Over the last 12 months, recruiting volunteers has become one of the biggest challenges for voluntary organisations across Watford and Three Rivers. With less people able to volunteer, organisations now have to be smarter about how they recruit volunteers and ensure that their volunteer offer is as attractive to potential volunteers. Therefore, in this week's blog, we discuss four ways in which organisations can effectively recruit volunteers.

Plan for Success

Ensuring your get the volunteer role correct will ensure that you not only have the best chance of filling the role but ensuring its long term success. When planning for a new volunteer role, here are a few considerations you should consider:

• Is the role you are looking to fill suitable for a volunteer or is it a role that would be best filled by a member of paid staff? Whilst it would be ideal for a volunteer to fill a certain role such as management roles or in funding, it is likely that these roles are more suited to paid staff rather than volunteers who could leave the role at anytime meaning you would need to find their replacement at short notice. Additionally, some roles require specialist skills and to find those skills from a volunteer could be difficult.

• Where possible, can you be flexible when recruiting volunteers? With the current challenges of recruiting volunteers, is it possible to be review your criteria for volunteers and benefit from a volunteer who may lack the whole skillset you need but has the passion for your cause and the willingness to upskill into the role.

• Finally, consider whether the role you are looking to fill is suitable for younger volunteers or a corporate volunteering opportunity. We know that these are two groups of volunteers that many organisations have not tapped into so consider how your organisation could take advantage of this.

Get the Role Description Right

Ensuring your role description is right for the role you are looking to fill will help ensure that you can attract the right volunteers as well as ensuring that individuals who are not suitable do not apply. Consider the following when drafting your role descriptions:

• List the skills and attributes that you want from your ideal volunteer
• Tell the volunteer what they will get out of the role and the impact that they will have
• Be clear on the timings that you need volunteers for to avoid any confusion.

Make the Process Inclusive

To make sure you get the widest range of possible volunteers applying for your roles you will need to make sure the process is inclusive. If you don’t, you might prevent volunteers who want to volunteer for you from being able to do so. This topic is likely to be a more detailed blog in the future but here are a few points to consider:

• Can the role you are recruiting for be done remotely and if you do need potential volunteers to come into an office or another location, can you pay them travel expenses. Considering the cost of living crisis, the more steps you take to make it easy for potential volunteers to volunteer, the more likely they are to do so.

• Can you consider the time and location in which a volunteer may need to undertake an interview? For example, where possible can these be done online or over the phone instead of in person. Additionally, can you work with a potential volunteer to ensure that the interview takes place at a mutually convenient time. Again, if you make it as easy as possible for a potential volunteer to attend an interview, they will be more likely to volunteer for you.

• If the role you are recruiting for is an in person role, have you considered what reasonable adjustments you could make to ensure that volunteers with mobility issues or any other access needs are considered so that they can take part in those opportunities. If you don’t, even if they are extremely passionate about the role and the level of commitment you need, it is highly unlikely that they will be able to volunteer for you.

Thinking about inclusion at every stage of the recruitment process will mean that you are giving your organisation the best possible chance to recruit volunteers.

Delivering a Smooth Induction

Once your volunteer has agreed to volunteer for you, we recommend you consider delivering a smooth induction process to complete the recruitment process and to ensure that your volunteers want to stay with you. Your time recruiting volunteers will be much harder is you have to keep replacing volunteers who leave you due to a poor induction. Here’s what we think are a few considerations:

• Before your new volunteers starts with you, consider providing them with an induction pack to help get them settled into their new role. This will help them get to know what to expect on their first few days. This is especially relevant for those who might not have volunteered before where the experience could be daunting for them.

• Also consider a buddy system for your volunteers where a more experienced volunteer buddies with your new volunteer to help get them settled into the role. Having someone for them to ask questions of who is not their line manager will be extremely useful for them and will help them with the settling in process.

• Consider the next few weeks and months and the communication you will be having with your new volunteer. Make sure you explain to your new volunteer the induction timeline and what you will require from them during this period, including any training they need to complete. This way, when it comes to any review meetings, your volunteer will know what they need to accomplish during this period and can come prepared for the meeting.

At W3RT, our CVS team are the people to speak to if your organisation needs help with any aspect of volunteering. We can help you review your volunteering processes, help you recruit new volunteers and retain your existing volunteers. If you would like to discuss the challenges your organisation is facing regarding any aspect of volunteering, do not hesitate to contact the W3RT CVS Team by emailing [email protected] or by calling 07908 209908.