Managing volunteers
Why do people volunteer?
Volunteers come from all age groups, educational backgrounds, income levels, genders, and types of employment. They become involved for a variety of reasons, depending upon both the individual and the cause they are considering.
The basic motivations that are often cited include:
- Helping others.
- Having an interest in the work or activity.
- Wanting to learn and gain experience.
- Having a lot of free time.
- Being devoted to the cause.
- Knowing someone who was involved.
SPARC has conducted research to find out about the trends in volunteering and what motivates them called Finding and keeping volunteers: What the research tells us.
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Why manage volunteers?
Because the volunteers involved in your club are often motivated by different things, your club should not treat them all the same way. That’s why it’s a good idea for clubs to have a some way of managing their volunteers.
Good volunteer management creates a win-win situation for the volunteer and your club. Club–volunteer relationships can be very one-sided, where the club seeks volunteers to help them grow and develop without taking into account that the volunteer might want some benefit as well.
Because volunteers are such an integral part of sport and recreation clubs, it is important that they feel valued and part of your club – this is the essence of good practice in volunteer management. Volunteers who feel that they have made a worthwhile contribution to their club, have been appropriately rewarded and recognised, and feel respected are more likely to contribute to your club again.
Volunteer management is about balancing the needs of the club with those of the volunteer and if done correctly, the club may well benefit from increased volunteer support in future.
We have provided a sample volunteer management action plan in the resources section that you can use and adapt for your club.
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Appointing a volunteer coordinator
The work of volunteers must be centrally coordinated if your club is going to be effective in managing your volunteers. Appointing a volunteer coordinator recognises the importance of volunteers to the day-to-day operations of your club. A key role for the volunteer coordinator is matching the skills, experiences and expectations of volunteers to available positions within your club. The volunteer coordinator can be a stand-alone position, or part of a separate volunteer management committee, depending on the size of your club and what’s involved.
We have provided a sample volunteer coordinater job description that you can use and adapt for your club.
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Planning your volunteer management programme
The size and length of your volunteer management programme will vary, depending on the size of your club and the amount of volunteers you have on a regular basis. In general, the bigger your club, the more comprehensive your volunteer management plan should be.
When planning your volunteer management programme, consider the following:
- Appoint a volunteer coordinator or allocate the volunteers portfolio to a committee member.
- Include the volunteer management plan in your business or strategic plan (if appropriate).
- Review all volunteer positions and skills required – can any positions be broken down to provide short-term volunteering options?
- Develop position descriptions or duty statements for each of these roles.
- Identify skills already in the organisation and match these skills to positions.
- Identify recruitment strategies to fill the gaps.
- Check insurance coverage is adequate.
- Establish policy and procedures for screening of volunteers where required.
- Develop orientation process for new volunteers.
- Outline and communicate roles and responsibilities of volunteers and the organisation.
- Identify training needs of the volunteers and find training opportunities (local government, national sport or recreation organisation or regional sports trust).
- Identify other ongoing support that will need to be provided.
- Allocate a budget for your volunteers (out of pocket expenses, recognition).
- Keep an up to date database of your volunteers.
- Put in place ongoing recognition strategies.
There is more information on managing volunteers at events in the Event Management section of ClubKit.
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Resources and more information
Volunteering New Zealand has an array of information covering all things volunteering.
The Australian Sports Commission’s Club Development Network Volunteer Management Program contains a lot of useful resources for managing volunteers.
SPARC’s volunteers page has details about how volunteers contribute to sport in New Zealand.
Other resources you can use for your club include:
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