Volunteer Management
There are three different subject areas that should be covered during the orientation process. What are they?
- Cause Orientation – why work here?
- System Orientation – how do I work here?
- Social Orientation – where do I fit in?
There are two primary content areas to cover in volunteer training. What are they?
- Job Functions: what vol. should do/not do in this position, situations they may encounter and what to do IF they arise.
- Roles and Responsibilities: how volunteer fits in relation to other staff or volunteers. Reporting structure, roles of others around the volunteer.
EIAG is an acronym which involves a method of coaching. What does the acronym stand for? Explain how it is used by the volunteer manager.
Experience – let them experience the role and learn from that.
Identify – let them articulate what they have learned from their experience (who what when where)
Analyze (Why?)
Generalize…the situation to apply to other situations. (So when ___ happens, I do ___)
Chapter 8 Supervising
What are the four levels of control a volunteer manager can assign to a volunteer?
Provide an example of each level using job descriptions from your group assignment.
1. The Authority for Self-Assignment – most freedom for vol. Generates own assignments and progress.
2. The Authority for Self-Assignment - provided the boss is kept advised of progress.
3. The Authority to recommend self-assignment – still source of own assignments…pending approval beforehand.
4. No Authority for Self-Assignment – volunteer does only as they are told with no authority to create assignments.
Managing by asking empowering questions as a way of providing supervision. To get the best results, ask the volunteer questions to help them become more confident in their role. What type of questions should a volunteer manager be asking?
1. Planning – Q’s about how, when, why do the job.
2. Empowering – how to make the job better (frustrations, skills, responsibility level)
3. Evaluation – outcome based. How would you rate yourself? Are you on target or not.
4. Questions for yourself – double checking that you have done the above and that your volunteers are doing well.
How does the volunteer manager effectively delegate responsibilities?
1. Define the assignment in terms of results.
2. Define the level of control
3. Communicate any guidelines (i.e. relevant policies, procedures like # of quotes needed to in a purchase order)
4. Make resources available – that would aid in success
5. Determine criteria for success – The vol should know he/she will be judged.
6. Set up checkpoints – 3 month? Quarterly? Weekly?
Chapter 11 Evaluation
Why should we evaluate volunteers?
- To help the volunteer work closer to his/her potential
- To help the organization better involve volunteers
What does the acronym RAP stand for and when do we use this method?
R – Review the past
A – Analyze the present
P – Plan the future
Used during evaluations.
There are four common reasons for poor performance. What are they?
1. Volunteer is motivated and able. Problems: Unclear performance expectations. Personality issues.
2. Volunteer is motivated but unskilled. Problem: Poor screening. Poor training.
3. Volunteer is able but unmotivated. Problem: Poor matching. Vol may not see connection between role and mission. Not enough recognition. Not enough authority to assign work.
4. Volunteer is unable and unmotivated. Problem: Poor matching. Fatigue.
What are some signs that a volunteer is struggling in their role?
- Quality of work declines
- Worker is often late
- No shows
- Lack of enthusiasm
- No initiative shown
When a volunteer is unsuccessful a volunteer manager may follow through with positive corrective action. What are the six steps?
1. Get the volunteer to describe the unacceptable behaviour.
2. Divorce the behaviour from the individual’s self-worth.
3. Say something positive about the person.
4. Ask the volunteer for a plan for improvement.
5. Give praise for any improvement in performance.
6. As performance improves, repeat step 3.
Chapter 12 Volunteer Motivation
List 10 common reasons why people might be motivated to volunteer.
· To gain knowledge of community problems
· To maintain skills no longer used otherwise
· To get out of the house
· To make new friends
· To gain new skills
· To payback
· To feel useful
· To fulfill a moral or religious duty
· To be a part of a group or team
· To have fun
The key to retaining volunteers is to produce an Esteem producing climate by providing for their connectedness needs, by considering their uniqueness, and by providing the volunteer with some level of control over their work. Please explain how you would use these three concepts using your group project as an example.
Connectedness - when people feel connected, they feel a sense of belonging, being part of a relationship with others which produces healthier, happier individuals. Our agency would provide different roles for our volunteers, leadership action for the different roles that would need to be carried out, the volunteer would have a sense of “we” as well as a sense of “I” which would make them feel more special generating self-esteem.
Uniqueness - a characteristic of people with high esteem with the feeling that “there is no one in the world quite like me”. In our agency, the Volunteer manager would make sure that in building uniqueness she would recognize the achievements of individuals within the group and praise them for their individual qualities. Their uniqueness can be enhanced by giving them challenging assignments that would take advantage of their individual strengths.
Power - means a sense of effectiveness, a feeling that the volunteer is making a difference. To feel effective, we would make sure that the volunteer works on things that matter, having a feeling of being in control of the task they are assigned to. The volunteer manager would start them with entry level jobs, grooming them for more work in the agency Making sure that the volunteer is truly enjoying the work they are doing which increase more interest and involvement.
What is the difference between formal and informal volunteer appreciation?
Formal: awards, certificates, plaques, pins, recognition dinners. Many organizations have annual events. April is Volunteer Month.
Informal: More powerful because it is more frequent. Examples include:
- saying thank you
- telling them they did a good job
- bragging about them in their presence
- thank you notes
What are the three motivational orientations of volunteers? (We did a same day assignment on this)
- Achievement oriented
- Affiliation oriented
- Power oriented
Describe the most effective ways of showing appreciation to volunteers based upon their motivational orientations. (We did a same day assignment on this)
- Achievement oriented: Additional training or more challenging tasks
- Subject for recognition is best linked to a very specific accomplishment
- Phrasing the recognition through “Best”, “Most” awards
- Awardee should be based on performance and not simply time served
- Awardee should be selected by co-workers
- Affiliation oriented: Recognition should be given at group event
- Recognition should be given in presence of peers, family, and other bonded grouping
- Recognition should be given by the organization
- Recognition should be voted by peers
- If matched with a client, volunteer should be involved
- Volunteer banquets, formal events work well
- Power oriented: Key aspect of recognition is “promotion”, conveying greater access to authority or information
- Recognition should be announced to community at large, put on news, social media
- Recognition should be commendation from important names.
- Recognition should be made by the leadership
Chapter 13 Building Volunteer and Staff Relationships
What are the 8 elements involved in creating a system of good volunteer- staff relationships?
1. Overall policy on volunteer involvement
2. Assessment of staff capabilities
3. Staff orientation to volunteer program
4. Personalized Volunteer Position Creation
5. Early monitoring of volunteer placements
6. Staff Control and responsibility in volunteer management
7. Feedback and Recognition
8. On-going relationship building
What does the acronym FTE stand for? How do you calculate this formula?
FTE means full-time equivalent.
Calculated by taking the total # of volunteer hours contributed and dividing them by # of hours in standard work hours
ex. 200 volunteer hours THIS WEEK divide by a 35 hr work per week = 5.7 FTE
Chapter 14 Risk Management
There are risks to using volunteers in your program. There are three basic areas in which potential liability problems are likely to occur in volunteer programs. What are they?
1. Liability OF the individual volunteer.
2. Liability of the agency TO the volunteer.
3. Liability of the agency FOR the actions of their volunteers.
Risk management involves working through 4 steps. What are they?
1. Identifying risks (to physical safety, worksite and equipment, skills, nature of clientele, procedures, etc)
2. Evaluating Risks (organizing risk in an ascending scale)
3. Controlling Risk
a. Stop the activity
b. Eliminate the risk (change the operation to reduce likelihood of risk occurring)
c. Minimize the harm (developing emergency plan to deal with disasters when they do occur)
d. Transfer the liability (Move the consequences of the risk to some other party via insurance policy, waiver, etc)
4. Reviewing and updating risks and procedures.
* Know how to use the risk management worksheet on page 379 and 381 of textbook.
How does an effective volunteer screening reduce risk?
An effective volunteer screening will ensure in determining the volunteer’s safety and suitability within the agency. For a successful screening the potential volunteers understand why background checks and screening takes place. It reduces the risk of any kind of legal involvement. If done properly, it reduces the likelihood of being sued and provides a reasonable defense should the agency is sued.
Chapter 15 Measuring program effectiveness (stats)
There are 5 ways to measure program effectiveness. What are they? (COSMO)
Know how to use each of the measures and be prepared to provide examples.
1. Customer-based: Surveys and feedback questions from:
- Other volunteers
- Clients
- Supervising Staff
- Funders
- General public
- P. 271 includes examples of customer feedback questions.
2. Output-based: Look at the measures in volunteer position descriptions. Has to do with measuring the overall contribution of effort provided by volunteers to the agency.
Examples: # of volunteers
# of new volunteers
# of volunteer hours
# of clients assisted
# of staff/depts assisted
# of projects completed
$ of donations earned.
3. Standard-based: Using an external set of standards against which to measure program performance. For example, the LHIN (Local Health Integration Network) collects data on averages. You can compare your program’s average with that of others in your LHIN.
4. Mission-based: To what extent do the volunteers in this organization contribute to its mission and purpose?
May track things like:
- Increases in the quality of services or programs you provide.
- Cost savings to your organization (i.e. #FTEs)
- Services or levels of service you otherwise could not provide
- More detailed attention to the people you serve
- Access to specialized skills possessed by volunteers
5. Outcome-based: INPUTS that lead to ACTIVITIES that create OUTPUTS that foster OUTCOMES. 4 points about outcome-based evaluation:
1. It tends to be expensive in terms of time/money and complicated.
2. Difficult especially when the outcome itself is fuzzy (i.e. Fitness classes lower blood pressure – can’t prove it directly)
3. Measuring long term changes in behaviour is especially complex and expensive.
4. Outcome evaluation, when it works, is REALLY good. It impresses clients, funders, and everyone else.
Chapter 17 Special Topics
How do you know a volunteer is declining in their abilities?
Some examples would be:
· Their capacities are declining through age or impairment
· Increased absenteeism
· Reports of difficulty from other staff and volunteers
· Forgetfulness
· Reluctance to do things (using machinery, answering the phone etc,)
· Resistance to changing of ways of doing things.
How would you handle a volunteer who is declining and is no longer able to carry out their current job description?
First find out what is really happening, then if you notice more of the signs have a frank conversation with the volunteer about what you are noticing. You can also seek support from peers and friends of the volunteer as they may be able to deal with the situation better than you can and possibly help avoid a volunteer revolt.