Tutorial: buddy programme

Goal: every new starter has a buddy who knows they are a buddy before day one. Time: about an hour. You will end up with a Buddy selection form, a nomination step in your pre-boarding automation, and a new Buddy briefing automation triggered the moment the buddy is assigned, plus two check-in steps in your first-weeks flow.

Buddy briefing: Buddy Assigned trigger and a message to the buddy.

How it fits together

Buddy is a relationship on the employee record, alongside manager, mentor and HRBP. Until it is set, a step addressed to Buddy has nobody to go to. So the programme has two halves: write the relationship (a form the manager fills in, or a buddy field synced from your HRIS), then use it. The Buddy Assigned trigger fires the moment the relationship appears, with the new starter as the principal, so the buddy is briefed on time however the nomination arrives.

Before you start

• Slack is connected. The buddy picker inside a form renders in Slack messages.
• Your pre-boarding (or first-day) automation exists. If not, follow Pre-boarding to a personal email first.
• A short buddy guide is published in Library > Content, for example “Being a great onboarding buddy”.

Chapter 1: build the Buddy selection form

1. In Pyn, open Flows in the left navigation, then Forms, and add a form. Name it Buddy selection.

2. Add a field of type Buddy, label it Buddy, describe it as Choose a buddy for your new starter and make it required. This is the field that writes the relationship to the new starter’s record when the form is submitted.

3. Publish the form. The Forms pages cover the editor in detail.

Chapter 2: ask the manager to nominate

1. Open Automations and select your pre-boarding automation.

2. Select Add a step, then Send Direct Message. Set To to Manager, schedule it 1 week before the start date at 09:00 in the Recipient Timezone, and title it Choose a buddy:

   @principal.preferredName joins your team on @principal.startDate. Please pick an onboarding buddy below: someone on or near the team, a year or more in, who enjoys showing people round. Pyn will brief them and introduce them on day one.

3. In the editor toolbar, open the widgets menu and choose Embed Form, search for Buddy selection and select it.

4. Open the Reminders tab and add a reminder 2 days after send, so a manager who has not nominated is nudged once. Open Escalations and add one 4 days after send to the HRBP so a new starter never arrives buddy-less unnoticed.

5. Select Publish.

Note

The manager receives the message and submits the form, so the manager is the form’s submitter. The nominated person is written as the buddy of the new starter, the principal of the enrollment, which is why the next chapter triggers on Buddy Assigned rather than on the form submission.

Chapter 3: brief the buddy the moment they are chosen

1. On Automations, select Create New, then Team and Org Changes, then Buddy Assigned (“An employee was assigned a buddy.”). Title the automation Buddy briefing.

2. On Audience, set Lifecycle to Joiner and Current: the principal is the new starter, who is a joiner until their start date.

3. Select Add a step, then Send Direct Message. Set To to Buddy, schedule it on the day of at 09:00 in the Recipient Timezone, and title it You're a buddy:

   Hi! @manager.preferredName has asked you to be the onboarding buddy for @principal.preferredName, who starts on @principal.startDate as @principal.jobTitle.

   Being a buddy takes about an hour a week for the first month: a hello on day one, a coffee in the first week, and being the person they can ask the small questions. Here is our short guide.

   Add a Link To Library Content button pointing at your buddy guide.

4. Select Publish, then the mode button, Change Mode, Automated. The trigger fires once per assignment, so there is little to verify.

5. Select Details on the right-hand rail and set Moment to Pre-onboarding so the automation sits with the rest of your onboarding on the journey map.

Chapter 4: introduce and check in during the first month

These steps live in your first-day or first-weeks automation, because by then the relationship exists.

1. Open your Start of Onboarding automation.

2. Add a Send Direct Message step to Buddy, on the day of at 09:00: @principal.preferredName starts today. Say hello this morning and book a coffee this week.

3. Add a Send Direct Message step to Buddy, 2 weeks after at 09:00: Two weeks in with @principal.preferredName. Anything they are stuck on that we should know about? Reply here or tell @manager.preferredName.

4. Add a Send Direct Message step to Employee, 1 month after at 10:00, embedding a short poll: How has your buddy, @principal.buddy.preferredName, been for you this first month?

5. Select Publish.

Caution

Tokens resolve against the principal, the new starter, even when the recipient is the buddy. @principal.preferredName is the new starter; @principal.buddy.preferredName is the buddy. Use the preview and Send a test to yourself before publishing.

What you should see

A week before a start date the manager receives the nomination with the buddy picker. When they submit, the new starter’s profile shows the buddy, Buddy briefing enrols the new starter and the buddy’s direct message shows as delivered within the hour. On day one and two weeks later the buddy hears from Pyn again, and at a month the new starter is asked how it went.

Next steps

• If your HRIS carries a buddy field (HiBob does), the same Buddy briefing fires when HR sets it there; no form needed.
• Add a Mentor field and a Mentor recipient the same way for a mentoring programme.

Related

• Forms for the Buddy and Mentor field types.
• Configure a team change trigger for Buddy Assigned.
• Trigger a flow from a form submission for when the submitter is the person you want to reach.
• Steps and messages for embedding forms, reminders and escalations.