I’m not a Volunteer, I’m just helping out…
Everyone doing an unpaid task for the organisation is a volunteer. That includes:
- Committee Members & Trustees
- People who come in regularly to help with the gardening, or ad hoc by participating in a spring clean
- Popping in to do the locking and unlocking of buildings
- and many other activities
“Volunteer Management” sounds like it is part of a business! We are just doing a few things for a charity we don’t need “managing”.
Today I would like to talk briefly about volunteer management. Some level of coordination is needed for any group of people doing a collective task. It’s not necessarily about someone being in charge. It is about ensuring you are effective. Much of it is the kind of thing you probably already do:
- Do you need to all be there at the same time or on a rota?
- Are you ensuring the team has all the information they need to be safe?
- Are you giving your helpers the best possible experience?
- Would other people help with a task if you asked them?
- Are there skills in your team that you need, but don’t know you have?
- Do you need some more helpers?
I know that effective volunteer management allows you to address these issues.
What happens if we don’t manage our volunteers?
Worst case scenario; if someone gets hurt, the organisation gets a large fine.
Putting up decorations might not be considered a high-risk activity, but recently a man died when he fell from a loft access ladder and the charity he volunteered for was fined £90,000!
If the appropriate volunteer management had been in place, could this have been avoided?
Your organisation has a legal responsibility to ensure that people on their property and doing activities on their behalf are safe.
The volunteer or their family can sue you or put in an insurance claim resulting from something happening while volunteering! If you immediately think, ‘that would never happen‘, did you know that Woodbrooke had a budget line for insurance company claims put in by Quaker visitors to their site?
We don’t want to treat our volunteers like staff!
And you shouldn’t.
If you go too far and treat your volunteers like employees it can be found that they are entitled to employment rights. This could include, for example, minimum wage. It might affect their benefits or other circumstances.
Using best practices in volunteer management helps you appreciate and reward your volunteers, without creating a contract.
Where do I find out more?
MBS has several free resources relating to volunteering and volunteer management. You can download our Free Resources Library for more information.
We also have more modules at various levels of detail, or you can just book some time to discuss your individual needs. Email us and we’ll get that set up!
Karen Fishwick - MBS Education Team
Karen is our resident volunteer expert and is a tutor on a wide variety of MBS Online courses. To learn more browse our catalogue or get in touch - a member of the team can guide you.
