In the first part of this blog post, we shared ways for organisations to formally reward and recognise the contributions of their volunteers. This week, we’re going to look more deeply at ways for organisations to make volunteering a more enriching, fulfilling experience for volunteers.
Day to day management – make the role exciting!
Are your volunteers happy in their roles? Do they find they have enough tasks to do every day and do they enjoy doing them?
- Have regular supervision or catch up sessions with your volunteers to discuss how they feel about their tasks and workload. This will help both sides to tailor the volunteer’s task plan to suit both parties
- Make sure you provide ongoing support to your volunteers and that they know who their point of contact is should they need to discuss anything regarding their tasks or their volunteer role
- Provide relevant training where required so that your volunteers can perform their tasks in a satisfactory way and develop their skills
Include volunteers in social events
Our volunteers are a valuable part of our teams, just as valuable as our staff. Stopping every now and again to get to know each other goes a long way into creating strong bonds throughout the team.
- Go out for lunch/ do a ‘potluck’ lunch together
- Have monthly coffee mornings – even remotely on Zoom!
- Connect with local groups that offer walking tours or guides to local museums
- Organise social events for special occasions, for example around summer or Christmas
Include volunteers in decisions that affect them
Involving volunteers in decisions is another important step towards making them feel valued, and helping them embrace any changes and implement these decisions with much greater motivation and a sense of ownership.
- Consult on informal matters (such as where the new notice board should go)
- Invite to meetings that affect them (e.g. staff meetings if appropriate)
- Involve in internal processes on issues affecting volunteers
Support your volunteers’ development
Could your volunteers be supported to apply for (or even have their role develop into) a paid position off the back of their volunteering role? Get some processes in place such as offering a professional reference, an exit interview, and support with CV writing – this can make all the difference to a volunteer’s journey.
If you would like to find out more and meet other people supporting volunteers in Hackney, come along to our next VMF in mid July. Dates are currently being confirmed, but if you’d like to find out more, email Amalia and we’ll be in touch with more info! Email [email protected]