Best Practices for Volunteer Orientation

Back in 2007 we wrote a two-part blog examining why volunteers stay with an organization — and why they leave. In the latter half, we mention that lack of training and/or orientation is one of the reasons volunteers don’t stick around. If “on the job” training is your organization’s primary means of acclimating volunteers, it may be time to reconsider. Although it takes a little more effort, orientation is a volunteer management practice that sets the foundation for a successful relationship. To help get you started, we’ve pulled together some recommendations and best practices.

Give a Sample

If possible, have new volunteers experience your organization’s services as a client would. Explain the circumstances under which a typical client would come to you, then ask them to imagine themselves in that position. Taking them through the process from the client’s viewpoint will at the very least add some perspective. Even better, it may lead to more empathy and better performance from volunteers.

Pair Them Up

When it’s time for your newbies to actually learn the job, it’s often wise to pair them up with an experienced volunteer or staff member. Make sure the mentor is patient, good with people, and has a knack for teaching others. Having a good relationship with a mentor can help “seal the deal” with a new volunteer, so put some serous thought into who you want to help bring folks onboard.  Also, take cues from the conversation you had with the newbie in the beginning. Consider a mentor that would be a good fit in terms of personality and possibly with helping the new volunteer meet some of the objectives they explained to you earlier in the process.

Give Feedback

Most businesses require 30- or 60-day reviews for new hires. The same should apply to volunteers. In addition to informal feedback from a volunteer’s mentor or other supervisors, make sure to have a formal sit-down with each new volunteer individually after a month or so to both praise them and to address any issues that may have surfaced. Volunteers will be more confident in their tasks with this insight, which leads to higher satisfaction with their experience.

In the end, you’ll see that investing just a little more time upfront in the orientation process can pay big dividends later. You’ll have better-trained volunteers who stay longer, which is well worth it.

Shawn Kendrick holds an MBA from Ohio Dominican University and has over a decade’s experience in the nonprofit and business sectors. He enjoys researching and blogging for VolunteerHub, a cloud-based volunteer management system that offers online registration, email and text messaging, report generation, and much more.