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Three Ways To Reduce Conflict And Improve Volunteer Retention In Nonprofit Organizations
Written by: Dianne CramptonArticle Overview: Http://www.corevalues.com. Volunteer retention, which is not unlike employee retention with an obvious twist involves three strategies for reducing conflict and maximizing volunteer effectiveness.
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Three Ways To Reduce Conflict And Improve Volunteer Retention In Nonprofit Organizations
Recently, I received a request from a business owner to discuss volunteer program design because of a conflict problem he is facing as a community volunteer.
As a vice-chair of a nonprofit Board, this business owner will be Board Chair next year of a nonprofit that recently experienced high staff turnover. In addition, the nonprofit's pool of volunteers has dwindled because of conflict with a staff member who is no longer there.
The concern addresses volunteer retention, which is not unlike employee retention with an obvious twist.
Employees receive pay conditioned upon the work they do and volunteers do not. What connects volunteer is a desire to serve, to contribute and to know their efforts make a difference. Another characteristic is that social interaction is part of the fun and spark of volunteering, and volunteers tend to place a high value on working with others. To be effective, these motivations need to be an outcome of the design.
So, here are three ideas for designing and managing an effective volunteer program based on team culture principles.
1. A viable program must institute a framework to facilitate volunteer guidance.
A successful volunteer program needs to do more than address management style and culture. To channel volunteer talents and energies productively, leaders need to define the behaviors and roles expected from non-paid staff so that a volunteer's time and interests are respected. This includes the following activities:
Establishing the rationale for volunteer involvement and answering the question, "for what reason are volunteers needed?"
While volunteer labor may be "free", a volunteer program requires expenditures for orientation, training, recognition, reimbursement, and team building. By knowing why volunteers are needed, strategies can be put into place to recruit volunteer skills and to develop and recognize volunteers.
Involving paid staff and key volunteers in volunteer program design
Staff and volunteer involvement not only help in crafting policy but it also serves to build ownership and commitment for program acceptance. This is because it is important to staff and volunteers to understand how their activities fit into planning and how those activities ultimately contribute to program success.
Preparing job descriptions for volunteer positions
Successful volunteer programs are built upon clear and meaningful volunteer job descriptions so that the volunteer coordinator knows how much time is required to perform the work, to assess if training is necessary and to determine whether the skills needed match a volunteer's experience and interest.
Meeting the needs of volunteers
People volunteer for a variety of reasons. One reason is that the service matches a volunteer's values. Another is that service helps the volunteer achieve career, social or self esteem needs. Frequently it satisfies the desire to "do something useful to help others." When the needs and values of volunteers align with a volunteer position, the nonprofit can expect a lower turnover.
2. A viable program must provide feedback and volunteer coaching.
A powerful motivation for volunteering is to achieve worthwhile and visible results. Coaching can serve this purpose because helpful guidance is actually a form of compliment. The sincere and timely feedback indicates that the volunteer effort is important.
3. A viable program is measurable.
Staff should be able to determine whether the procedures to meet essential program functions are in place so they know if they are operating effectively. Evaluating volunteer satisfaction is important to this so that short comings can be corrected. Any time programs experience problems with high volunteer turnover, flaws in program design must be addressed.
These functions are not differentfrom team cultures that offer employee training, development and coaching. The key lies in creating a system that inspires people and instills a sense of esteem and belonging.
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About the Author: Dianne Crampton RSS for Dianne's articles - Visit Dianne's website  Dianne Crampton helps leaders build teams of employees who are as engaged and committed to the organization's success as the leader is. As one of North America's leading authorities on business team culture, she is a team culture consultant, author, professional speaker and founder of TIGERS Success Series, a trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. Because you found this article in the jungle of all the articles that are out there, use the code October234 to receive 50% savings on our most recent book, TIGERS Among Us - Winning Business Team Cultures and Why They Thrive Here. To download a Complimentary CD series that discusses the TIGERS cooperative values and a white paper that discusses how to measure these principles in teams, click Here. To view Dianne's latest team tips video on how to build team commitment, click Here. To join Dianne's newletter to receive these tip videos on a regular basis click Here. Click here to visit Dianne's website   Team Building with Happiness How To Create a Reputation for The Best Place to Work How to Get a Highly Competitive Sales Force to Collaborate How To Improve Your Team Building Success Five Tips For Building A Wildly Successful Team Based Business |
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