10 ways to make your volunteer recruitment, recognition and retention programs even more manageable.
Dr Judy Esmond
Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Bite-size pieces
Don’t be overwhelmed by the thought of developing a new volunteer recruitment, retention and recognition plan. You don’t have to totally change everything overnight. Why not develop a series of mini-plans or sub-plans for tackling one thing at a time? Transform your volunteer recruitment, retention and volunteer recognition programs all into bite-size pieces. For example, you might decide to put a recruitment message on everything that leaves your office – brochures, letters, business cards – and then go on to the next recruitment or recognition idea. Begin with bite-size pieces!
Mini-plans
Another example of a mini-plan is to focus on recruiting one volunteer for a specific job in a more creative way than before. Brainstorm all the avenues you could explore to fill that position and do something different. For example, to recruit a receptionist, have you considered targeting secretarial colleges, work experience students, “temping” agencies, job retraining schemes and recent retirees from similar positions?
Keeping score
For each mini-plan, develop a system to help you evaluate which volunteer recruitment, retention and volunteer recognition activities are the most productive. It is about keeping score. Rate the amount of time and effort expended, the costs, the responses and the overall effectiveness of each mini-plan. Continue with what rates highly and discard the rest, as your time will be better spent elsewhere.
Jigsaw
Even if you use a series of mini-plans, you still need to keep your overall vision and goals clearly in mind. View each mini-plan as an integral part of the overall volunteer recruitment and volunteer recognition plan. It’s like a jigsaw puzzle – each piece is essential in creating the final beautiful picture.
Road test
Businesses select a small market sample to test a new product before launching it and committing time and resources. If you have a great volunteer recruitment or recognition idea on a grand scale, 'road test' it first. For example, if you are targeting a large corporation as a potential market for volunteers, start with one section of the corporation as a test case for the whole. Road testing all your volunteer recruitment, retention and recognition ideas can save you a lot of time, money and resources. You can find out if you are on the right road before launching a large-scale volunteer recruitment, retention or recognition campaign.
Never done that before
Don’t be afraid to include new and untried approaches in your recruitment, recognition or retention plan. Just because it hasn’t been done before doesn’t mean it can’t work. Be creative, innovative and energetic. Take some risks – it adds to the excitement of any volunteer recruitment and volunteer recognition plan!
Target practice
Design a method to visually depict your progress at a glance. For example, use a large graph to visually represent your progress towards your target number of new volunteers in your volunteer recruitment campaign. As new volunteers are recruited, fill in the graph. This will help motivate your team. Display the graph in a prominent place where it can be seen by visitors and passers-by. This might just encourage them to volunteer to help you reach your target.
It just keeps getting better
Regularly evaluate your volunteer recruitment, volunteer recognition and retention plan to see that you are still on track. Look for ways of refining the plan as it evolves. Ask yourself: how can we do this better, how can we simplify this, what needs to change? Improve your plan as you learn from experience.
Stampede
Even the best-planned volunteer recruitment campaign may not immediately result in volunteers flocking to your door. Even the best prepared volunteer recognition and retention plan may take some time to show results. Be realistic about what you can achieve. Increasing your number of contacts, raising your organizational profile, and making all your volunteers feel special and important can take time, but it is always time well spent.
Keep smiling
Don’t be discouraged by setbacks to your plan – remember that setbacks are part of life. The important things are what you learn from them and how you deal with them. There are still a limitless number of people just waiting to volunteer and stay with your organization. Keep working on new ideas and fresh approaches – you will reap the rewards in the end.
This article is adapted from the book Count Me In! 501 Ideas on Recruiting Volunteers
by Dr Judy Esmond
Cheers Judy
© Judy Esmond, 2005
Dr Judy Esmond is a leading expert on how to gain, sustain and retain volunteers. She is author of best selling books and numerous research reports on recruiting, retaining, recognizing and rewarding volunteers. Subscribe to her 'Ultimate Ideas' Newsletter filled with 100s of ideas on volunteer recruitment, retention and recognition at www.mtd4u.com
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