maintain the system even within the teams and task assignments. However, we managed all these challenges, and the program ran smoothly."
- We know that training newcomers can be exhausting. How did you ensure that our senior recruiters were up to the task?
- "The assignment of each buddy played a huge role because it reflected the needs of the small buddy as well as the capacity of the big buddy. We also had weekly meetings. The first meeting was always with the small buddies giving us suggestions, and then we would work it out with the big buddies. It helped to make that collaboration work, not just overall but individually. We also dealt promptly with any problems that came up, and I think we were successful in that because our imaginary curve of problems gradually went down, and the bad things stopped piling up altogether. As a result, the Big Buddies had no problem dividing their time so that they could conscientiously do their job and also pay attention to the younger colleagues."
- Was the program's efficiency monitored continuously, or did it wait until completion?
- "It was monitored all the time. The satisfaction of each buddy was also monitored, as was the progress of the small buddies and whether their guidance was somehow limiting the big buddy's work. After the program ended, we found that the buddies naturally continued in the system. Not so intensively, but more of them have gotten used to their buddy, and they are just comfortable working side by side."
- How do you rate the Small & Big Buddies program as a whole?
- "It has been a complete success, and overall, Small & Big Buddies is a very good project. I've noticed that not only have the big problems we set up the program to solve been fixed, but so have the little ones. I can see in the small buddies that they didn't even learn to do the work just by the processes, but everybody picked up something useful from their big buddies as well. The way I see it, this program is a great tool to take the chaos out of that new person and let them soak all the learning in whole and faster."
- What effect do you think this has had on the efficiency and well-being of the team?
- "It has increased both. I would say the new people feel safer, and the team overall is happier. The team can communicate way more straightforwardly and feels much more at ease. I think colleagues also have a better understanding of the value of their work and their role in Jobrela, so working with one another is a lot easier. I've also noticed that it's brought a fresh twist of ambition, and our buddies have become buddies in the truest sense of the word."
After 3 months of this intense training, we can say the following about our achievements:
| We have eliminated the incorrect habits of our newcomers. |
| We improved and unified our know-how. |
| We created stronger relationships and strengthened the whole team. |
| We learned to synchronize our work more efficiently. |
| We have increased the dynamics of our team members and their ability to meet deadlines. |
| We have created an environment where everyone can work with ease. |
| We have gained 5 new recruiters that many clients already rely on. |
If you're looking for help filling your IT positions, don't hesitate to hire one of our recruiters.
