Volunteer Management

Make each other more valuable, help each other flourish…

Reid Hoffman, who founded LinkedIn in 2003, writes with Ben Casnocha and Chris Yeh about how employers have sought to adapt from offering a period when they were able to offer long-term job security to the current ‘information age’ of rapid and unpredictable change, where people ‘pass through’ their organisations. http://bit.ly/11VQQIR

Employers used to offer steady, predictable career paths and in return benefit from commitment and loyalty and the authors argue that they have not responded very well to the demands for adaptability and entrepreneurship in our employment practices.

What has this got to do with managing volunteers? Something along the lines of organisations who are seeking to attract the new generation of volunteers – those that don’t want to sign up for every Wednesday afternoon for the next 30 years…

It didn’t used to be like this – in the good old days it used to be more traditional – more manageable –more predictable.

Using the author’s arguments in a volunteering context could read as follows:

So if lifetime volunteering ‘contracts’ are a thing of the past, what’s the way forward? How can you work towards volunteers’ commitment and entrepreneurship, retention and agility?

In essence, by reapplying the principle of reciprocity and making it overt and a conscious part of the volunteering relationship. Recognise that volunteers are likely to move on at some stage but look for mutual investment and benefits.

Volunteers and their organisations should agree to make each other more valuable, help each other flourish.

There are three ways of doing this.

Firstly, offer volunteers a ‘tour of duty’, i.e. a fixed-term renewable placement for a period of time in which it is clear what the organisation and the employee will gain.

Secondly, support and even encourage your volunteers to develop their professional networks outside the organisation, which will benefit them, on the understanding that they will leverage those relationships for the benefit of the organisation while they are there.

Thirdly, develop a network of volunteer alumni that fosters lifelong affiliation to the organisation. Don’t fear the fact that people will one day move on; make use of it. Be honest about it. Stay in touch when they do leave. Incorporate them into your network of advocates, potential collaborators and even future recruits.

VM and HR

Volunteer Management as a career

You can often get an interesting perspective on the direction of volunteer management by looking at articles on HR and doing ‘find and replace’ with VM.

The fact that HR is a more developed discipline and profession, means this exercise provides a window into what might be the future opportunities and challenges for VM.

So, Peter Cheese (CIPD Chief Executive) was asked where he would like HR to go next (HR Magazine, June 2013), and I’ve presented his answers in a volunteer management context below…

Does VM still have a perception problem?

There is a perception and understanding problem. However, sometimes perception is reality. There are too many examples of people’s exposure to VM being as a control function rather than an enabling and strategic function. We need to create a more compelling vision for what VM is about.

At the moment VM is often seen as a function for people who don’t like numbers and aren’t technical, but care for people. VM needs to be more than that. It needs to be seen as an organisational function, like any other.

Do people see VM as a career?

As a profession, VM is not well understood compared to something like law or accounting. You don’t need a licence to practice to go into VM. We need to link continued professional development to career development. If you look at something like law, you naturally continue to do professional development because you need to keep current.

Doe the lack of VM CEO role models prevent more ambitious talent choosing VM?

I think the best organisations move people in and out of functions. VM in particular can benefit from that. If I want to build a truly rounded leader, they should have operational business experience and functional experience, particularly in VM. Ask any CEO where they spend most of their time and they say people. It’s fairly obvious we should see more people coming in and out of VM as part of their own career growth.

How should we portray VM as a career?

There should be more visibility through business courses. Students should be taught the importance of engagement and building the right sort of cultures.

In terms of exposing VM to you people, it is part of a wider agenda around improving careers guidance in schools. The channel into work is often orchestrated by HR, so HR can help young people understand the world of work and present VM as a career.

Where will VM go next, ideally?

It will be recognised as a strategic function of any organisation. We won’t be talking about having a seat at the table because it will be part of everyone’s job for building capacity and the organisation of the future. Everyone has an opinion on finance and marketing because they understand why it’s important to the organisational success. Everyone should have the same point of view on the volunteering agenda.

VM and HR

VM needs to understand the organisation

Another interesting insight below on a potential priority for the volunteer management profession, by looking at articles on HR and doing ‘find and replace’ with VM.

These adapted HR quotes suggest that VM needs to understand the organisation, in order for the organisation to understand VM.

Steve Wing (Director at Strategic Dimensions).

…The one thing you don’t tend to get in a VM career, unless there is a seat at the table, is a real feel for the organisation. VM people have to take the initiative to understand the organisation.

Valarie Hughes D’Aeth (HR Director at Amey)

…People see VM as an admin function, or the one with the rulebook. We have that perception to overcome in attracting people. VM needs to become less VM-focused in its teaching. It should be about understanding the organisation first – how we can use VM to support the organisation. At the moment the professional body comes at it the wrong way: here are lots of VM best practices to put into the organisation. We need to turn that on its head.

Volunteer Management

Lessons from the Games Makers Volunteering Programme

A fascinating read (from Jean Tomlin, Director of HR of LOCOG – see link) about the key enabling factors of the Olympic Gamesmakers initiative.

The first point to highlight is that LOCOG would be categorised as a ‘volunteer involving’ organisation (according to the 4 categories provided by Hill and Stevens, 2011 – IVR paper).

The four categories are presented as:

–          Volunteer led and run.

–          Paid-staff supported.

–          Volunteer supported.

–          Volunteer involving.

‘Volunteer-involving organisations’ tend to involve volunteers involved in operational and service delivery tasks. There is little or no volunteer involvement in management or strategic decision-making around volunteer management.

Therefore the lessons in Jean’s review above have direct applicability for volunteer involving organisations, and to some extent ‘volunteer-supported organisations’ (as some volunteers were recruited to team leader roles) . However, there is less applicability for ‘staff-supported organisations’ or ‘volunteer led and run organisations’

So in essence, the key points appear to include:

Vision

The vision was clear in that volunteers’ contributions would change the games from being good to being great. The vision was led from the top.

Core values

Volunteers and their contributions were seen as essential in the programme delivery; not just complementing the work of paid staff, but a critical success factor of the event.

Management resources for volunteer management

Recruitment, selection & matching, induction, training, support and recognition were invested in to ensure positive outcomes and valuable volunteering experiences.

Support for staff

Positive staff attitudes for volunteering and volunteers was seen as a key issue.

A strategy for developing staff knowledge and skills for managing volunteers was put in place and implemented.

Volunteer management framework

Central processes were delivered by the HR team, with role-specific selection/matching, training and support being devolved to project staff.

 

There are 3 (probably more) main challenges here for volunteer-involving to consider:

1. Volunteering programmes need leadership from the top to set the vision and promote the values.

2. Effective people management is needed across the organisation, to:

a) Develop the motivation and ability of the organisation’s staff to engage and support volunteers

b) Provide suitable opportunities for project staff to manage volunteers.

3. The central Volunteer Management function resides in the wider HR function, and needs to have a remit to inform the staff development policy and practice.

This last point, may on the face of it be quite scary for the volunteer management profession; particularly as nowhere in Jean’s report was there a reference to a Volunteer Manager…!

Also, to relate these challenges this to quite a few posts in the wider volunteer management community, which cite that the organisation doesn’t understand or value volunteers, and fails to resource volunteer management, the following points might be pertinent.

  • If the volunteer manager feels the organisation doesn’t understand volunteering, they need to make it a priority to develop internal dialogue until there is a vision that volunteers’ contributions would change the services from being good to being great.
  • The volunteer manager must talk with HR to create a staff development strategy that encourages effective engagement with volunteers.

The first point requires a grasping of the nettle, and the second point taps into encouraging discretionary effort of staff to engage with volunteers.

NB discretionary effort can be described as: paid staff volunteering their talent, their time, their intellect and creativity, and their commitment and loyalty to engaging and supporting volunteers. Herein lies the central common ground for HR and Volunteer Management…