Training Busy Staff to Succeed with Volunteers - Complete Set

The 55-Minute Staff Training Series

This material will help you:

Tackle staff resistance to volunteers through short, to-the-point training sessions
Save time by adapting these 12 ready-to-use seminars to your setting - PowerPoint slides all done for you, too
Gain the respect of your peers by presenting useful information in a professional way

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Description

Nationally-respected trainer and author Betty Stallings has created 12 ready‑to‑deliver – but completely adaptable – training sessions so that you can teach paid staff the fundamentals of working with volunteers in your setting. Each training module is designed for delivery in 55 minutes of staff time. Easy to use and adapt, each electronic module comes with: a complete PowerPoint® presentation; a timed script for the trainer highlighting “4 Key Concepts” on each topic; suggestions for expandable group activities; handout masters ready to duplicate, including a workshop evaluation form; and more. Includes notes to the trainer on how to best use and adapt the material, ideas for lengthening or combining the sessions, a bibliography and other resources.

The 12 topics are:

Module 1:  Designing Positions for Volunteers

Module 2:  Volunteer Recruitment

Module 3:  Interviewing and Screening Volunteers

Module 4: Volunteer Motivation

Module 5: Supervising Volunteers

Module 6:  Orienting and Training Volunteers

Module 7: Delegating to Volunteers

Module 8: Mutual Performance Reviews

Module 9:  Handling Volunteer Performance Problems

Module 10:  Volunteer Program Evaluation

Module 11:  Risk Management

Module 12:  Volunteer Recognition

Note: You must have Microsoft Office PowerPoint software installed on your computer in order to access the slide presentations.

The complete Series includes a special bonus: A 39-page introductory section, “Designing a Training Program,” a guide for assessing staff training needs, resources and practical techniques for gaining staff “buy-in,” tools for promoting staff’s effective utilization (competency) and support of volunteers, and a review of the basics of good training and delivery.

Consider it: “Freeze-dried training; add your personality and begin!”

Sample the Series

Take a peek at:

the table of contents
sample PowerPoint slides
excerpt from the trainer’s guide
a sample presentation overview
sample participant handouts

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Purchase a Multi-Use License

The Series is meant for use by single organizations and individuals, but we recognize that volunteer centers, technical assistance providers, independent trainers and consultants, and national/large organizations with many locations will want to use the material repeatedly at different locations. Therefore we offer a Multi-Use License with both Limited and Unlimited options. Learn more here.

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Training Design and Content

By Betty Stallings
From Training Busy Staff to Succeed with Volunteers - Complete Set, Betty Stallings and Associates, 2006

The 55-Minute Training Series has done much of this work for you. However, I strongly encourage you to adapt the material to the needs of your organization or to develop new topics that may be of particular use to your staff. The following are a few recommendations as you prepare to design and/or select your content:

Good training design begins with the assessment of the learning needs of anticipated participants. Your content should be built around the gap between what staff needs to know to be successful and what they already know.

After the topic(s) are chosen, it is important to specify key learning objectives that deal with knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Learning objectives basically describe what a participant should be able to know or do or feel at the conclusion of the seminar.

Select a moderate level of content. There is a tendency to throw in everything you know about a given topic, and the result is a rushed session where little is retained. The best approach to developing a lean curriculum is being selective - choosing the need to know before the nice to know. When the content level is kept moderate, the trainer can lead activities that experiment with and reflect upon what is being presented.

Provide printed resources that will be utilized and/or shared (e.g., handouts, activity sheets, training manuals for participants, in-house forms, information to be brought by participants). These resources greatly enhance learning if they are well done and tie closely to the presentation. If handouts are distributed and no acknowledgment is given to them, they are infrequently read or utilized.

A typical sequence for training is:

Beginning of training:

Purpose of session

Learning objectives and key concepts

Climate setting, ice breakers

Middle of training:

Content developed around key concepts, done in logical fashion and building from theory to application, knowledge to skill. Selected training activities/learning methods vary from passive to participant phases:

Lectures

Role Play

Slides

Flip Chart

Group Dyad Activities

Panel Discussions

Brainstorming

Case Study

Dramatization

Occasional breaks and energizers if session is longer than 90 minutes.

End of training:

Review and summarize content

Have participants process experience ("What will I do differently when I return to my job?")

Conduct an evaluation to get a sense of the perceived value of the session to the participants. True evaluation occurs if you can arrange a follow-up form whereby actual impact can be recorded. For example: "As a result of the workshop in interviewing, I now see its value and have arranged to give half-hour screening interviews to volunteer candidates in my department."

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Comments from Readers

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