# Onboarding buddies: how to set up a buddy scheme that helps > How to run an onboarding buddy scheme: choosing buddies, protecting their time, week-one tasks, a checklist, and ending it well. Source: https://forematter.com/guides/onboarding-buddy/ Updated: 2026-09-28 Author: Jack Stovell (https://jstov.uk/) Someone's just started, it's day two, and they need to know where the milk is kept and whether it's fine to leave at half five on a Friday. They are not going to ask their manager that. Obviously not. So they either sit there quietly stewing about it, or they ask the one person who seems approachable and hasn't got a clipboard. That's the whole case for a buddy scheme, really. Nothing more mystical than that. Most companies say they have one. Fewer actually run one properly. It's usually a line in the onboarding doc that says "assign a buddy" and then nothing else, no brief, no time set aside, no end point. So it either doesn't happen, or it happens badly, and the new starter just gets a name in an email and never hears from them again. So let's do it properly. ## What an onboarding buddy is (and is not) A buddy is a peer, usually in or near the new starter's team, who helps them settle in. Where things are. Who to ask about what. How things actually get done day to day, as opposed to how the handbook says they get done. The unwritten stuff. What a buddy is not: the line manager. No objectives, no performance feedback, no probation decisions, none of that. They're also not a formal mentor, not a trainer, and definitely not HR. Worth saying this out loud to both people at the start, actually, so questions land in the right place and nobody's guessing. Say it to the starter, say it to the buddy. Takes thirty seconds and saves a lot of confusion later. ## Why a buddy helps New starters hold back the small questions. Not because they're shy exactly, more that they don't want to look like they can't cope, or they don't want to bother someone senior over something trivial. A manager relationship carries a bit of weight to it, right, there's a power thing going on whether anyone means it or not. A buddy lowers that bar. They're just... there. A familiar face who isn't assessing you. That's basically the entire value of the scheme, and it's worth protecting because it evaporates fast if the buddy starts feeling like a second manager. ## Choosing a buddy Pick someone who knows the organisation well enough to actually answer things, and who's patient and approachable and, crucially, willing. Not volun-told. Ask them first. Ideally not their manager (obviously), and ideally not someone who's in direct competition for the same work or projects, that can get a bit weird. If you can, match on working pattern too, remote person paired with someone else who works remotely, shift worker with someone who understands shifts. Makes the practical stuff land better. ## How much time it takes Be honest about this bit, with the buddy and with the buddy's manager too. It's not nothing. Protect a bit of time in week one: a welcome, maybe lunch or a coffee, a short daily check-in that doesn't need to be more than five minutes. Then it tapers into a regular short catch-up after that. Treat it as part of the job. Not a favour, not extra goodwill someone's doing out of the kindness of their heart. If it's framed as goodwill it gets deprioritised the second anything urgent comes up, and then the starter's back to guessing. ## What the buddy does before day one and in week one Before day one: brief the buddy properly on the starter's role and when they're actually arriving. Let the buddy send a short hello message beforehand too, nothing elaborate, just "hi, I'm your buddy, looking forward to meeting you." In week one, meet on day one itself. [ACAS](https://www.acas.org.uk/inductions/planning-an-induction-programme) puts it plainly: "The worker should ideally meet their manager on their first day. And their mentor or buddy, if they have one." So that's the manager and the buddy, both, day one, not "at some point in the first fortnight." Show the practical stuff, where the building or the tools are, which channels matter, where documents actually live (not where they're supposed to live). Introduce people. Check in daily. And where something touches policy, point to the actual document rather than answering from memory, because half-remembered policy answered confidently is worse than no answer at all. ## After the first week Weekly check-in for the first month or so, then as needed after that. Include them socially where it's natural, don't force it. And just ask, every so often: what's confusing? That question alone does more work than most structured onboarding plans. ## Buddies, managers and documents The manager owns the plan, the objectives, the reviews, all the formal stuff. The buddy covers the everyday how-do-I questions. Documents are meant to be the source of truth sitting underneath both. Here's the useful bit though: when a buddy gets asked the same question twice, that's a signal. Flag it. Fix the document instead of just quietly answering it again and again forever. Otherwise every new starter hits the same gap and every buddy re-explains it from scratch, which is a bit mad when you think about it. ## Remote and hybrid starters Nothing happens by chance remotely. No corridor chats, no overhearing something useful. So it has to be scheduled deliberately: calls in the diary, video for that first meeting specifically (not just a message), and a direct channel for messaging so the starter isn't waiting for a scheduled slot to ask something small. ## A buddy checklist - Say hello before day one - Meet on day one - Show where things live (tools, documents, channels) - Introduce five useful people - Daily check-in in week one - Weekly check-in after that - Pass role or performance issues to the manager - Flag missing or confusing documents rather than re-explaining them - Agree an end point at the start ## Ending the arrangement Set an end point up front. Could be a few weeks, could be closer to three months, depends on the role, but agree it early so it doesn't just fade out awkwardly or drag on past the point it's useful. Close it with a short conversation. Anything still unclear? Any feedback on how the scheme itself went? Thank the buddy properly, and tell their manager too, since it was real work even if it looked informal from the outside. And then use what you learned. Ask both people what worked. Keep a short guide so the next buddy isn't starting from zero. Rotate it round the team rather than leaning on the same two or three people every time, because that's how a good scheme quietly turns into a chore, and then nobody wants to volunteer at all. [ACAS](https://www.acas.org.uk/template-checklist-for-induction-of-new-staff)'s induction checklist template puts it simply enough: introduce the new starter "to their line manager and someone to help them settle into the job, for example a 'buddy'." That's really the whole scheme in one sentence. Everything above is just the detail of making that sentence actually true.