The Volunteer Investment Programme 2001
Good Practice Guide No 1
Planning for Success
Volunteers – your most valuable asset!
Spend just a few minutes to work out how much your wages bill would be if you had to pay £10 for every hour of the voluntary effort that goes into running your club! If you were to invest that amount of money in new facilities or a club development programme you would almost certainly draw up detailed plans. So, do you have a volunteering plan – or do you leave volunteering to chance on the basis that you usually get things done, usually get by, usually find somebody to take on one more job?
A volunteer plan isn’t complicated and it will help you to:
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Take a new look at the jobs that need to be done – and exactly what they involve - the skills and time needed to do them.
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Avoid crises by planning ahead the number of volunteers you need to do the work without putting too much pressure or demanding too much time from a small number of individuals.
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Target your recruitment to match people with jobs that they will do well, will enjoy and can manage in the time they have to offer.
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Communicate more effectively with your volunteers to find out what your volunteers need in terms of support, information.
A volunteer plan will give you the answers to three questions
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Where are we now? –
How many volunteers do we have?
What do they do?
How much time are they giving?
Is turnover high?
Where are the pressure points?
What are we doing to support our volunteers? |
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Where do we want to be?
What is the ideal situation?
How many volunteers do we really need?
What jobs do we really need them to do?
What would we like to be able to offer them to make sure that they feel valued and motivated? |
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How are we going to get there?
Practical ideas for achieving your goals. Innovative ways to recruit, retain recognise and reward your volunteers.
Making volunteers and volunteering somebody’s responsibility –
Putting volunteering on the management agenda. |
What does a volunteer plan look like?
It really doesn’t matter – as long as it answers the three questions and is in a format that means something to the people who are going to use it. Keep it as short, focused and simple as possible. Plans are often presented in tabular format, so that, at one glance people can see what is to be done, how it will be achieved, by whom and by when; a progress column helps to set some distance markers against which progress can be measured. Whatever format you chose - tabular, list or narrative, make sure that as many people as possible contribute at the planning stage.
Who should co-ordinate the plan?
The Volunteer Manager/Co-ordinator is the ideal person to coordinate the planning process – but this isn’t a one-person job. Everybody who is involved with volunteers needs to be involved with the plan.
Profile
The Diamond Centre for Handicapped Riders VIP Club Award Winner, 2000 has over 230 volunteers working alongside a team of paid staff. With a volunteer workforce of that size, planning is essential!
The plan starts with the annual programme which helps to determine how many volunteers are needed and when.
All volunteers complete a form, outlining their skills, interests and time availability.
Skills, interests and abilities of volunteers are matched to the tasks to be done.
A team system provides support for new volunteers, and the opportunity to undertake a variety of roles.
There are regular reviews of the volunteer situation and a structured training and support programme that looks ahead to future needs.
The Centre’s Equal Opportunities policy ensures that everybody who wishes to volunteer can be involved in a valuable role.
Diamond Centre’s recruitment is so successful that there is a waiting list for the special training programme for junior helpers!
Key to the success of the volunteer plan is the Volunteer Management Coordinator (a Management Committee member) and her Volunteer Management Team.
Making Connections:
Find out more about Volunteer Management Planning. Visit the VIP home page on the Sport England website: www.sportengland.org for details of new Valuing Volunteer publications that will guide you through the process. |
