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Responses to: Volunteers as the "Third Branch" of an Organization?

The perspectives offered by Sarah Elliston and Susan Ellis are interesting and thought-provoking. However, it seems to me that they are both assuming that all organizations that involve volunteers are large enough to have multiple paid employees. In many cases, there are only 1 or 2 paid employees. In organizations like this, paid staff clearly understand that their role is to support the volunteers (who are truly unpaid staff) as they perform the "real" work of the organization. In others, there are NO paid employees, so what are volunteers then if not unpaid staff?

Response from Judi Curley, Volunteer Centre, Centre County, PA

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I found Susan's comments to be very interesting and thought provoking, especially since I have been taught to instruct paid staff to treat volunteers as they would a paid staff person. However, I have had problems with this approach myself and often find that I need to qualify the statement---"treat them as you would paid staff, only different!"

Treating volunteers just as unpaid staff elicits several problems, many of which I have witnessed working with various organizations on a consulting basis. Often staff members are not treated "properly" or, at least they perceive that they are not - where does this leave volunteers? Staff will only treat them well if they, themselves are treated well! Also, by enforcing "treat them like paid staff" we have to be careful that they then receive all of the same benefits as paid staff and are included in all staff activities. This is just not feasible in most organizations.

Susan's approach is a sound one as it promotes a team environment, not an "us-vs.-them" atmosphere. Staff have been confused - do they hold volunteers to the same standards and expectations that they do with paid staff? "Yes!" I tell them, but . . .then they see volunteers offered special recognition that they don't receive for doing the same work. Their work is clearly different, and maybe I've been misleading them. Maybe volunteers need their own, separate standards. In fact, I've been putting standards and expectations into their training manuals for years, and they have been different from staff expectations!

Volunteers enhance the work of an organization and should complement the work of their paid counterparts. Susan is right when she puts the emphasis on quality of customer service and how volunteers can contribute to that mission. The only term I'm not comfortable with is "third branch". "Third" has a connotation of last. Volunteers have long suffered from that status. Can anyone think of any other term for this extension of the organization?

Thanks Susan for your insight. I have shared your comments with the HR professionals I deal with.

Response from Tina Grant-Mulvey, Consultant, Volunteer Visions, Connecticut USA.

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I think this idea of volunteers as a third branch of an organization is very interesting and fruitful indeed. My perspective is quite theoretical as I am interested in creating new models for learning organizations etc. What I have been thinking about lately is that could we possibly incorporate cutting edge know-how in this manner too or are all the highly paid/busy professionals not interested in doing volunteer work? At least in our different multi-cultural & international projects we have found that at times even a very small input of a true professional has helped us tremendously - could this concept perhaps be explored? Creating a network of talented people would be a good start.

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