Retaining Volunteers

Once you have recruited, appointed and inducted your volunteers, it is very important that all your hard work does not go to waste. Managing and retaining your volunteers will lead to greater stability, better team work and increased development opportunities for your club. The more volunteers you can keep the less time and energy you have to spend on recruiting new ones.

Volunteers will need different levels and styles of support. But it is important for all volunteers to feel that they can ask for help and have equal status to express their opinions.  Also try and make sure all volunteers have a supervisor that is accessible and able to support the needs of the volunteer. 

Supervision

The role of a supervisor is an important one and should be responsible for maintaining personal contact with the volunteer to ensure that they feel valued and that someone has an the interest in what they are doing.

Volunteers like and need to know how well they are doing.  The role of a supervisor should provide volunteers with feedback and praise, it should also give them the chance to ask any questions or air any concerns.  Try to arrange opportunities to get together and find out

• Are they enjoying themselves?
• Is the role what they expected it to be, if not, why not?
• Would they like to take on anything else?
• Is there any training they would like to get involved in?

This will be a beneficial process for everyone if the volunteer workforce is well understood and subsequently responded to, encouraging them to remain motivated and interested.  It is also a valuable opportunity to give volunteers guidance and information so they can be more effective in their role and also flag up areas for development and if they would like more training in a particular area.

It is always important to be aware of any concerns your volunteers may have.  If someone is finding they do not have the time available that they once had they may be interested in a job share or a different role or they may have become bored with their role and are looking for a new challenge.  Through regular contact with volunteers you can detect these changes and respond before they are lost.

Whilst you are looking at the motivational needs of the volunteer, don’t forget the needs of your club/SA. There is no point to allowing volunteers to become unproductive – they just become disillusioned, increasing the likelihood of them leaving, and they can also become a drain on your time and resources.

Communication
Communication with volunteers is vital to keeping a happy and motivated volunteer workforce and ensure that they feel part of your club.  It is important that all volunteers feel that they are communicated with, if volunteers feel that information is being withheld it can lead a great deal of misunderstanding and mistrust.   Ensure that you are a club which is approachable so volunteers can communicate with you, it is important that you make time to listen to volunteers.  Try to involve everyone in decisions and respond to any suggestions that they make, whether they give up 1 or 21 hours each week.  Hold get-togethers or forums after training sessions, events or set aside meetings for volunteers to attend.  Alternatively why not try social events for everyone involved with the club to attend!  Remember meeting new people and socialising is a key reason why many volunteer.

Think about different ways you can communicate with your volunteers such as:

• Notice boards, signs and posters.
• ASA and club newsletters.
• Email or text messages.
• ASA and club websites. 
•  Match/gala/event programmes.
• Volunteers briefings - Why not set up three team talks, one to plan for the season, one mid-season to review progress and one at the end of the season to review the year.
• A suggestion box so that people who may be intimidated to voice their opinions are given an opportunity to be heard.