We like to believe that people volunteer purely out of the goodness of their hearts. The reality is that people have a wide range of reasons to want to offer their time and skills to organisations. This can range from gaining experience in a specific role/ sector or utilising skills already obtained, making community connections, desire to feel valued and part of a team, getting involved in something enjoyable outside of work and family commitments, plus many more.
Everybody has their own reasons for wanting to volunteer; I should add that this does not de-value the offer of support; despite any personal gains, volunteers are still giving their support freely.
I think this is often overlooked by Volunteer Involving Organisations (VIOs) and this can lead to de-motivated volunteers. Volunteering roles are predominantly generated from a need within an organisation and therefore are seeking volunteers for a specific purpose.
Volunteers put off
The problem arises when VIOs fail to recognise that volunteers have their own motivations for getting involved and will require some investment from the organisation to recruit and retain them.
Within my role I have met so many people looking for volunteering opportunities but they are either put off by the demands and expectations of the role or organisation or have a negative volunteering experience of feeling undervalued, not part of the wider team and not given the opportunity to develop.
Bring out the best in your volunteers
I appreciate managing volunteers is time consuming, but when organisations invest the time in bringing out the best in their volunteers they will see the rewards tenfold.
This could be done by for example:
- being respectful and understanding,
- being accessible,
- giving volunteers a voice,
- offering ongoing training and encourage development,
- providing a platform for volunteers to get to know others,
- recognise their achievements,
- leading by example- don’t ask your volunteers to do anything you wouldn’t do yourself.
I am not saying there is a simple way of rectifying this problem, although I do think we need to be more mindful about how we treat our volunteers given our current climate of austerity and increasing demand to operate on limited resource.
How do you motivate yours?
I am interested in hearing your stories of how you ensure your volunteers keep motivated and feel valued.
Do you need support in developing your roles and/or volunteer offer?
Get in touch Kelly.baxter@mvdauk.org.uk
Kelly Hodgson
MVDA
We Care You Care Project Lead