When the volunteer coordinator needs an improvement plan
12:42, 5 October 2009
.. Posted in Volunteerism and Volunteer Management.. Link
Last week, I issued a two part challenge regarding the question, How easy is it to volunteer at your organization? For part one of the challenge, I asked you to go online and see how easy it is to find information that your organization involves volunteers, information on how to express interest in such, and information on how a person can get started volunteering with your organization (screening and training requirements and schedules, etc.). Part two of the challenge offered advice on how to investigate what really happens when someone calls your organization, emails your organization, or stops by your organization and says, "I want to volunteer".
These activities may lead to a very harsh reality staff may be reluctant to face: you may find out that your organization is regularly turning away people who want to volunteer.
In reading those two blog entries, you were probably assuming that I was thinking the volunteer coordinator would undertake this investigation, but that may not be the case for all these steps; the Executive Director or an outside consultant may be that person instead. But what if that Executive Director, consultant or other person discovers that the problem is the volunteer coordinator herself/himself? What if you discover that the volunteer coordinator is getting information in a timely manner regarding people who want to volunteer with your organization, but isn't following up quickly or properly, or isn't exhibiting an enthusiastic, encouraging attitude with potential volunteers?
If YOU are the volunteer coordinator and you have undertaken this investigation and discovered that you need to improve some of your own practices, good for you! What a great staff person you are, to identify ways to improve the quality of your work! Bring up your investigation and your action plan for improvement to your supervisor, and discuss what support you need from the organization to make these improvements happen.
If you are NOT the volunteer coordinator, however, and you have undertaken this investigation, then you are in a trickier situation. No one likes to be told they aren't doing a good job.
Before you begin your investigation, the volunteer coordinator should be fully informed of what you are going to do. Yes, that might skew some of the results, with the coordinator and maybe others trying to improve performance so that you get positive results (very natural response to being evaluated!), but many of the changes that would need to be made to improve the experience for potential volunteers won't be possible on such short notice.
Once the investigation is complete, sit down with the volunteer coordinator, one-on-one, to let that person know what you have discovered. Emphasize that your goal isn't just to say what's wrong, but to also talk about how each concern could be addressed -- and that could mean
- moving a volunteer coordinator from part-time to full time (with the appropriate salary increase),
- hiring an assistant for the coordinator,
- putting the volunteer coordinator into a volunteer management workshop, or several workshops, to help him or her improve their skills,
Let that volunteer coordinator vent as needed. Comments like "I've been really busy with current volunteers" or "I'm doing the best I can with the time and resources I have!" or "I've got another job at this organization that takes precedent over coordinating potential volunteers" are legitimate defenses. Can you really fault, say, a volunteer fire chief who is trained in fighting fighters but not in the basics of volunteer recruitment and management?
Let the volunteer coordinator address every obstacle to more effectively directing potential volunteers, and come up with a plan, together, on how each of those obstacles will be addressed, and how improvements will be tracked, Emphasize again and again that this is about improving the volunteer experience at your organization and giving the volunteer coordinator the resources he or she needs to make this improvement happen, not a blame game. And when you see an improvement, acknowledge it in ever appropriate way, including in the employee's annual performance review.
It's imperative that you check regularly to see if volunteer recruitment is improving, to make this investigation from part one and part two of the challenge worthwhile. The volunteer coordinator should be providing regularly reports (at least quarterly) on:
- how many people are calling, emailing or stopping by each month to inquiry about volunteering versus how many of these people filled out a volunteer application
- how many people are filling out a volunteer application versus how many are attending the first volunteer orientation/meeting
- how many people are attending the volunteer orientation/meeting versus how many actually engage in an assignment
- how many people start an assignment versus how many finish the assignment
- what volunteers say regarding why they stay, why they go, or why they never get started in the first place
What are good statistics to have? That's something your organization will have to determine. For instance, a high number of inquiries about volunteering, versus a low number of people who actually fill out the volunteer application isn't necessarily a bad thing: it could mean that your staff is doing a good job of helping inappropriate people to screen themselves out of the volunteer process, as these people realize that they wouldn't be appropriate candidates to volunteer with your organization (due to lack of enough time, for instance).
