Onboarding & Buddy Workshop

At eggs unimedia in Munich, there is a sophisticated onboarding concept for all new employees. The central component in this concept is a buddy. Each new employee is assigned to an experienced colleague. These two now become onboarding buddies. The buddy is the first point of contact for the new staff member with questions of any kind. They provide technical assistance, introduce the other colleagues and, of course, explain how the coffee machine works.

That's why Malina asks us in Munich if we can hold a workshop for the Romanian buddies. All new colleagues in Cluj already have a buddy by their side for the onboarding phase. The workshop should support their work, give new impulses and reduce uncertainties.

This is where my colleague Aline Neumann and I step in. We volunteer to organise the workshop. In discussions with Malina and Laura, our HR Manager in Munich, we work out the two key points:

- How do we live the buddy concept in Munich?

- How would our colleagues in Cluj like to shape the Buddy Concept?

Malina provides a list of all participants for us. After looking through the list, we decide to form three groups from it. Due to the tense Corona situation in Germany and Romania, there is unfortunately no chance for us to conduct the workshops live on site in Cluj. In our conception, therefore, there is the further challenge of creating an exciting workshop in a remote environment.

Communication at eggs in home office is mainly via teams. Accordingly, this app is set for our video communication. Aline and I decide to additionally integrate a Mural board. With its help, all participants can work together interactively in a central place and generate their ideas in a playful atmosphere. Thanks to Aline's talents as a frontend developer, our board becomes a highlight not only in terms of content but also in terms of layout. Now nothing stands in the way of our workshops.

In the first two weeks of December, we conduct our workshops in three groups. The dynamics that arise in the teams are very different. In addition, we find that our colleagues in Cluj bring many different questions about the Buddy Concept with them. this makes the workshops interesting and varied.

Part 1 - How do we live the Buddy Concept in Munich?

After discussing the agenda and a relaxed round of introductions, things finally get serious. To avoid frontal teaching, we decide on an interview format in this part. Since Aline has already gained extensive experience with the Buddy topic at eggs, I conduct a fictitious interview with her to illustrate the point. On our board it looks like this:

Part 2 - How should the buddy concept be designed in Cluj?

In the main part of the workshop, we use a tried and tested brainstorming method. All participants individually consider what ideas they have on the questions and write them down on sticky notes, which are inserted directly into the board. The "private mode" allows this to be done in secret. Only after this round is completed are all ideas revealed and discussed. All participants get the opportunity to present their thoughts and discuss them with the others. Finally, we hold a voting session to find out which of the topics mentioned are the most important in this group. After a feedback round, we release the participants back into their daily work.

The workshops made many interesting aspects of the buddy concept visible. Our colleagues in Cluj are now very confident that they are on the right track as buddies. Even without the workshop, they had already intuitively understood what it is all about and what their task as buddies is. At first glance, being employed by eggs Romania instead of the nearshore partner seems like a small step, as you "only" continue to work under a new company name and in a new office, but in the same project and in the same team. Nevertheless, company culture and philosophy, structures, processes and responsibilities change. Even cultural differences become more visible. For the colleagues in Cluj, a whole new working world is opening up. The buddy concept is the first step towards this.