Effective Volunteer Management Strategies: Retaining Participants for Community Impact

1. Welcome to Participant Retention Amy Thompson

2. Agenda • Foundation • Introductions • Set the Day • Agenda • Opening Activity • Why Volunteers Leave • Management Cycle and Principles • Stages of Group Development

3. Agenda • Leadership Compass • Each One, Teach One • Closing

4. 2 of 3 volunteers stop volunteering because of poor management. **************************** Volunteers, especially “Baby Boomers”, have high expectations: • Good customer service • Meaningful service activities • Well organized experience

5. Volunteer Management Cycle • PLANNING – obtaining buy-in; designing member positions; creating application forms; developing applicable policies and procedures; and educating others in the organization about involving members • RECRUITMENT – who, why, where, when and how. Who would be the ideal member? Why would they be interested in your member opportunity? Where and when can you reach these people? How can you create a recruitment message that encourages potential members to serve for your organization? • Orientation and Training – to give the general information about your organization and the specific information about the member position, provide year long training around position specific, leadership, and life after AmeriCorps. • Supervision and Evaluation – You need to know that the member is fulfilling their role effectively and the member needs affirmation too - assess how the member placement is going and if changes could be made to improve the member’s satisfaction or performance. • Recognition – happens in an informal way every time a “thank you” is said. Formally, members are thanked through celebrations and recognition events planned in their honor. It is important that the thank you fits the member; you need to know your members so that they can be thanked in a way that leaves them feeling truly recognized.

6. Planning • Conduct a needs assessment that at a min. involves the community; • Get buy-in from all stakeholders in project planning and development; • Project vision, mission and goals that fit with those of the overall organization; • Organization budgets money

7. Planning • Other org. staff see volunteers as assets and understand their roles; • Organization implements strategies to promote positive staff/volunteer relationships; • Top management demonstrates support; and • Regularly assess project strengths and challenges

8. Recruitment and Selection • Written description of the qualities of an ideal candidate based on community needs and program activities; • Written list of benefits volunteers receive as a part of service; • Written position descriptions, developed in conjunction with stakeholders that detail essential and marginal functions, time commitment, workload, supervisor, etc.; • Written, strategic, innovative year-long recruitment and selection plan, developed in conjunction with stakeholders

9. Recruitment and Selection • Recruit and select a diverse pool of volunteers that reflect the communities in which they serve; • Actively recruit individuals with disabilities; • Application elicits enough information to determine whether the prospective volunteer is a potential fit; • Selection process thoroughly assesses volunteer background, skills, accomplishments, motivation, goals, and commitment

10. Recruitment and Selection • Selection process involves a diversity of participants that have a stake in program; • Program matches volunteers to appropriate positions and sites; and • Program gets feedback from partners on effectiveness of recruitment and selection process;

11. Support • Agreement that outlines expectations, agreements, and consequences (signed by volunteer and organization) • Written list of skills and knowledge volunteers need to serve • Assess training needs with volunteers and sites • Orientation is planned and developed with stakeholders and prepares volunteers for beginning of service • Provide volunteers with information on community and agency • Written, year-long training plan, developed in partnership with stakeholders • Regularly assess training effectiveness and make needed modifications

12. Support • Yearly evaluations that provide performance feedback (2 times per year for AmeriCorps State and National) • Yearly opportunities for volunteers to assess program impact and support • Use evaluations to make yearly programmatic and volunteer improvements • Written strategy to retain volunteers • Provide each volunteer with a point of contact that provides support and supervision

13. Recognition • Written plan to internally and externally recognize volunteers for accomplishments and community impact • Implement creative motivational strategies • Allow for reflection opportunities to celebrate and document accomplishments and experiences • Provide documentation to volunteers that demonstrate their impact

14. Stages of Group Development Discussion • How can we present this stage to the larger group? • What is this stage talking about? What is going on at this time? • What are the greatest challenges programs and volunteers face at this stage? • Thinking about the different areas of the management cycle, what strategies can we implement to ensure retention?

15. Stages of Group Development

16. Leadership Compass • East = Purpose, Vision, Big Picture • WHY? • West= Process, Details, Planning • HOW? • North = Products, Results, Goals • WHAT? • South = People, Relationships, Support • WHO?

17. North – At Our Best…. • Assertive, active, decisive • Like to be in control of professional relationships and determine course of events • Quick to act, expresses sense of urgency for others to ACT NOW • Enjoys challenges presented by difficult situations and people • Thinks in terms of the bottom line • Like a quick pace and a fast track • Courageous • Perseveres, not stopped by NO, probes and presses to get at hidden resistances • Likes variety, novelty, new projects • Comfortable being in front • “do it now, I’ll do it, what’s the bottom line?”

18. North – Taken to Excess…. • Can be bogged down by need to press ahead, decide, seem not to care about process or people • Can defensive quickly, argue, try to out-expert you • Can lose patience, pushes for decisions before it’s time • May get autocratic, want this their way, riding roughshod over people in decision making process • See things in terms of black and white, little tolerance for ambiguity • May go beyond limits, get impulsive and disregard practical issues • Not heedful of others’ feelings, may be perceived as cold • Have trouble relinquishing control – find it hard to delegate “if you want to do something right, do it yourself”

19. South – At Our Best…. • Allows others to feel important in determining direction of what’s happening • Value driven regarding aspects of professional life • Uses professional relationships to accomplish tasks, interaction is primary • Supportive, nurturing to colleagues and peers • Willingness to trust others’ statements at face value • Feeling-based, trusts own emotions and intuition, intuition regarded as truth • Team player, receptive to others’ ideas, builds on ideas of others, noncompetitive • Able to focus on the present moment • “right, fair”

20. South – Taken to Excess…. • Can be bogged down when believe relationships, needs of people are being compromised • Has trouble saying no to requests • Internalizes difficulty and assumes blame • Takes criticism of task personally • Prone to disappointment when relationship is seen as secondary to task • Difficulty confronting and dealing with anger, may be manipulated by anger • Easily taken advantage of • Immersed in present, loses track of time • Immersed in NOW, may not see long-range view

21. East – At Our Best…. • Visionary who sees the big picture • Very idea oriented, focus on future thought • Insight into mission and purpose • Looks for overarching themes, ideas • Likes to experiment, explore • Appreciates generating a lot of information • Inspiring, exciting, motivating • “options, possibilities”

22. East – Taken to Excess…. • Can be bogged down by lack of vision or too much emphasis on vision • Can lose focus or become bored with tasks, details • May have poor follow through on projects – drop the ball in someone else’s lap • May become easily over whelmed by too much detail or too many projects on the plate • Not time-bound, may lose track of time • Tends to be highly enthusiastic early on then burn out over the long haul • Can develop a reputation for lack of dependability

23. West – At Our Best…. • Seen as practical, dependable, and thorough in task situation • Helpful to others by providing planning and resources • Likes lists, charts, tables, organizing ideas and tasks • Moves carefully and follows procedures and guidelines • Uses data analysis and logic to make decision • Weighs all sides of an issue, balanced • Introspective, analytical • Careful, thoroughly examining needs in a situation • Works well with existing resources – get the most out of it • Skilled at finding fatal flaws in an idea or project • “objective, benchmarks, steadfast”

24. West – Taken to Excess…. • Can be bogged down by too much information “analysis paralysis” • Can become stubborn and entrenched in position • Can be indecisive, collect unnecessary data, mired in details • May appear cold, withdrawn with respect to others’ working styles (focused on data, not people) • Tendency towards watchfulness, observation • Can remain withdrawn, distanced • Resists emotional pleas and change

25. Each One, Teach One • What are the key points I pulled from this reading? • How does this relate to retention? • How can I implement this in my program?

26. Thank You and Good Luck! Amy Thompson CAC Consulting 512.448.0401 CACconsulting@hotmail.com