Before you recruit volunteers

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Get your house in order before you recruit volunteers!

The traditional sources of volunteers are changing. Volunteer-involving organisations need to compete and this involves ensuring your volunteers feel their time is well spent, their work well organised and their contribution valued.

Volunteers may be of any age – school age, young people, family volunteers, parent volunteers, retired volunteers. Approaches to volunteering by different age groups may have to differ.

Volunteers give their time freely and want to feel their contributions make a real difference. Volunteers have many reasons for helping. Some want to socialise and make new friends, others want to develop their skills and experience and many will feel passionate about the cause. It is important that volunteers are clear about their role and the support they can expect.

Organisations need to have systems and procedures in place to ensure their volunteers have a great experience. A policy of ‘decentralised volunteer management’, whereby the management of the volunteer is undertaken by the person who is nearest the client may challenge existing systems.

Giving volunteers a great experience

This Institute for Volunteering Research report proposes a model of progressive volunteer involvement with eight pressure points that can influence a person’s likelihood of becoming and staying a volunteer.

Organisations have been set up to encourage and support volunteering for young people (for example, v inspire) and older people (for example, CSV's Retire into Action) and many others who may not have even thought about volunteering in the past. Inclusion and diversity are actively encouraged by the Government who have funded specific programmes, for example, Getting involved in your community. 

Volunteering is seen as a means of learning new skills, meeting new friends, making a valuable contribution and can sometimes lead to employment and new careers.

Useful links

• A choice blend: What volunteers want from organisation and management (Institute for Volunteering Research)
• Volunteering (Direct Gov)
  

Have your say

Share your experiences around recruiting volunteers on the Volunteers forum.