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Recruiting suitable volunteers was seen as the most important issue by 97% of the 341 organisations taking Volunteering Australia's National Survey, suggesting that while volunteer-involving organisations deal with a whole range of issues, almost all not-for-profits see their basic survival starting and ending with their ability to attract a volunteer workforce.
Volunteers answering the 2006 survey were more likely to be concerned with lack of support from the organisations they volunteer with. Over a quarter (26%) of the 373 volunteers surveyed felt they did not receive enough recognition in their organisation, and 81% said they would like recognition to take the form of opportunities to train or develop skills. Also, volunteers who lacked a clear, written job description (42%) were more likely than others to say that they felt unsupported in their work, that they were inadequately trained, and that they did not have an opportunity to participate in decisions that affect them and their work.
Does this suggest a mismatch between organisations' priorities and volunteers' expectations, with organisations focussing more on the skills they would like to recruit than on developing the volunteers they already have? Interestingly, a large majority of organisations surveyed said they do use an orientation process for volunteers (93%), and that they offer volunteers training (92%) and chances to give the organisation feedback (95%), but only half have any appraisal or performance management process in place for their volunteers (56%), making feedback a one-way process for many. Volunteers rated their feedback opportunities even lower, with only 44% saying their organisations used appraisal and performance management processes with them, and 83% saying they were able to give their organisation feedback.
Retaining volunteers, once recruited, is an ongoing challenge which organisations can meet through induction, training and sound volunteer management practices, but organisations' recruitment efforts are often undermined in the longer term if they do not go on to support their volunteers adequately. While some not-for-profits are following best practice approaches to volunteering, only 23% of organisations surveyed said they had adopted the National Standards for Involving Volunteers in Not-for-profit Organisations, and although that is more than 5 years ago, clearly more can be done to make sure volunteers experience the benefits of these approaches.
Resources
The National Standards, an Implementation Guide, and Workbook and Resource Kit and other guides to best practice in volunteer management can be accessed from the Volunteering Australia website.
The data collected by Volunteering Australia each year in the National Survey of Volunteering Issues will build on official statistics and academic research to bring the picture of volunteering in Australia into greater focus and track volunteering issues over time. Next year's survey opens in December. Register now so that you can be notified and help fill out the picture.
6 July 2006
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