A good volunteering experience means that the volunteer's expectations are met and the organisation benefits by their involvement. This happens because the initial "match" is right and because the organisation recognises that the ongoing management of volunteers is essential in keeping volunteers motivated and committed to staying. This section looks at ways to achieve this.
Let's start by recapping on some of the tasks you do at recruitment stage which can have a significant bearing on whether volunteers stay or leave.
Remember volunteers aren't contractually bound to stay, so they will walk (and rightly so) if you don't look after them.
First impressions are lasting so make a good one by having these in place:
Organisations rarely reflect on how their use of language influences the culture of the organisation and the relationship between its staff and members. Organisations are often unaware of potentially negative signals which their everyday language has.
The "onlys"
How many times have you heard a
volunteer say "I'm only a volunteer"? It's up to the
organisation to ban the word only and create a status for
volunteers which recognises their contribution as an integral
part of the organisations work.
Titles
Job titles have their place but they tend to be used when not
always necessary. Referring to people all the time as paid
staff, scheme staff or volunteers can create a notion of
hierarchy and division. The description "team" sounds a lot
better, so use it as often as possible.
There are a number of titles used to describe the person who is responsible for managing volunteers. Choose the one that what suits your organisation best.
The verb commonly attached to volunteers is "use": "we use volunteers to ..." Think of other words which describe the contribution in a more positive way.
While all management tasks are important, special attention needs to be given to team building because it is the ability of people to work well together that is key to a positive and effective working environment.
Whether team building happens formally or informally, you need to know it's working and act when it's not. Here are some examples of how team building happens.
| Informal |
| Creating a friendly atmosphere (don't underestimate this!) |
| Going out to lunch together or bringing it in |
| A social event |
| Celebrating special events like birthdays or national volunteer days |
| Having tea breaks together |
| Formal |
| Clear understanding of the different roles and how they contribute to the work of the organisation Clarity about work boundaries Regular team meetings on topics of common interest Team support sessions Team case study reviews |
| Team training Training delivered by team members |
| Team input into planning |
| Clear procedures for dealing with difficulties that arise between paid staff and volunteers |
| Special projects involving volunteers and paid staff |
| Team input into volunteer recruitment |
Whether there are two or two hundred roles, there needs to be clarity within every organisation about each role and how they relate to each other. This avoids confusion and misunderstanding, as well as ensuring things run smoothly.
One of the only ways to get a high degree of clarity is to have things in writing. You could start by listing the various roles in your organisation and then write down what their core duties are and how they relate to each other. The relationships between them are not always obvious so you may have to consult with others involved.
The diagram below shows on organisation with five distinct roles common to many volunteer involving organisations. You might find it useful in charting how your organisation connects with each other and what the main task of each role is. It only needs to be detailed enough to give a basic understanding to volunteers of who does what.
Many organisations have written descriptions outlining the relationship between paid staff and volunteers. This is done to clarify roles and responsibilities and to avoid confusion at best, and clashes at worst. These usually include:
Regardless of the words you choose to describe "support and supervision", the Task of supporting volunteers and supervising their contribution is core in volunteer management. Whether you have a formal system in place or not, all organisations with volunteers have some a system of showing the volunteer firstly how to do the job and secondly, ensuring that the job is done well.
Whatever you choose to call support and supervision, the purpose is generally the same:
The time and resources given to volunteer support and supervision will vary. Be guided by:
Support and supervision are about enabling the volunteer to do the job to the best of their ability and to the satisfaction of the organisation. It's also about saying thanks.
What's involved?
It's important to address any issues that arise while volunteering during the support and supervision meeting. Doing so as early as possible will hopefully avoid problems escalating.
Try to meet all volunteers at least once a year and more often if possible to review how the work is going
Everyone likes to be thanked for the work they do and as a manager, it's your job to make sure that the contribution of volunteers is acknowledged individually and collectively. The more obvious ways this happens are:
The less obvious ways include:
This template could be useful in providing a structure to an annual review.
Download the Word version of the Annual Review Template 
It's accepted as good practice that volunteers should not incur any financial costs when volunteering and that cost should not be a barrier to volunteering. However, the reality is that many organisations could not afford to have volunteers if they adopted this guideline.
Consider what costs you can realistically afford.
And then set out a procedure for claiming expenses.
Download the Word version of the Volunteer Expenses Claim Form
Check with your insurance company that your policy covers the range of volunteer activities you plan to undertake and make any adjustments to the policy prior to the volunteer starting.
You will need to specify at induction what the insurance includes and what is not. It's useful for everyone to know about:
Design a leaflet with the relevant information for volunteers to refer to.
Further information sources Citizens Information Board Group Resource Scheme
Clarke, J. (1997) Managing Better: Staff Support and Supervision. Combat Poverty Agency
McCurley, S. and Vineyard, S. (1998) Handling problem volunteers. Heritage Arts
Volunteer Development Agency: (2001) As Good As They Give
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