Ahmad, fresh from school was a newly recruited HR practitioner. During his one month into the job, he was asked to be in-charge of the orientation program for the entire organization. Being new, he followed closely to the processes. Recently, Khalid joined the organization and Ahmad was required to orientate him. On Khalid's first day of work, Ahmad brought him around the organization for introduction to the rest of the staffs. Unfortunately, Khalid's assigned mentor was not around hence, Ahmad was unable to make an official introduction for Khalid to meet up with his mentor. In the afternoon, during the HR briefing, Ahmad mentioned to Khalid that there is a buddy system in place but it is only on an opt-in basis. Khalid requested to opt for a buddy. Ahmad was rather surprised by Khalid's request as according to Ahmad's manager-Jean, no one in the organization has requested for a buddy.

Hence, Ahmad checked with Jean on the criteria in getting a buddy for Khalid and according to her, Ahmad found out that it needed to be someone preferably from Khalid's department. Having clarified on the criteria, Ahmad was supposed to get a buddy for Khalid, unfortunately, this issue was clearly forgotten by Ahmad due to his busy schedule as he was involved in other HR matters as well and he did not follow up with Khalid's request promptly.

One week later, Ahmad met Khalid in a lunch gathering and Ahmad greeted Khalid and asked him casually how is he doing and if he has adapted well to his job. Khalid, asked Ahmad blatantly and angrily where is his buddy that he had requested. At that moment, Ahmad recalled on the existence of this request and unwittingly told Khalid that he thought Khalid was joking with him on the request for a buddy as he did not want to admit to Khalid that he had clearly forgotten about the whole issue. Khalid was very angered by Ahmad's response and told him off that he was very serious in getting a buddy and that its Ahmad's responsibility to do so. Ahmad, clearly embarrassed and guilty about his mistake, apologized immediately and promised to get him a buddy. On the very day, a buddy- Sam, was found for Khalid. Khalid was very unhappy with Ahmad and confronted Ahmad and his buddy when he was able to have an official meet up session with his mentor. Ahmad explained to Khalid that the organization has no current practice in place for meet up sessions to be arranged between mentors and mentees and it's a practice for mentees to take self-initiative to do so in arranging for meetings with their mentors and also that his mentor is currently out of town and will only be back the next day. Ahmad, himself being a new staff also was at that moment in time speaking on personal experience and also based on what Jean had told him. Sam, who was present agreed and helped to explain to Khalid on the practice. Khalid kept quiet and Ahmad unknowingly thought that Khalid has understood the organization practice. Hence, Ahmad did not continue to check with Khalid on this aspect.

The following day, Khalid had a feedback session with his manager and Ahmad was called upon to sit in as a part of the orientation program. Khalid brought up the issue on Ahmad's failure to get him a buddy promptly and that he was not introduced to his mentor at all. He complained about the poor management of the HR mentor and buddy system and that it was not effective at all and that he expressed that he is very unhappy with Ahmad as he felt that he was not doing his job at all. Ahmad tried to explain to Khalid and his manager about what happened and also reassured Khalid that he will take his suggestions of improving on the system and was apologetic about the issue. He told Khalid's manager that he will bring Khalid to see his mentor after the session as his mentor is back in the office after being on leave for the past week.

Khalid was still very unhappy with Ahmad and continued telling Ahmad off in front of his manager.

Questions:

1. Explain the case with suitable title. Justify your title as well.

2. On an HR practitioner point of view, what should Ahmad do to resolve the issue?

3. Khalid is very unhappy with Ahmad and holds it against him even though all has been done and followed up. What should Ahmad as HR do to resolve this and should Jean, as Ahmad's manager do something?

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

1 The case is about failure to smoothly onboard a newly recruited employee into the company and the subsequent fallout in relationship between the new ... View the full answer