The Three Rs of Managing Volunteers
- Recruit
- Retain
- Reward
3. Reward
It is one thing to recruit your volunteers, another to retain them. How do you keep them interested in your organisation and happy within their role? The main requirement is to provide meaningful work. Most volunteers like to be kept busy and to feel useful. The best way to facilitate this is to ensure your Volunteer Manager knows each volunteer and can accommodate their needs.
Volunteers like to feel they are a part of a team. They desire and deserve respect and acknowledgement. Team building activities like social gatherings and outings can go a long way to helping a volunteer feel valued within your organisation. Rewarding volunteers for their efforts can be reflected in many ways:
- Name badges
- Award or certificate presentations during National Volunteer Week (held in May) or on International Volunteer Day (5th December)
- “Volunteer of the Week” or “Month”
- Profiling volunteers in your newsletters
- Social events such as Christmas Parties or social meetings a few times a year
- Put on a video night
- Make sure there are a few drinks, nibblies, barbecue or a winding-down party planned after the volunteer-based partnership event
- Try and build team spirit - ways of doing this could include providing them with team T-shirts for their event, or complimentary gloves for an outdoor exercise
Recognise volunteers
- List their names where appropriate – be it in a newsletter, annual report, on your website
- Thank them publicly in speeches for example, or by name dropping. For more information on name dropping, refer to the Name Dropping Help Sheet at the Our Community website
Respect volunteers and their work
- Give them the training they need. Help them learn new things
- Talk to them
- Supervise them properly and offer them resources and support
- Demand that they do a good job
- Consult them. Ask them to suggest other volunteers, for example. Ask their opinion on the experience
- Brainstorm for their ideas
- Tell them about the complaints and grievance resolution procedures in case they have a complaint
- Challenge them. Take them seriously and find them tasks that produce worthwhile results. You have to allocate volunteers' time just as if they were paid staff
- Work their skills and abilities. If volunteers have certain skills and abilities, use them for the partnership project's best benefit. It will also give them confidence because they will know what they are doing
Survey Volunteers
- Do you survey your volunteers?
- Are they satisfied with the way you engage them?
- Have they any suggestions for improved conditions?
- Are there creative ideas for this project or any other?
- How could this process assist you in fundraising?
What you learn from your volunteers will be valuable. The process will increase their sense of being valued and make them good ambassadors. Their word of mouth promotion of your organisation will attract more volunteers.
For a sample of a volunteers' satisfaction survey, refer to the Help Sheet Volunteers and Your Partnership – Volunteers' Satisfaction Survey, available at the partnerships Brokerage Service section of the Our Community website.
This survey can be handed out to volunteers after they have finished a task, working bee or volunteer activity. It should not be handed out every single time they complete something, as that may become tedious and have the effect of dissuading them from helping out!
A good survey can provide you with helpful feedback on what went right – or wrong – with your partnership's volunteer activity so you can improve next time, or remedy problems that may have arisen.