Taking a Look at Volunteer Management

Volunteering is often seen as free labor. However, there is a significant cost associated with the recruitment, training, and maintenance of the volunteer force. A full-time staff to oversee the volunteer program is necessary as well to ensure volunteers are being used effectively. The recruitment process varies from advertising to speaking at schools to

HRM function is primarily concerned with ensuring the fulfilment of management objectives and at the same time ensuring that the needs of the resources are taken care of.

volunteering is a person who freely offers to take part in an enterprise or undertake a task. In this report i will talk about the different types of volunteering in the:

Over the years’ volunteers,’ services have increased tremendously. These stakeholders participate in leadership roles in nonprofit and profit groups. Volunteers exert influence in the organizational decision-making process because their particular task gives them the authority to exhibit their skills. For example, I am a board member at a local nonprofit hospital. I collaborate with other volunteers offering advice and services that help influence the hospitals' daily operation, while improving my leadership and decision-making skills in the process. Ohmer (2007) discussed that "Citizen participation" actively involve selves in developing problematical situations in neighborhoods and leading policies and programs that affect the quality of

Volunteers are vital to the operation of an organization, as they give credibility and allow for positive communication between the community and the organization (Haski-Leventhal et al., 2010). With that said, volunteers are the backbone of nonprofit organizations throughout the country and many organizations depend on people giving their time to execute their vision and mission. The word volunteer is well known, but it has taken on a more diverse meaning with different types of people who engage in a number of different activities (McAllum, 2014). It is common for people to take on different volunteer roles at various points in their life. Social networks and motivation play key roles in how and when a person volunteers. Whether one is married,

Based on the eight elements discussed in our book, The Lincoln Family YMCA doesn’t meet the criteria of a System of Good Volunteer-Staff Relations. The only element that they followed was “Overall Policy on Volunteer Involvement” being that, they do provide a clear policy explaining why they involve volunteers and have a volunteer program (McCurley, P. 238). In fact, their website indicates that the volunteer program raises funds, supports the youth, influences societal issues, and gives back to the community (http://www.valleyymca.org/about-your-y/support-your-y/volunteer/). The YMCA fails to asses staff capabilities, which is important and can help volunteer and staff interaction be successful. The Lincoln Family YMCA should consider developing a system that evaluates staff’s attitude and previous experience toward volunteers, so they will be able to know how much staff members can contribute to the involvement of volunteers (McCurley, P.239).

As is well known, volunteering is an extremely significant component of our community. Along the same lines, utilizing volunteers plays a critical role at the agency level in increasing ability of the agency to serve clients and the community. While most nonprofit organizations put a great value on volunteer programs, one of the biggest challenges that organizations face is a successful volunteer recruitment. Although there are many theories about volunteer recruitment, understanding a simple question, “why do people volunteer?”, makes it much easier to find right volunteers for the organization. People volunteer for a variety of reasons. For some people it may offer a chance to give something back to the community or to have professional

Today’s volunteers are busier than ever managing a high-pressure job, longer commutes, family and a desire for work-life balance. Additionally, as Baby Boomers age and retire, it is believed that there will not be enough willing volunteers to fill the gap that they leave behindd. While there is concern about filling the volunteer gap, some believe that key changes will strengthen volunteerism. These changes include tailoring volunteer opportunities to the specific skill-set of the volunteers, companies integrating volunteer activities and encouraging volunteerism to improve one’s skills, as well as companies looking for employees that have a wide range of experience including volunteerism on their resume (Harnett & Matan,

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate my knowledge of volunteer organizations. Twenty years ago I began my volunteer career working for a relatively young faith-based non-profit organization. My initial community beautification responsibilities progressively developed into other areas of service including teaching, fiscal administration, and event logistics coordination. Through my evolutionary involvement as a multidimensional volunteer, I was able to learn about the inner dynamics of volunteer organizations: fiscal pressure, bureaucratic barriers, struggles to build and maintain community engagement, and the pros and cons of an exclusive volunteer labor force. For documentation I am including my letter of resignation (2014) as the financial

Burnout is another major issue that plagues volunteers for several reasons. People may not see their work as important or may feel overwhelmed because the lack of new volunteers coming along side to lift up and support the current volunteers. In the article The Revolving Door, the authors argue that there are people volunteering but burnout is a major issue. (Allen, J. 2013) When an agency loses a volunteer, there is a strain put on the rest of the volunteers to pick up the slack and there is a never ending battle to keep people

The life span period that begins in the early twenties and last through the thirties is known as Early Adulthood. During these time frame individuals establish personal and economic independence. They begin to advancing in career, select a mate, start a family, and rear children (Hollingsworth, 2016). However, there are a lot of other factors that affect some of the norms in this life span development. Therefore, we are going to review a case study of a volunteer, during the duration of this paper I will use “JB” to represent the individual. JB is a twenty-nine-year-old Native American male. He originates from a small town in DeKalb county. However, he is currently enlisted in the United States Army. During the time of the interview he was stationed in North Carolina waiting on his deployment to Germany. In regards to his immediate family, JB is the middle child of three children. He has a younger brother and an older sister. Currently JB is going through the divorce process with his wife.

Perhaps, organizations should apply the classical practices of human resource management (HRM) to the volunteer work environment (Studer, 2015). Initially, these activities start with an orientation that allows the volunteer to gain a sense of the organization and its mission, as well as to expose the volunteers to the organization’s culture and method of operation (Brudney, 1999). Moreover, more extensive use of orientation, training and support practices generates fewer problems had by volunteers, which is associated with fewer problems in the retention of volunteers (Cuskelly et al., 2006). It is important, however, for volunteer coordinators to refer back to the preliminary volunteer interest form. Referring back to the form allows the coordinator to grasp a more comprehensive understanding of the volunteer’s motivations as well as their expertise. With this knowledge, further trainings and development opportunities can be catered more to the various job-specific tasks volunteers are assigned to complete. Job-specific trainings and developmental opportunities make for the best use of volunteer energy as a natural resource (Brudney & Meijs, 2009). Because volunteers donate their time and energy, the more an organization is able to better use the a volunteer’s time and energy, the more beneficial the volunteer is to the organization and the organization

Pennsylvania, discussed different aspects of the volunteer program with an emphasis on the hospice volunteer program in particular. In the meeting on Wednesday, March 16th, 2016, Kaitlyn was asked a number of questions about the volunteer program and how it has been successful in meeting the needs of the aging community at Chandler Hall.

Looking at the first dilemma, I would present the volunteer opportunity to employees as a way to help give back to the community they work in. I would also try to approach union leadership to see if they wanted to collaborate with the company on the volunteer opportunity. If there was a lot of negative feedback about volunteering their personal time I would allow any one that volunteered the day off with pay to work at the retirement home. This would allow the company to say the employees volunteered their time and care about their social responsibility. A drawback to this plan may be a delay to work that had been going on at the plant due to the loss of a work day.

Our intervention occurred at the group level, where we also needed to consider the inputs, design components and outputs in order to do group level diagnosis. Here we looked at goal clarity, task structure, functioning of the group, composition, and performance norms. Ward’s volunteer team group structure deviated widely from most for-profit companies: the design components are all loosely defined. Because Ward teams depend on volunteers it is more challenging to hold teams to any kind of performance measures. We also looked at the individual level design components: tasks identity, significance, autonomy, variety, and feedback. Here, too, it is difficult to hold members to performance standards. Although we concluded that the group level performance gap was largely a result of inadequate communication, individual outputs were also not as desired. Volunteers varied in performance; however, you couldn’t fire them. There were no repercussions for absenteeism. They lacked KSA’s and often motivation to do a good job. Showing up was the highest expectation.