Do you know who will be a great volunteer just by the "vibe"?
15:34, 18 February 2010
.. Posted in Volunteerism and Volunteer Management.. Link
In the last year, volunteer managers at three different organizations have told me the following in reply to my question, "How do you screen your candidates for volunteering?"
"I meet with each potential volunteer and, as I'm talking to them, I can tell if they should be volunteering with us or not. I go with my gut, and if my gut tells me there's something suspicious about someone, I tell that person we don't have a position that's right for him."
Can a person's "vibe" tell you if he or she will be a good volunteer or not?
No, ofcourse not.
You are not psychic. If you can prove that you are psychic, James Randi has $1 million for you.
Volunteers who didn't complete assignments, didn't complete assignments correctly, were disruptive to operations, upset clients or other volunteers, embezzled money, sabotaged activities, or engaged in any number of harmful or illegal activities at a variety of organizations were judged as good candidates by someone along the line. They may have been stellar in that one-on-one meeting with the volunteer manager, giving off that perfect vibe the volunteer manager was looking for. But how they presented themselves in that interview turned out not to be the best way to know if they would be a good volunteering candidate.
And on the other hand, how often is your negative gut feeling about someone actually a prejudice? Maybe you have a prejudice against people with certain kinds of accents, people with certain hair styles, people who don't make eye contact, people of a different ethnicity, overweight people, people who wear flip flops, people with tattoos, etc., and you've excluded someone who would have actually been a great volunteer.
Laws govern some volunteer screening activities -- for instance, for volunteers who will work with children, even in groups, you will have to do at least a criminal background check with your local law enforcement office. Some situations, by law, mandate finger print background checks. But more importantly, you should be engaging in screening activities that will screen in appropriate people (people who really do have the time to give, the appropriate personal skills and the necessary abilities/experience) and screen out inappropriate people (people who don't really have the time required, who won't follow through on assignments, who won't follow policies, who have the potential to engage in disruptive or harmful behavior, etc.).
That means it's inappropriate for you to not involve someone just because you "have a feeling." Explore that feeling. Be honest in where that feeling comes from. Does the person remind you of someone you don't like? Does the person have a physical trait that makes you uncomfortable and, if so, why? You may find, in honestly exploring your apprehension, that you do have a legitimate reason for excluding someone -- because they weren't forthcoming with information, because they were vague in their answers to your questions, because they asked questions that seemed to imply they might have a dishonorable motive ("Where's the safe? When do you make deposits at the bank?"). But you also may discover a prejudice you didn't realize you had. Read "Gut Feelings and Intuitions in Volunteer Screening," an excerpt from Linda Graff's terrific book Beyond Police Checks: The Definitive Volunteer & Employee Screening Guidebook (which I think should be in EVERY volunteer managers library) for more about why your gut is not a good volunteer screening tool. Also see this resource from Safe at Church, which is an example of why communities-of-faith (churches, temples, mosques) need to be taking volunteer screening as seriously as any other organization.
As part of your screening, consider creating a probation for all new volunteers, where assignments are under closer supervision, have lower levels of responsibility and have higher reporting requirements than regular, post-probation volunteering assignments. How a person performs under probation is a much better indication of what kind of person they are than your gut. Don't put people you "have a feeling" about in a highly supervised situation as part of a probation that you don't put every new volunteer into. And stick to your policies -- have strict, written guidelines on how a volunteer must perform during probation, and make it clear what is required to "graduate." If you want to dismiss a volunteer, or to keep a volunteer under probation for a longer period, meet with that volunteer and say, "I think this volunteering situation isn't working/I'd like to keep you under probation for longer, and here is why..." More resources on "firing" a volunteer:
- Firing High Maintenance Volunteers
- How to Fire a Volunteer and Live to Tell About It
- Firing a Volunteer (Firefighter)
