Last month I conducted several long training sessions in Singapore, my fifth visit to that lovely country. The National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre recruited a group of well-qualified volunteer program managers for a special train-the-trainer opportunity, combining observation of my presentations and group debriefing/reflection. As part of mentoring these colleagues, I developed a tip sheet based on my personal experience in training many, many different audiences about volunteer management. If you need to raise awareness of volunteerism, whether for in-house staff training or in presentations to the public, the following might also be helpful to you.
- Everyone has some personal experience as a volunteer, but practically no one has ever been formally trained in volunteer management.
- Even people already in the role of leader of volunteers. Even volunteers themselves.
- But because of their own experiences with volunteering, people think they "know" best practice. In reality, they often perpetuate negative stereotypes and self-fulfilling prophecy seems to confirm them in their attitudes (i.e., if you don't expect much from volunteers, you won't get much).
- Adults bring a wealth of life experience to any training situation and we've already acknowledged that most have been or have worked with volunteers. Check this by a show of hands. Plan an opening exercise that gets everyone to share their personal perspective and what their philosophy is about volunteering in society. Valuing volunteering is the first step in wanting to mobilize volunteers effectively. But few people have ever been asked to articulate why volunteering is important.
- It is critical to allow negatives to surface. No one can learn anything if they haven't accepted the premise of the great potential of volunteer engagement and instead are mentally reviewing their reservations or concerns.
- But it doesn't seem "nice" to voice objections or concerns, and people feel they have to be nice about and to volunteers.
- So the trainer must be realistic and encourage - even initiate - discussion of possible problems, whether imagined or real.
- On the other hand, the trainer must be solidly in favor of volunteering and the best practices of recruiting and working with all sorts of volunteers.
- Language matters. A lot. The word "volunteer" repels as often as it attracts. Find out what term resonates with each audience and be sure to use various words to describe volunteering (do some homework to learn their jargon). Also:
- Avoid saying "use" volunteers - we use things, not people.
- Avoid always describing volunteer roles as "assisting paid staff." First, there is a huge all-volunteer world in which there is no paid staff. Second, many volunteers do not work "under" employees - instead they are expert consultants and partners.
- Avoid female pronouns for low-level volunteer roles. When giving examples, always try to speak about a wide range of different volunteers, at different levels of responsibility, of different ages, etc. Fight stereotypes naturally by sharing your understanding of the diversity of the volunteer community.
- Don't assume volunteers only work for nonprofit organizations. They also are active in government agencies. And for-profit businesses send their employees out to be volunteers.
- Know your audience. Very often the people to whom you are speaking are responsible for volunteer involvement, but are not the executive or decision-maker in their agency. Acknowledge when something is not in their control to do on their own, but strongly encourage them to advocate on behalf of volunteers by proposing changes to top management.