Your staff and volunteers are the face of your organization. They humanize your brand and build meaningful relationships with your patrons and fans to keep them coming back. Without engaged and motivated staff and volunteers, you can’t deliver an exceptional customer experience. As managers and leaders, what can be done to set your teams up for success? In this talk, we’ll examine recruitment and retention and how to design a volunteer program that scales. We’ll also discuss ways to empower your team, how to address conflict, and ways to measure success. Attendees will learn: How to build meaningful customer relationships How to improve your recruiting process How to design and scale your volunteer program

1. SETTING UP YOUR STAFF AND
VOLUNTEERS FOR SUCCESS
BETSY HOLBROOK & STEVE WEISZ AUGUST 2016

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The relationship between an
organization and a volunteer is
at times…best described as a
love-hate relationship.

3. VOLUNTEERS VS STAFF

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What a
volunteer
isn’t…
• Free labor
• Non-essential
• Part of a barter
• A mind reader
• Held to lower professional standards

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Is this your
brain?

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Three important concepts
RECRUIT
RETAINRECOGNIZE

7. RECRUIT

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Prepare Evaluate, assess and prioritize needs
Develop position descriptions
– Determine roles not suited for volunteers if
expertise or time commitment is not a fit
Articulate benefits to volunteers
Identify skills, proficiencies required and
training needs
Develop questions to gain insight into
technology comfort and proficiency

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Volunteer Match
Idealist.org
All for Good
Utilize Volunteer
Specific Sites

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Connect with
the Community
College Career Centers
Farmers Markets
High Schools
Other Events
Word of Mouth

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Leverage Social Media
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
NextDoor

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Choosing Volunteers
It’s okay to be picky
Be specific about what
you are looking
It’s okay to ask for short
term volunteers
Goal is to match
person with role

13. RETAIN

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Training
Be clear with information
that can be shared
Allow legacy volunteers
the opportunities to train
(or mentor) new
volunteers
Offer small ongoing
training opportunities

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Steps for
success
Clearly define roles and expectations
Create and maintain a searchable
online Volunteer Handbook with time
contribution, hours, dress code –
provide the roadmap/GPS prompts
Make job descriptions and code of
conduct available online

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Do you
know what
#voluntinesday
is?

17. RECOGNIZE

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During your event
Volunteer Coordinator
– Dedicated person on site
without five other jobs
– Volunteers will care more
with a role model
Identify Volunteers
– Dress, name badge
Be aware of HALT
– Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired

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Take care of
basic needs
and offer
perks
Water and caffeinated beverages
Snacks - healthy and junk food
Letters of reference and certificates -
people use these on resumes
Incentivize volunteers to get other
great volunteers - small things like a
Starbucks or Lyft card, slice of pizza,
free tickets, t-shirts

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Recognize volunteers
in newsletters
Let your volunteers
tell their story
Let their stories
motivate others
Make them feel like
part of the family

21. REMEMBER

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Penultimate
thoughts
May need to offer a carrot to make
volunteers become self-auditing
Having patrons/fans provide feedback
on experience with volunteers
With high demand events, reward
volunteers who discover unethical
activities
As needed providing transparency
about operations and budget

23. RESOURCES

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Resources Free volunteer management websites
– signupgenius.com
– volunteersignup.org
– signmeup.com
Free scheduling tools
– meetingwizard.com
– needtomeet.com
– calendly.com
– doodle.com

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Resources The Seven Deadly Sins of Recruiting
Volunteers – By Thomas W. McKee
– www.volunteerpower.com/articles/7sins.asp
The New Breed: Understanding and
Equipping the 21st Century Volunteer
– www.volunteerpower.com/

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