Volunteer Management can often seem very difficult when trying to develop effective volunteer recruitment and volunteer recognition plans. To help you, here are 10 of my best tips to ensure the success of your recruiting, retention and recognition programs.
1. START WITH BITE-SIZE PIECES
Here is how to stop yourself feeling overwhelmed at the thought of developing your recruitment, recognition or retention plan. Use a series of mini-plans for tackling one thing at a time? Break down every one of your programs into smaller bite-size pieces. An example, would be to place your recruitment message on all paper that leaves your office. On your letters, brochures and business cards. Then move to the next idea. Always aim to begin with bite-size pieces.
2. THINK IN TERMS OF MINI-PLANS
Still a further example of a mini-plan is to concentrate on recruiting just one more volunteer to undertake a specific job. Brainstorm a number of ways to explore to fill the position. For instance, to recruit a receptionist, what about targeting work experience students, secretarial colleges, job retraining schemes or recent retirees from similar positions?
3. MAKE SURE TO KEEP SCORE
For every mini-plan, design a system to assist you evaluate which strategies are the most effective. You need to keep score. Rate the time and effort involved, the responses and costs to decide on the overall effectiveness for all mini-plans. Keep using what rates well and remove the rest, as your time is better used on methods that give you the results.
4. MAKE SURE TO SEE THE OVERALL VISION
Even when you have a series of mini-plans, you must keep your overall goals and vision in mind. See all mini-plans as a vital part in your complete recruitment, recognition or retention plan. It is about designing a jigsaw puzzle where each piece adds to creating a final beautiful picture.
5. ROAD TEST AS YOU GO
Smart businesses select a small market to test a new product before committing more resources and time. If you have got a wonderful recruitment or recognition idea, road test it first before rolling it out on a large scale. For example, say you wish to focus on a large corporation to recruit more volunteers, then you could start with a department in the corporation to focus on and test. Making sure to road test all your recruiting and recognition ideas can help you save money, time and resources. You will learn if you are heading down the right track before launching a large-scale campaign.
6. TRY AND TEST DIFFERENT IDEAS
Do not be scared to include new approaches in your programs. Just because it has not been tried before doesn't mean that it will not work. Be innovative and creative. Take risks and then test their value.
7. SEE HOW YOU ARE DOING
Develop a strategy to visually depict how you are progressing at a glance. For instance, draw a large graph to visually show your progress towards your target number of new recruits in your recruitment campaign. As new recruits join up, start filling in the graph. This will keep your motivation going as you move closer to your goals.
8. EVALUATE AND REFINE YOUR PLAN
Continue to evaluate all your recruiting, retention and recognition plans to make sure you are on track. Continually look at ways to refine each evolving mini-plan. Ask yourself: how can we simplify this? How can we do this better? What do we need to change? Improve on your plan as you learn from the experience.
9. HAVE PATIENCE
Even your best designed recruitment plans will not always immediately mean that volunteers will come flocking through the door. Even the best thought out retention and recognition plans often take time to show results. Do be realistic about what you can achieve. Continue to tweak and test your ideas and be patient.
10. HAVE FAITH TO REACH YOUR GOALS
Do not be disappointed with setbacks to your plans, they are all part of learning. It is how you deal with and learn from those setbacks that is most vital. There are still a limitless number of people just waiting to be recruited and retained by you.
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