A Quick Guide to Effective Volunteer Recruitment and Retention

Working as a volunteer recruitment manager carries with it a lot of responsibility. One must make sure to match talents and skills with the work needing to be accomplished. It’s important to remember that one should focus on quality not quantity when selecting volunteers.

They’re here to help, but do they have to all look the same?!

One must also find a way to retain the volunteers in the program as many programs thrive on having the same personnel to develop a rapport with the youth or other program attendees. Below is a short list of skills that a good volunteer should exhibit if you’re seeking a candidate that will be a best fit and will help overall retention rates.

Skills of a Good Volunteer

• Develop a strong rapport with others
• Honesty
• Integrity
• Willing to go the extra mile
• Able to pass a back ground check
• Ability to adapt to a wide variety of situations at a moments notice
• Willingness to work with cultural diversity
• Vigilance
• Willing to step out of their comfort zone on occasion and work in another area
• Desire to make a difference in someone’s life
• Caring
• Knowledgeable and willing to deal with trauma such as separation or abuse
• Good listening skills are a must for a good volunteer

Guidelines

Working as a volunteer with a youth program (for example) can carry with it a very large burden. Youth are vulnerable and often make mistakes. A volunteer should be able to redirect a teen nonchalantly without making it seem like a punishment.

Listening Skills

Sometimes a volunteer just needs to sit and listen while a youth unburdens him or herself. Often the youth has the answer right in front of them but needs to simply get the words out to recognize that this is indeed the solution.

Screening Process

Recruitment and retention of such volunteers doesn’t have to be a challenge if the volunteers go through a simple screening process to begin with. Ask volunteers pertinent questions on applications.

Have them fill out a back ground check that lists any convictions or pending concerns. Remember that if someone isn’t honest on a back ground check, they probably haven’t been honest with you either. While certain convictions shouldn’t preclude a volunteer others definitely will. If a person is honest about a past situation talk at length about what they learned and why they did it. People can change and perhaps this person has learned their lesson.

A Trial Run

Have them volunteer unofficially for a few times prior to making it office to see how they fit in with the group. Ask the other members of the team and the youth (for example) how they felt about the potential volunteer. When a volunteer is good, everyone will be at ease and feel like that person made a difference.

Be Very Aware

Trust that gut feeling if you feel that something just isn’t quite right and ask probing questions. Retaining a good volunteer depends upon recruiting the right types of volunteers. Again, quality not quantity. It’s better to have three or four good volunteers than to have nine volunteers that aren’t so good.

Know Your Expectations

Make sure that expectations are written out in clear concise language that everyone can understand. Address concerns or issues immediately. Sometimes it may take awhile for a volunteer to find their exact niche. Perhaps it’s in the kitchen or working with a specific age bracket. Perhaps they are better at clean up or set up.

Once that niche is found the program will run very smoothly with minimal problems. Recruiting and retaining good volunteers will all work smoothly when these guidelines are followed. If you’d like some help in determining strengths and personality traits ahead of time, ask the volunteers to practice with the self tests available here. I think the information will be useful for both of you.