Volunteer Support and Recognition
Good volunteer management includes making sure volunteers feel valued, supported and appreciated for everything they do. When volunteers feel recognised and well-supported, they’re more likely to have a positive experience and continue volunteering.
How to build a positive experience
Support: begins at recruitment and continues throughout a volunteer’s journey with you. It involves identifying and addressing any barriers to volunteering and offering appropriate support. It shows your commitment to an inclusive and welcoming volunteering programme.
Development: includes offering training and learning opportunities. This not only helps volunteers feel more engaged but also ensures they have the skills and knowledge needed for their role. Training should reflect the needs of your organisation and the role, as well as staying responsive to the wider social, financial and political changes.
Recognition: Shows appreciation for the time, skills and effort volunteers give – going a long way in making volunteers feel valued and part of the team. It can formal or informal through many different ways, but don’t forget the simple gesture in saying “Thank you”.
One-Ones (supervision)
The style and frequency of supervision will depend a large extent on the volunteer role. For example, Counsellors will require regular formal clinical supervision by a suitably qualified person. Other roles may have a less formal arrangement – but it’s still good practice to have some form of regular supervision in place. If it’s more comfortable or appropriate you may choose to call these one-ones, catch-ups or support sessions and not use the word supervision.
One-one’s enable you to dedicate time to see how things are going, hear volunteers’ views, share feedback and ideas or offering support and advice. Remember don’t wait for these to give any positive or negative feedback/address concerns – they should be shared as soon as possible and in the moment.
For further guidance on one-one’s best practice get in touch with us.
Volunteer agreement or volunteer handbook?
Many organisations choose to use a formal document as a two-way method of communicating and establishing clear understanding of what the volunteer expects and what the organisation expects. It is not a contract or binding.
An agreement may include a written description of a volunteer role, policies/procedures, boundaries of a role, time being offered and other things related to their time volunteering.
A volunteer handbook can be an alternative to the volunteer agreement, as content within the agreement may be duplicated in other places such a volunteer policy. It’s a way of containing all the information in one place, avoiding confusion of where all the documents are.
If you’re asking volunteers to sign an agreement, you must avoid something that resembles a contact of employment. It would be a reasonable question to ask yourself: if you do not intend to be a binding document, then why do you need signatures? If a volunteer is signing an agreement it is intended to be binding in honour only.
Further information
Training
Training is a valuable part of supporting your volunteers to feel confident, capable and ready for their role, it’s also an organisations responsibility to make sure volunteers can carry out and understand their roles.
Some volunteers love training and see it as a chance to grow and it’s part of their volunteering experience by increasing their confidence and satisfaction. Others may feel unsure – maybe they’ve had bad experiences in the past (for example reminds them of unhappy school days), worried it’s too formal or don’t feel the need. That’s okay – the key is to make training feel well-planned, relevant, welcoming, accessible and useful.
Training may be essential for the role and it’s important that any training provided isn’t seen as a perk or reward in exchange for volunteering, or you ask that they must volunteer a certain amount of time to get certain training. These could start crossing over into looking like paid work.
Further information
Volunteer retention
Retention for its own sake, is not necessarily an indicator of success. Volunteers move on for many reasons and for some organisations helping volunteers build the confidence and skills to move forward may be a key objective.
Sustaining volunteer involvement can bring significant benefits:
- Continuity: Minimising changes in people helps maintain stability and trust for those accessing your service, offering a better service.
- Cost-effectiveness: Retention reduces the ongoing cosets of recruiting, training and other costs involving new volunteers.
- Skill development: The longer a volunteer stays, the more proficient they may become in their role
- Stronger teams: Consistent involvement fosters a greater sense of teamwork
Effective volunteer retention starts with thoughtful planning. When volunteer programmes and roles are well-designed and clearly communicated from the outset, it creates a more positive and rewarding experience for everyone involved.
Strategies to support volunteer retention
- Ensure everyone in the organisation understands why you involve volunteers
- Make sure you know what volunteers will be doing and how they contribute
- Build volunteers into your organisational planning and infrastructure
- Provide ongoing support including regular supervisions and check-ins
- Have a thorough induction process in place
- Use clear role descriptions and consult with volunteers before making changes to the role
- Get to know your volunteers
- If appropriate, provide pathways for volunteers who want to take on more responsibility
- Recognition of volunteers and their contributions
- Offer training for continued learning and confidence
- Include volunteers in decision making
Ways to recognise volunteers
There are many ways you can truly show your commitment to volunteers and the value you place on everything they do
Whatever you do:
- Make sure the recognition fits the type of achievement and the volunteer concerned
- Make it personal and meaningful – be honest and sincere, as you don’t want to be seen as superficial or a tick box
- Be consistent and fair. Don’t have different rules for different people
Make sure the paid staff are fully aware of how important volunteers are to your organisation and provide volunteer management training for those supporting or working with volunteers.
Get in touch to chat about different ways you may wish to consider.
Resolving conflict/dealing with problems
Volunteering should be a positive experience for everyone. However, there are some occasions when problems may arise. You can minimise problems occurring in the first place by planning well for volunteer involvement which enables you to be prepared and have procedures in place for when these issues arise.
Planning for volunteers best practice guidance
Volunteers have the right to complain if they feel they have been unfairly treated. Whilst they have no legal rights, there is a strong moral case for implanting good practice.
Further information
Can we pause volunteering?
Remember volunteering is a choice, and sometimes personal circumstances or commitments may need their attention elsewhere or they may be experiencing health challenges – which could be temporary. In many cases volunteers may feel they’re letting down the organisation and/or the people they are supporting, and often don’t want to stop volunteering but may feel they need a short break. The question is: do you really want to lose them entirely?
You might want to consider offering a pause of volunteering for an agreed period of time (avoid it being lengthy). You might also agree on whether it’s appropriate to check in during this time. Keeping in touch through updates, newsletter or messages can help feel included and remind them they are still a valued member of the organisation.
Leavers
Volunteers may leave for varying reasons, including:
- Starting employment
- Starting training or education
- Volunteering with a different organisation
- Change in personal circumstances, availability and/or health and wellbeing
- Gained everything they needed whilst volunteering with you
- Might not be for them anymore
- Change in motivations or goals
It could also be you’ve needed them to leave – for example due to unresolved problems with the volunteer, changes in the volunteering programme/services or funding has ended/no longer available.
Whatever the reason, if possible and appropriate you want volunteers to leave on a positive note and have a good ending – this is for both the volunteers and organisation.
Key things:
- Give them time to let you know about why they are leaving
- Don’t make them feel guilty for leaving
- Don’t try to force them to stay
- Don’t make them give you ‘notice’
- Recognise their contributions and journey
- Where possible get their feedback for example in a chat or questionnaire
- Give them a personalised card of thanks and/or gift