Managing volunteers
Recruiting them, keeping them, paying their expenses without creating an employment relationship, and parting company when you have to.
Volunteers are not free staff. They cost time to recruit, train and look after, and the organisations that get the most from them are the ones that treat that as a real job rather than something the manager does in the gaps.
Before anybody starts
- Write down what the role actually is. A vague offer of "help" attracts people who then drift away because nothing was ever asked of them.
- Be clear about the time commitment, and make it smaller than you would like. People who deliver a small commitment reliably become people who take on a bigger one.
- Check whether the role needs a DBS check. Not every role does, and asking for one that is not justified is its own problem.
- Decide who they report to. A volunteer with no named person is a volunteer who will leave.
The thing that decides whether they stay
Being useful, and being told they were. Most volunteers who quit do not quit over the work; they quit because they turned up and there was nothing ready for them, or because nobody noticed whether they came. A rota that is planned a fortnight ahead and one person who knows everybody's name will do more for retention than any recognition scheme.
Expenses
Reimburse actual, receipted out-of-pocket expenses, and do it promptly. Do not pay a round-sum allowance, do not pay for time, and do not give gifts that look like payment. Any of those can turn a volunteer into a worker in law, which brings the minimum wage and employment rights with it, and that is not a conversation you want to have retrospectively.
When it is not working
Volunteers can be difficult to move on precisely because they are giving their time and everyone feels awkward about it. Deal with it early and in person. Have a written problem-solving procedure so the conversation follows a process rather than a mood, and keep it separate from your employee disciplinary policy — using the staff procedure on a volunteer is one of the ways an organisation accidentally argues that they were an employee.
What to keep
- A record of who volunteers, what for, and their emergency contact.
- Hours given. You will want them for funders, for social value reporting and for your annual report.
- Training and any checks, with the dates.
- A privacy notice covering what you hold and why.