{"id":141,"date":"2011-08-25T14:02:26","date_gmt":"2011-08-25T18:02:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/capacity\/?p=141"},"modified":"2011-09-16T08:57:59","modified_gmt":"2011-09-16T12:57:59","slug":"things-to-consider-before-recruiting-new-volunteers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/capacity\/2011\/08\/25\/things-to-consider-before-recruiting-new-volunteers\/","title":{"rendered":"Things to Consider Before Recruiting New Volunteers"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are lots of things to consider before recruiting for new volunteers.<\/strong>\u00a0 You can begin by contemplating how a multi-generational approach<\/a> would affect your recruitment process and success of volunteers in the \"\"<\/a>positions you are seeking to fill.\u00a0 Each generational group has characteristics which may be beneficial to your organizations.\u00a0 Are you successful at recruiting from all of the groups?\u00a0 Your publicity is designed to inform people what the organization does and why it needs volunteers.\u00a0 Does your publicity \u201cspeak\u201d to volunteers across the generations?\u00a0 The publicity is a tool for recruitment.\u00a0 Recruitment invites individuals to learn more about your volunteer program and to join in.\u00a0 If your publicity is speaking to just one generational group, chances are that you are successful in recruiting just that generational group.<\/p>\n

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Think about your ongoing volunteer program.<\/strong>\u00a0 Are you able to retain quality volunteers in your positions?\u00a0 Or are those positions more like revolving doors?\u00a0 Recruitment and training of volunteers is costly in time and other resources.\u00a0 Take the time to analyze and fix the problems before launching another recruitment process.\u00a0 The task may be just too big for the number of volunteers.\u00a0 The position description may have some important qualificati\"\"<\/a>on missing, be too time consuming, or lack a challenge for volunteers to engage over time.\u00a0 All of these problems could cause the \u201crevolving door syndrome\u201d that Susan Ellis<\/a> refers to in her writings.\u00a0 Find out what\u2019s wrong and fix it first.\u00a0 Consider initiating exit interviews when volunteers leave the organization.\u00a0 You might be surprised what you can learn from just a few well developed questions.<\/p>\n

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Thinking about a new role for volunteer?<\/strong>\u00a0 Plan your recruitment strategy but don\u2019t start recruiting before you are ready to put volunteers to work.\u00a0 Sometimes with the fear of not finding volunteers causes us to spread the word prematurely about a new potential role for volunteers\u00a0 It can result in would-be volunteers waiting to begin an experience for which they may not be qualified.\u00a0 Be sure you have the position description well developed prior to recruitment.\u00a0 Get ready to put the volunteers to work, and then recruit.<\/p>\n

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Think about some trends that may make recruiting of volunteers difficult.<\/strong>\u00a0 The changing American family<\/em><\/a> is a trend evidenced by parents with less time, limited availability during daytime hours, custodial and non-custodial parents having constraints on their time.\u00a0 Examine your assumptions about the changing American family.\u00a0 Are your volunteer positions designed to appeal to these individuals with time flexibility built-in? \u00a0The economic crisis<\/em> is another societal trend that may affect your recruiting.\u00a0 Those unemployed may be looking for volunteer opportunities to strengthen their resumes and might stay with the organization just until they find viable employment.\u00a0 Corporate volunteering<\/em> may provide an avenue to recruit some highly skilled volunteers.\u00a0 The population is aging<\/em> and some of these individuals may choose to work longer into their senior years.\u00a0 Some may take on the supportive caregiving role with grandchildren.\u00a0 Think about trends \"\"<\/a>you note in society, consider how they might affect volunteer recruitment, and plan how you can address the trends with the volunteer positions you design.\u00a0 Recruit with these trends in mind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are lots of things to consider before recruiting for new volunteers.\u00a0 You can begin by contemplating how a multi-generational approach would affect your recruitment process and success of volunteers in the positions you are seeking to fill.\u00a0 Each generational group has characteristics which may be beneficial to your organizations.\u00a0 Are you successful at recruiting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":613,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22989],"tags":[23014,22984,23013],"class_list":["post-141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-volunteer-management","tag-organizational-management","tag-volunteer","tag-volunteer-management-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/capacity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/capacity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/capacity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/capacity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/613"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/capacity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/capacity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":181,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/capacity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141\/revisions\/181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/capacity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/capacity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/capacity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}