# Onboarding buddy program
Pair every new hire with an experienced colleague, with audiences that pick up new hires automatically from their hiring date.
import { Steps } from '@prosefly/astro-components';
import Callout from '@components/Callout.astro';
A buddy program pairs each new hire with an experienced colleague who helps them settle in. It is one of the simplest and most cost-effective ways to improve your onboarding. This guide helps you prepare the program, then set it up in RandomCoffee so that new hires are invited automatically, based on their hiring date.
## Why run a buddy program
A buddy program benefits new hires, the company and the buddies themselves:
- **New hires settle in faster**: they connect with their new work environment in no time.
- **Belonging grows from day one**, which boosts commitment and motivation.
- **Retention improves**: new hires who feel welcome are more likely to stay.
- **Buddies develop their skills**: communicating, mentoring and teaching.
## Prepare your buddy program
Before you set anything up, answer these questions:
- How will you **find your buddies**? Volunteers through a form, suggestions from managers?
- Is each buddy matched with **one new hire only**, or with several?
- Do you **keep the same buddies** from month to month, or **change buddies** each month?
- **How soon after their start date** do you invite new hires to the program?
- How long does the **buddy relationship** last?
- What are the **role and responsibilities** of buddies?
- **How often should new hires meet** their buddy, and for how long?
According to Harvard Business Review (2019), at Microsoft, 56% of new hires who met their onboarding buddy at least once in their first 90 days said it helped them become productive quickly. This rose to 73% with two to three meetings, 86% with four to eight, and 97% with more than eight meetings. Source: [Every new employee needs an onboarding buddy](https://hbr.org/2019/06/every-new-employee-needs-an-onboarding-buddy).
## Choose and train your buddies
### Choose the right buddies
Selecting the right employees as buddies is key to a successful program.
- Buddies have ideally been with the company for a while. They **understand its structure, processes, culture, values and mission**, and can share useful insights with new hires.
- Buddies are **friendly, approachable and good communicators**. They are also volunteers: forcing someone into the role can create a poor first impression.
- Buddies know **what is expected of them**, and how to balance their onboarding role with their regular work.
Recognize your buddies' commitment, for example with small perks (a mug, a t-shirt, a coffee voucher). It also encourages more people to volunteer.
### Train your buddies
Give buddies what they need to support new hires well:
- a clear description of their role, which usually focuses on social and cultural onboarding rather than on job-specific tasks or performance (adapt it to your goals);
- access to key information: company policies, cultural norms and resources for new employees.
## Set up the program in RandomCoffee
The setup below uses two [audiences](/admin/categories-and-audiences/audiences/), one for new hires and one for buddies, and the "Group composer" algorithm to put one new hire and one buddy in each group. The program runs by email: audiences apply to programs sent by email.
On the Free plan, a program only includes the first 20 people of its audience. For a buddy program that welcomes new hires every month, the Pro plan removes this limit.
### Step 1: Identify new hires and buddies
RandomCoffee needs two pieces of information about your members:
- **Their hiring date**, in a Date [category](/admin/categories-and-audiences/categories/):
- if you [sync your HRIS](/admin/members/sync-from-hris/), import the "Start Date" field;
- if you [add members with a CSV file](/admin/members/add-members-manually-or-by-csv/), add a column with the hiring date and map it to a new category of type "Date".
- **Who your buddies are**, for example in a "Buddy program" category of type "Dropdown" or "Yes/No". Set it for your buddies only, with a CSV file or from the member profile. See [Update members](/admin/members/update-members/).
If you add each new hire to RandomCoffee as soon as they join, you can use the "Created Date" field (the date the member was added to RandomCoffee) instead of a hiring date category.
### Step 2: Create your audiences
Create two dynamic audiences. See [Create an audience](/admin/categories-and-audiences/create-an-audience/) for the procedure.
| Audience | Type | Filters |
| --- | --- | --- |
| New hires | "Dynamic audience" | Your hiring date category (for example "Start Date") "Is after N days ago" 30 |
| Buddies | "Dynamic audience" | Your buddy category (for example "Buddy program") "Is equal to" your buddy value |
The New hires audience updates by itself: it contains the members whose hiring date is less than 30 days ago, and each new hire leaves it 30 days after their hiring date. Adjust the number of days to the delay you chose.
- **To match each new hire only once**, add a second filter to the New hires audience once your program exists: "Number of matchs (per program)" "Is equal to" 0, with your buddy program selected. See [Audience recipes](/admin/categories-and-audiences/audience-recipes/).
- **To change buddies each month**, update the buddy category of your members each month, or use a "Static audience" for buddies and change its members by hand.
### Step 3: Create the program
Start from the "Onboarding buddy program" template of the "Use Cases Library" ("Preview", then "Setup this program"), or create a program from scratch. See [Create a program](/admin/programs/create-a-program/). Then check these settings:
1. **"General"**: give the program a name and a goal, for example "Buddy program" and "Meet the colleague who will help you settle in".
2. **"Registration"**: in "Audience", select your New hires and Buddies audiences.
3. **"Communication"**: choose "Email" as the "Communication Channel".
4. **"Matchmaking"**:
- "Group size": 2.
- "Matching algorithm": "Group composer". Under "Groups distribution", fill "Seat 1" with your New hires audience and "Seat 2" with your Buddies audience. If the seats ask for category values, click "Switch to audiences" first. See [Group composer](/admin/matching/group-composer/).
- Choose how often a buddy can be matched in the same session:
- "Allow unlimited rematching - some people will be rematched several times so that everyone gets matched.": every new hire gets a buddy, even if you have fewer buddies than new hires;
- "Allow rematching - up to a maximum number of rematchs per session": a buddy can take several new hires, up to the number you set;
- "Do not allow rematching": each buddy has one new hire at most. If you have fewer buddies than new hires, some new hires are not matched in that session.
- If the "Matching priority" setting is shown, keep "Optimize people participation": every new hire gets a buddy, even if a matching rule is not perfectly met.
5. **"Type of participation"** (in "Matchmaking"): choose how people take part.
- "Automatic participation": every new hire is matched with a buddy, without being asked first. This is the simplest option.
- "Ask for participation": everyone in the program, buddies included, first receives an invitation. Only those who accept are matched.
- "Ask for participation - specific people only": only the members with the category values you select receive an invitation; all the others are matched automatically. To invite new hires only, they need a category value you can select (for example the value "New hire" in your "Buddy program" category).
6. **Matching rules** (optional): under "Matching rules", click "Add a rule" to use your categories. For example, a "Category" rule on your department category with "Is different" pairs each new hire with a buddy from another team. See [Matching rules](/admin/matching/matching-rules/).
7. Click "Create" (or "Save" if the program already exists).
### Step 4: Customize the messages
In the "Communication" section, [customize the invitation email](/admin/programs/personalize-messages/) (if you ask for participation) and the match email. In the match email, explain how the buddy program works: the role of the buddy, how long it lasts and how often the pair should meet. You can also add a few conversation starters.
Feel free to reuse these banners in your emails:
To let each pair book their meetings easily, see [Help participants schedule their meetings](/admin/programs/meeting-scheduling/).
### Step 5: Schedule the sessions
In the "Sessions" tab, click "Schedule a new session". Choose the date of the invitations (if you ask for participation) and the date of the matches, for example a week apart. In "Recurrence", choose "Every 4 weeks on same days" to invite new hires about once a month. See [Schedule sessions](/admin/programs/schedule-sessions/).
Your program is ready: each session, the new hires of your audience receive their buddy.
## Keep the program running
With dynamic audiences, the program updates itself: new hires join the New hires audience on their start date, and the next session matches them with a buddy. Each month, you only need to:
- make sure your new hires are in RandomCoffee with their hiring date (automatic with an HRIS sync, otherwise add them with a CSV file);
- update your buddies if you change them each month.