- Introduction
- Why do you involve volunteers?
- How do volunteers help the organisation to achieve its objectives?
- Is it necessary to manage volunteers?
- Who manages volunteers?
Introduction
Preparation is key to successful volunteer management. It means taking time to ensure that everything is in place to ensure that both the organisation and volunteer benefit from the experience. Whether you have existing volunteers and want to recruit new ones, or are recruiting volunteers for the first time, you should take the time to reflect on and answer the questions posed in this section. They form the basis of a successful and sustainable volunteer programme.
The key questions to answer are:
- Why you have volunteers?
- What is their role?
- What limits, if any, are there to the range of activities volunteers get involved in?
- What can you offer volunteers?
These are all key questions that guide how you work with volunteers and will influence the volunteer's experience in return.
This section sets out some of the basic issues that you should think about before recruiting volunteers or when reviewing your current volunteer programme. Having answers to them will give you direction as you develop a volunteer programme that suits your organisation.
The better prepared you are, the better your volunteer programme will be for you and your volunteers, and the more likely the volunteer experience will be a good one
Why do you involve volunteers?
Being clear why you involve volunteers helps you to:
- Put a volunteer programme together
- Connect volunteers to the work of the organisation
- Decide what structures and supports volunteers need
Here is a checklist giving reasons for involving volunteers. Highlight the reasons that apply to your organisation and list any others that may not be included here:
- Your organisation believes in the volunteer ethos
- Volunteers allow you to do more
- Volunteers bring expertise, experience and a perspective which is unique
- Volunteers raise the profile and awareness of the service
- We've always had volunteers
- The management structure of a board of directors is by law not permitted to derive a profit and is, therefore voluntary.
How do volunteers help the organisation to achieve its
objectives?
Most organisations have a vague rather than a specific answer to this question but it is important in order to clarify:
- The roles that volunteers have
- The relationship between volunteers and paid staff
- The potential and/or limits for volunteer involvement.
All volunteers, whether new or existing, should have a role description that includes an explanation of how the role fits with the work of the organisation. This will help you define the parameters for involvement and lets the volunteer know the scope for volunteer involvement. It's a very good way of checking that the role meets the expectations the volunteer has.
Look at how your organisation currently works with, or is likely to work with, volunteers and decide which of the following descriptions of volunteer involvement best describes how volunteers fit in.1
The service delivery model is one where volunteers deliver services directly and a small number of paid staff manage and support them. Volunteers are usually attracted to these organisations because of the voluntary activity and the defined volunteer roles.
The support role model applies to organisations with more paid staff and fewer volunteers or where volunteers are recruited for specific work, such as fundraising. Volunteers are often motivated by the overall work of the organisation rather than the actual role they do. Some organisations evolve into this model as the organisation grows, funding becomes more secure and roles require greater expertise.
In the member/activist model there are usually no paid staff and people are motivated to join because of strong personal commitment to the work or cause.
The co-workers model is one where the roles of volunteers and paid staff are indistinguishable. Volunteers in these organisations tend to have a high degree of involvement and identify with the organisation's aims.
Is it necessary to manage volunteers?
It is widely accepted that the "unwritten but understood" style of volunteer management is no longer enough to ensure a mutually beneficial volunteering experience. Volunteers deserve more and organisations need to have policies and procedures in place to ensure things run smoothly and effectively.
Furthermore, volunteers have chosen to give your organisation their time, skills and expertise. In return, you should be offering them a volunteering experience that meets their expectations and is well managed. Good volunteer management means:
- you know what motivates each volunteer
- volunteers know what their role is and what sort of training they can expect,
- volunteers and others in the organisation know how their contribution fits in with organisation's goals,
- volunteers know who to turn to for help and support
- volunteers receive affirmation and recognition for their contribution.
For volunteers to stay and be effective, volunteers and organisations must be a good match, therefore clear role descriptions, and recruitment and selection procedures are essential.
Organisations need to be able to refer to policies and procedures to ensure their work with volunteers is consistent over time and across staff.
The key role of management is to ensure that the resources of the organisation are managed effectively, including volunteers. Organisations with solid structures, clear lines of communication and good relationships will attract and keep good people.
Who manages volunteers?
Having an effective volunteer programme and being an effective volunteer manager requires commitment and skill and choosing who has this role is key to the success of your volunteer programme.
Who actually has this role depends on the organisation. Factors such as the size of an organisation, the number of volunteers, the type of work volunteers do and the skills and expertise required all impact on who actually takes on this role. It could be the manager/CEO, a paid staff member, a paid volunteer manager or a volunteer volunteer-manager.
The reality in many organisations is that the role is added on to already stretched manager. It's important to cut your cloth to suit your measure and not make commitments to volunteers that you can't keep. Only recruit the number of volunteers that you can effectively manage.
Below is a list of some of the tasks involved in managing volunteers. Highlight the task if you feel you have the time and capacity to carry out all of these activities:
- Ensure that the role of volunteers is understood and valued in the organisation
- Identify volunteer opportunities
- Defining volunteer roles
- Recruit and select volunteers
- Organise volunteer induction
- Develop team building strategies
- Maintain volunteer records
- Organise volunteer roster
- Provide one-2-one support for volunteers
- Carry out volunteer reviews
- Design volunteer policies and procedures
- Plan training programmes
- Deal with difficulties that arise
The personal qualities and skills of a good volunteer manager include:
- A commitment to the role of volunteers
- An understanding of volunteer issues
- Experience in managing or willingness to learn
- Excellent communicator
- Good organiser
- Recognises the importance of team building
- Ability of identify training needs
- Creative
- A motivator
- Combines efficiency with flexibility
Not everyone will have all the skills required so you will need to offer training and support to someone taking on this role. If there is an existing volunteer (or two) who you think would be good managers, suggest it to them and consider introducing them into the role incrementally. If they aren't interested in all aspects of the role there may be elements that they would like to do, for instance, writing a specific policy and procedure or helping with the volunteer induction programme.
Organisations involving volunteers need to recognise that volunteer management needs to be resourced and supported. It also needs to be connected with the wider organisation and not seen as something self sustaining just because there is a volunteer manager in place. Volunteer managers must be given the opportunity and mandate to develop the skills and capacity of the organisation and its staff to work with and value the contribution of volunteers.
Activities
Start by discussing the following questions with others involved.
- Why you have volunteers in your organisation?
- What roles do volunteers do?
- Do you limit the role of volunteers and, if so, why?
Once you can answer each one of these questions, then you can write a clear statement on volunteer involvement. This will form the basis of your volunteer policy.
The example below reflects an organisation that has volunteers in both support and management roles.
Volunteers make a vital contribution in helping us achieve our aims.
Volunteers support paid staff in service delivery and manage our net w ork of f und rai si ng commi t tees.
Volunteers join specific teams and are given induction and on-going training and support to carry out their roles
Volunteers are involved in service delivery, fund raising and boards of management. Our volunteers are supported to take up new volunteer challenges.
We expect volunteers to commit to a minimum of 1 year and work the agreed number of hours.
Look at the volunteer management systems that you currently have. Even if not written down, you will have an informal way of doing things. This list identifies some of the basic management responsibilities.
| Question | Yes | Partly | No |
| Do you have someone with responsibility for volunteers? | |||
| Do volunteers know who that person is and what their role is? | |||
| Do volunteers have role descriptions? | |||
| Does that person meet with volunteers to discuss their work? | |||
| Do volunteers attend meetings? | |||
| Do you have a system for volunteers to keep up to date in what is going on? | |||
| Do you have induction training? | |||
| Do you have ongoing training? | |||
| Do you keep a file on each volunteer? | |||
| Do you have any volunteer polices and procedures in place? |
Download the Word version of the above table 
Further information sources
Volunteer Development Agency (2001) As good as they give: planning volunteer involvement, Volunteer Development Agency: Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Websites
1. Models of Volunteer Management As Good As They Give, Volunteer Development Agency 2001
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