Supervising Volunteers

As businesses stretch their employees to the breaking point, more are turning to volunteers to pick up the extra work. From the grade school kid selling magazines to fund computer labs to international charities that benefit a large portion of this world's mankind, volunteers make up a massive work force.

There are few rules and regulations and even fewer checks and balances set in stone for the "employment" of volunteers. Seldom is there a contract to set guidelines. But, the most difficult aspect of supervising volunteers is they can be totally unpredictable and there is little or nothing you can do about them

Most places are so happy to have a volunteer, any volunteer, they have no criteria to make certain the volunteers will work well with the goals of the organization. I once heard a board member addressing a group of new volunteers as, "It doesn't matter if you have talent, we just want warm bodies." Now that was a sales pitch few could resist.

Here are a few suggestions that may put some organization around your volunteer programs:

Mentally, think of your volunteers as an important part of the organization. Verbally, reinforce to the volunteers how important they are to your organization.

Every new volunteer should be a part of a formal indoctrination before they are formally accepted as your volunteer. The indoctrination should include: Mission statement of the organization. Goals for the organization. Goals for your volunteers. The volunteers' duties and your expectation of how they will be accomplished. A letter of commitment signed by your volunteers.

All the above sounds a little heavy handed (especially if you are talking to the 5th grade baseball team selling candy bars.) Contrary to what you may think, volunteers want to feel like the time they are donating is contributing to the big picture/the goal. They want to feel valuable and that they are making a difference. They need to feel the organization could not function nearly as well or the end result could not be reached if wasn't for their contributions. If you are a smart supervisor, you will make sure they receive all that positive reinforcement from the first day until they retire.

Some organizations, such as the Red Cross, could not be in business if it wasn't for the many volunteers. Other businesses, such as hospitals for example, would have fewer personal amenities if wasn't for their candy stripers, gift shop organization, and information front desk volunteers. From volunteer board members to selling magazine subscriptions, volunteers have become a huge American workforce. Treating them with the same respect and using the same organizational skills you use with paid employees is essential.

As with the lady who referred to the group of volunteers sitting before her as warm bodies, she was dead wrong. I looked around this room and saw men and women who were very good at many things. Many had retired from successful careers, many had chaired very successful fund raisers, many had fresh enthusiasm and a sense they needed to help others. These people walked out of this meeting never to return to an organization that referred to them as warm bodies. They knew they had more to offer didn't want to waste time it if this wasn't the place. It took years for this organization to regroup their volunteer forces from this one sentence.

Since most volunteers are not recruited for specific jobs, as in the paid business sector, they need to complete a skill and a desire survey. This will help you place them where they are most excited and where they are talented.

Always use every volunteers you accept. I have seen volunteer groups "loose" their list of names and call on the same familiar people over and over. This burns out a few people and tells the others they are not valuable.

If you are getting volunteers from a wide area where you do not know them or their motives, you may want to institute some sort of security check before accepting them or putting in certain areas. These areas may be interacting with children, dealing with vulnerable people, handling money or chairing events. As examples, you do not want a pedophile chairing your school cookie sale, a domestic abuser answering the battered woman hot line, or the convicted thief collecting donations. It is as right to reject volunteers for sound reasons as it is to reject employment to someone who should not be in your organization.

Do not let your volunteers form "clicks" or elite groups that will effectively isolate your new volunteers from the feeling of belonging. Rotate and integrate groups on a scheduled basis. Do not allow volunteers to be eliminated because your organization becomes elitist or snobbish.

Reward volunteers often and lavishly. Personal thank you notes can work wonders. Personal talks on what their work has meant to the organization and to you is a great reward. Some people appreciate their name in the newspaper, in the program, the bulletin, or a sign on the front door. Others prefer to remain unknown but they should always receive personal thanks.

Your volunteers should be thought of the same as hired employees and their pay is the organization's thanks. Make sure you pay them well.

Deuteronomy 24:14-15 "Thou shalt not oppress a hired servant that is poor and needy, whether he be of thy brethren, or of thy strangers that are in thy land within they gates: At his day thou shalt give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down upon it; for he is poor, and setteth his heart upon it: lest he cry against thee unto the Lord, and it be sin unto thee."