Buddy System and Buddy System Connect: Leveling Up Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEIA) Onboarding and Connecting Programing across the National Weather Service

The Buddy System is a simple, effective National Weather Service (NWS) onboarding and connecting program with a concise tagline: “The NWS is easier with a Buddy”. This program integrates the elementary principle of human connection into the onboarding and transition process to address community, belonging, productivity and retention within the NWS. Although developed at the field office level by the presenting authors, The Buddy System has quickly spread nationwide through grassroots efforts, and is being incorporated at offices in Southern Region, Pacific Region, and Alaska Region.

An AMS 2023 presentation by the same authors outlined the benefits of buddy programs, for the new hire, Buddy and organization, and provided evidence for the success of the locally developed Buddy System Phase I. This presentation will focus on the more recent efforts of the authors – in conjunction with the Tiger Team Task Force for Adaptability and Flexibility, the Leadership Academy and the Office of Organizational Excellence, and with the support of NWS Director Ken Graham and acting NWS Deputy Director Michelle Mainelli – to package both the Buddy System and Buddy System Connect for national rollout in early Fiscal Year 2024.

Buddy System Connect expands the new-employee experience to establish belonging across the NWS. Following the initial onboarding period, team members can opt-in to this next level of the Buddy System. While it is open to all NWS team members, Buddy System Connect confronts the challenge of finding sodality among the Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC), special emphasis groups and protected communities, even in the broad NWS community. During Buddy System Connect, the DEIA Recruitment Team pairs the individual with a special emphasis peer for the long-term onboarding period. This second tier of the program is specifically intended to connect team members who can offer support uniquely related to their circumstances.

At its most basic level, the Buddy System has a ripple effect across the NWS. The newly organized NWS Tiger Teams, NOAA DEIA Program, and the We Are NOAA Campaigns, in addition to the results of the Human Capital Strategy Division of Office of Human Capital Services end of year survey, acknowledge both the necessity for and the recent movement on DEIA programs for the health and culture of the organization. The Buddy System makes enthusiastic strides to achieve goal one of the ‘Ken’s 10’: ‘People as a Top Priority’. Through the lens of the Ken's 10 Strategic DEIA: Recruitment and Retention Change Initiative, the Buddy System Connect offers a solution to improve the NWS experience for employees and underrepresented groups and provide an opportunity for cultural changes to improve recruitment and retention efforts.

The Buddy System is not just an elementary, idealized concept; it is a foundational step for long term agency health. The program fits into the Career-Long Mentoring Development roadmap, with Buddy System and Buddy System Connect then providing a natural segue into the Local Mentoring Program, the NWS Mentoring Program and the NOAA Mentoring Program. This path moves beyond onboarding to connect, build and develop employees into future NWS leaders. Although getting started in the NWS may be ‘easier’ with a Buddy, the tremendous benefit to the diverse people of the agency can be summarized by saying, ‘The NWS is better with a buddy’.