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Here’s the third  in a series of questions submitted by our readers and answered by volunteerism and risk management expert Linda Graff (read previous posts, on Risk Management and the Swine Flu and policies on reference checks).

The Question: I presently have a volunteer driver who has just come back from leave for medical conditions (stroke).  She still has her license and is eager to drive for us again.

My supervisor received an irate call from her son stating that his call was confidential and he did not want his mother driving due to her health condition.  He also implied that her health condition had deteriorated due to her busy schedule with us.  He made it VERY clear we are not to tell her he called.

The volunteer’s husband has passed and she enjoys her volunteer work.  The volunteer called wondering why she is not getting drives.

The son should speak directly with the mother, but won’t. The volunteer is getting frustrated, as we haven’t given her a clear answer as to why we are “holding off”. In the end if I can’t reveal the son’s call, what do I say to my volunteer?

Linda’s Answer:  Since the volunteer was off work for medical reasons and since the work she is wanting to return to is responsible, demanding, and risky, it would not be unreasonable to request that she provide a physician’s note verifying her ability to resume her volunteer driving responsibilities.  This way you can be more certain that she actually is well enough to drive for you and you transfer the responsibility for determining so to the expert.

You might consider (though this is tricky) notifying the son that this is what you plan to do and let the son make his case to the physician if he chooses.

I might add that the question of driving ability arises often in my workshops on risk management.  As you observe, the possession of a driver’s licence does not guarantee good driving ability, particularly for some of the demanding driving roles we ask volunteers to fulfil, such as night driving, driving long distances – sometimes will an ill person in the car – driving in demanding weather conditions, and so on.  It is also common for managers to worry about a decline in driving capacity among elderly volunteers or volunteers, who, as in your example, have experienced a related health issue.

My recommendation is that the organization recruit a volunteer expert assessor of driving capacity – a driving instructor – who will either routinely (every year or two) take volunteer drivers for a test drive to ensure they are still driving with the degree of skill required, or as the need arises, such as in the case of recent illness.  This technique ensures a more accurate assessment by someone who has the qualifications to do so.

Here’s an interview with Nick Ockenden, Head of Research at the Institute for Volunteering Research  in the UK, about IVR’s recent report on volunteering and employability.  You can find more information about the research and read the final report at the IVR website.  Many thanks to Nick for taking the time to talk to me about this important and timely project!

(Note: we have retained the spelling differences in British English in Nick’s answers below.)

Energize, Inc. (EI): You’ve just released a report about  ways that organizations can successfully link volunteering to employability. Tell us a little about what this research has found.

Nick Ockenen (NO): The research focused on the role that Volunteer Centres could play in supporting the link between volunteering and employability. We worked with eight Centres around England which we felt were demonstrating good practice and backed this up with a telephone survey of 220 Centres (58 per cent of the total). One of the first findings was simply how much appears to be going on. One-third of Volunteer Centres were currently undertaking work focusing on employability. Most of them were doing this by recruiting and referring volunteers on to other organisations. The support they offered was, however, highly comprehensive, including making visits to their placements, providing training and help with job searches, and undertaking volunteer reviews and supervisions. As with much research before us, we had to conclude that the link between volunteering and employability was far from straightforward. We did, however, identify numerous benefits and evidence to suggest a link did exist. When we spoke to staff and volunteers, the experience of volunteering was often described as ‘life changing’. Perhaps the most notable benefit we identified was how volunteering could increase self-esteem and confidence amongst volunteers. Our research stressed that it is vitally important that such ‘softer’ outcomes are recognised and given equal weighting alongside targets and numbers of people moving into paid positions. Many volunteers who are long-term unemployed might not be able to move straight in to the structured environment of paid employment. Many staff felt that volunteering, because it was often flexible and highly supportive, provided an effective means of getting someone ‘job ready’ and allowing them to make this transition at their own pace. The research also highlighted successes and challenges of working in partnership with employment agencies and other organisations.

EI: The Energize, Inc. online bookstore carries Volunteering by Unemployed People, published by Volunteering England in the ’90s.  In today’s climate of high unemployment and economic uncertainty, what has changed about successfully working with unemployed volunteers?  What remains the same?

NO: While each recession is unique, they all bring high rates of unemployment and large numbers of people looking for work; the number out of work in the UK has just passed 2.2 million. People will be looking for ways to get (back) into the labour market, and for many, volunteering can provide them with such a means. We were encouraged to see that many of the employability benefits to volunteering that we identified in our research, particularly the development of self-esteem and self-confidence, were strongly echoed by findings from studies going back throughout the 1990s and 1980s. It appears that much good practice in the management and support of unemployed volunteers also remains the same. As other studies have found, our research stressed the value in seeing volunteering as a long-term strategic approach to securing employment; it also highlighted the need to record ‘soft’ outcomes; and it emphasised the benefit in providing ongoing and comprehensive support, especially to those people who have more complex support needs. But if the current recession is, as many suggest, deeper than what we experienced in the 1990s, or indeed in the 1980s, then these needs will simply become more important.

EI: There have been reports in the US media that, because of the recession, some organizations are getting more inquiries from unemployed people wanting to volunteer than they know what to do with.  How can organizations turn this challenge into an opportunity?

NO: For some time we’ve been hearing of organisations receiving more inquiries from people wanting to volunteer. Our recent research found that of the 220 Volunteer Centres surveyed, 87 per cent said that they had experienced an increase in the past six months. We’re not yet sure how much of this is to do with the recession but it does raise a concern that there’s a limit to how many volunteers an organisation can effectively involve. Sometimes this can be about developing networks of volunteer-involving organisations so that prospective volunteers can be referred on to different opportunities if the original organisation is unable to involve them. A network of environmental organisations in the North East of England is working to develop just such a referral system with support from the government body Natural England. Volunteer Centres clearly have a key role to play in any such brokerage system. But even referring volunteers on to other organisations takes resources and much of the Volunteer Centre network in England is operating with limited funding. Our research found examples of Volunteer Centres that had sought funding from new sources, tapping into funding streams focusing on getting people back into work (for example the New Deal and funding from the Learning and Skills Council). Others had successfully formed new partnerships with private sector employment agencies and companies to secure funding.

EI: How can organizations effectively utilize the help of the unemployed while concurrently supporting their future employability?  How can they keep the job-seeking volunteer engaged with their cause even after they’ve transitioned into paid employment?

NO: Volunteering by unemployed people is of great benefit to the organisation they give their time to as well as to the volunteer. The Volunteer Centres we spoke with as part of our research experienced higher profile, new and often longer term funding, and the development of new staff skills as a direct result. Our findings suggested that these benefits could be maximised if the organisation ensures that their employability work complements and enhances their original remit, rather than resulting in unplanned ‘mission drift’. Our research also highlighted a real requirement for a personalised approach when working with and supporting unemployed people as volunteers – one that is focused on their individual expectations, motivations and needs. Common sense tells us that someone who remembers their volunteering positively will be more likely to volunteer again than someone who had a bad experience and felt poorly supported. Once a volunteer has moved into paid employment, it may be the end of an organisation’s involvement. We did observe, however, several Volunteer Centres which had successfully maintained contact with their volunteers after they had secured a job. Where this did occur it allowed the Volunteer Centre to monitor whether the volunteers were happy in their job and whether they sustained employment; which was sometimes key in order to fulfill funding targets. Furthermore, any such relationship left the door open for future volunteering.

Download A gateway to work. The role of volunteer centres in supporting the link between volunteering and employability, the report referenced in this article, at www.ivr.org.uk.

Nick Ockenden is Head of Research at the Institute for Volunteering Research, where he has worked for nearly four years. He has worked on numerous research projects for a wide variety of public, private and third sector clients. This includes exploring the link between volunteering and employability, a large scale review of environmental volunteering in the North East of England, the national evaluation of youth volunteering body “v“, and an evaluation of a project supporting volunteering by young offenders. He has also worked on the development of volunteering strategies for the National Offender Management Service and the Department of Social Development in Northern Ireland. Nick leads on IVR’s research into volunteering within volunteer-led and community-based organisations, and maintains a keen interest in environmental volunteering. In the past he has volunteered for a variety of environmental organisations in the UK and the US, and is currently a volunteer with the British Red Cross. Nick can be contacted on nick.ockenden@volunteeringengland.org or +44(0)207 5208 931.

In this post, author Steve McCurley tackles the problem of an organization whose old methods of volunteer management aren’t working well anymore.

Do you have a volunteer management problem that needs an expert diagnosis? You’re in luck, because the experts are in! Submit your questions to ask-an-author@energizeinc.com. Our favorites will be answered on the blog (and we’ll do our best to provide some help to everyone who writes in).

The Question:
I work with a small nonprofit organization that’s beginning to expand our services. For years, we have hosted “drop-in” volunteer opportunities. At scheduled times, anyone can show up, be trained and oriented upon arrival, and assist with one of our projects – no application, no screening (these projects do NOT involve direct contact with clients).

As we’ve continued to grow and become more well-known, the drop-in volunteer program has started to cause some problems. Volunteers really like to work with us because they don’t have to pre-register, so we almost always have enough help. However, some of the volunteers, while well-meaning, are really not well-suited for the project, and have trouble doing a good job even after being trained and re-trained. Other volunteers come for mandated service, and although some are great, others really don’t care and thus require substantial oversight and redirection. Right now, we don’t have a procedure for dismissing these “problem” volunteers – we just try our best to put them back on the right track, often while trying to help several other new volunteers at the same time.

What can we do to have some greater formality to the drop-in sessions (i.e., basic standards for accepting a volunteers, a process for addressing problem volunteers and dismissing them if necessary) while maintaining the open environment?

Steve’s Answer:
As volunteer programs experiment with ways to streamline the involvement process they discover that there are tradeoffs between making it simple and easy for people to become involved and at the same time developing clear management standards. You have found one of these tradeoffs and it will require making some choices about balancing the interests that are involved.

Drop-in programs (which are a great and effective idea) only work if they allow volunteers to begin work without having to endure interviews, applications, background checks and the other entry procedures we have developed over past years. To work effectively the drop-in programs must minimize the time between the volunteer showing up and the time when they actually begin work. Too many rules, procedures, and hoops to jump over will kill the program. Programs for on-going volunteers, on the other hand, require a bit of structure, rules and procedures, both for purposes of safety and for ensuring a good volunteer experience.

In your case, I’d recommend creating a two-tier system for involvement which allows people to choose whether they will stay in the more casual drop-in mode of involvement or move on to the higher level of ongoing volunteering. The system would work something like this:

1. Drop-in volunteers would fill out a minimal “registration” form, basically listing name and contact information. This will allow you to send them thank-you notices, information about upcoming events, etc. Personally I’d make this optional, but I suspect most volunteers will have no trouble with giving you this basic information if it is explained nicely.
2. Drop-in volunteers receive minimal “orientation,” and most of that is to the setting (”There’s the food and restrooms…”) and the actual work. They also receive a brochure or other information about the organization (and this can be provided by giving it to them as they leave or by mailing it to them afterwards).
3. Ongoing volunteers go through a formal application, interviewing, and orientation process, and are eligible for volunteer positions beyond the simple ones performed at the drop-in center. An ongoing volunteer makes a greater commitment to the organization and thus qualifies for a different level of involvement and responsibility. Drop-in volunteers are invited to apply for ongoing volunteer positions, but are not required to.
4. The only rules that are the same for both drop-in and ongoing volunteers involve those around dealing with problem situations – the same rules of conduct and performance should apply to each. These are explained to ongoing volunteers as part of their orientation process; they are only explained to a drop-in volunteer if they are violating a rule. The key, however, to making these work in the drop-in situation is having an “immediate suspension” rule that can be invoked when a problem arises – this is designed to get the problem volunteer out of the work area while things are being sorted out.
5. In practice, this will probably work better than it sounds, unless you have an unusual number of unruly drop-in volunteers.

Since you do seem to have some of these (the ones who just don’t “get it” and the mandatory service ones) I’d recommend handling these special cases in the old fashioned way – just say “No.” Once a drop-in volunteer has demonstrated an inability or unwillingness to perform the work in a satisfactory manner, they should not be allowed to come back and volunteer again. The procedure for implementing this is simple:

• At the time the volunteer exhibits the unsatisfactory behavior they are first cautioned, then removed from the setting (”fired”), and told that they will not be accepted for further drop-in volunteering. If they have a problem with this decision, they may discuss it with the volunteer manager at a later time. If they are being referred by another agency, that agency should be informed of this decision (without any details about why this is being done). You have an absolute right not to accept these referrals unless you have some kind of contract with the referring organization; and if you do have a contract or agreement you should make sure it allows you the right of absolute rejection of unsuitable volunteers.
• If they return to the drop-in setting and attempt to volunteer, they are refused entry. This means that you need someone supervising the drop-in setting who has some personal authority, since this is what will substitute for the procedural rules that we institute in an ongoing volunteer program.

The bottom line on all this is that you can’t run a drop-in volunteering effort with all the rules and procedures of an ongoing program. Attempting to do so will only kill the drop-in effort. And the worst justification for adding more rules is a situation like yours where a few bad volunteers are being used as the rationale. In drop-in settings you still provide management, but the management is more of a personal, not a procedural, nature.

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If you want to learn more about effectively managing a drop-in volunteer program, be sure to check out “Drop-In Volunteers and the Benefits of Flexibility,” an article from the April 2009 issue of e-Volunteerism.