Why retaining good volunteers is important 

For many VCSE organisations volunteers are ‘mission critical’ in that, without them, the organisation couldn’t do at least some of the important work they do to benefit clients and meet their mission.  

Recruiting volunteers ‘costs’ resources, even if they themselves then provide time for free. For example, this may be the time to write a role description and advert, the cost of providing some specific training or equipment, or the staff resource of buddying a new starter. When a volunteer leaves their role, and must be replaced, there is a cost attached to this. 

Additionally, VCSE organisations want people involved in them to have a positive experience of this – our organisational values are often about helping and supporting others. We don’t want people to leave because they have had a bad experience or didn’t get what they hoped to from volunteering. 

Reasons volunteers leave and what can be done about this 

Someone may choose to end their volunteering role for several reasons – and sometimes it is simply time for a volunteer to move on to focus on something else. We must recognise that all people have competing priorities, and have agency about where and how they spend their time and energy. Often, when other things can’t ‘give’ or are very important to us, volunteering may be the thing that has to.  

We may not always be able to prevent a volunteer from leaving, but we need to make sure that people don’t leave simply because they weren’t aware there was another option. Options such as changing or tweaking their volunteer role, hours or location; taking a pause from volunteering; having more support within the organisation or more support outside of volunteering; working together to solve a problem or barrier they are facing. 

The VCSE Barometer and the Time Well Spent Survey have both asked volunteers about their reasons for discontinuing their volunteering. Reasons given, in order of frequency, are: 

• Changing circumstances 

• Wanting more time for other things 

• A feeling of ‘having done my bit’ 

• Health problems 

• Finding the volunteering role stressful 

• Unhappy with the way the volunteering is run 

• Disillusioned with organisation 

Is this something I can do anything about? 

When a volunteer comes to you and says they want to or need to leave their role it can be worth appropriately exploring this more. We should never pressure a volunteer to stay when they can’t or don’t want to – but it is worth asking the volunteer what has changed for them, and then thinking ‘can I realistically, do something about this, and do they actually want me to’?  

 When considering what you can do to support you must consider your/your organisations capacity, not just for this situation, but for if it came up again – as if anything additional is offered to support one volunteer to continue this should then be then available to any volunteer who might also benefit. For example, it wouldn’t be seen as fair to allow one volunteer to bring their child along to their shift, and another not to.  

 You might also need to do to reduce any risks around offering flexibility. For example, if you are running a programme where volunteers need to have quite specific safeguarding training and you want to offer someone the opportunity to take a break and come back in a few months you need to decide (and be transparent about) what the process is. Do they need to redo the training, and if so after how long away? There may be times when you can’t be as flexible or as accommodating as you wish, for practical reasons, and that’s ok – as is taking time to figure out what is or isn’t possible and asking a volunteer to be patient while you do. 

Retaining good volunteers starts at the recruitment stage 

Some volunteers leave because their experience ultimately didn’t match up with their expectations of it or hopes for it. Therefore, it is important to be honest and proactive in explaining what a role will involve and what opportunities you can provide as a part of it. Understanding a volunteer’s motivations for volunteering early on can help you to provide an experience that is motivating and meaningful to them. Don’t be afraid to be upfront and ask, and although it’s good to find this out early on it isn’t too late to if you haven’t! 

If a volunteer was motivated to join because your organisations cause is important to them then they may want to know more about the impact their volunteering is having on this cause. If a volunteer was motivated to join you because they felt it would support their career ambitions they may want to engage with further learning and development. If a volunteer was hoping to meet new people and have social opportunities they might not necessarily want to volunteer each week on their own! 

If you haven’t already, take a look at our resource Recruiting Volunteers – the basics. 

Good communication, reducing barriers and some flexibility is key longer term 

Ensuring volunteers know where they need to be, when they need to be there and what they need to do – and if anything has changed within this – sounds obvious but is worth mentioning! Volunteers may also wish to know how you feel they are getting on in the role (what’s going well and what may need to change), the difference they are making through their volunteering, opportunities available to them and other ways to get more involved. Many volunteers would like to know more about the wider work your organisation is doing, and what you are achieving. 

How should I communicate with volunteers? 

The answer to this question will depend on a combination of your capacity, technology, what information you need or want to share or discuss, and how your volunteer(s) like to communicate. You may be reaching out to people ‘en masse’ through a group mailout, group whatsapp, briefing or newsletter – or you might be having a phone call or face to face meeting with one volunteer. For busy volunteers catching up during a shift can work well. It can be worth giving adequate time to planning all of this, and to continually review what works – by speaking to your volunteers and using data (open rates, read rates etc). If no one is opening your shiny weekly newsletter then it might not be worth spending time on it, or working out why, before doing more of the same. 

High quality support and supervision can make a massive difference to a volunteer’s experience and can help make sure that they are confident and happy in their role. Some volunteers may want to develop skills and try new things, maybe even take on more responsibility – and support and supervision can be a place to discuss these ambitions. It can also be a place for a volunteer or a volunteer manager to raise any worries or issues, and proactively try to resolve them. It can be a way to ‘spot’ if a volunteer is starting to become stressed, burnt out or disillusioned. 

How can I support and supervise volunteers? 

There are lots of different ways to do this, and what is the right fit will depend on the role, your capacity and what the volunteer would most like. Here’s some ideas: 

• A more formalised 1to1 meeting 

• Doing a task together 

• Group (clinical) supervision  

• Debriefing after a session/shift 

• Handover notes in a notebook, on whatsapp etc 

• Checking in with someone on shift 

• A chat over a tea break 

• Group reflective practice 

Whatever form your catch ups take doing a bit of planning around what might be helpful to discuss and recording any specific actions you need to take will be important.  

 How can I reduce barriers to volunteering? 

Our resource on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Volunteer Management has more on this topic, and it is important to remember each volunteer is both an individual and the expert in their needs. However, here are a few things to consider: 

• Budgeting for paying  volunteer expenses 

• Ensuring volunteers have support with any tools or technology they need to use for their role – and where possible have alternatives available 

• Providing a range of volunteer roles and shifts. Keeping different skills, abilities and main holidays, work and school times etc in mind. 

• If you can safely and appropriately do this offering family friendly volunteering and allowing parents and carers to bring along children. 

• Allowing people to volunteer alongside their support worker, carer or personal assistant. 

• Figuring out where you can put things in place that support volunteers with disabilities or who are neurodivergent. 

It’s important to show appreciation 

Expressions of gratitude increase prosocial behaviour (behaviours that are intended to benefit others – such as volunteering with a VCSE organisation!) by enabling individuals to feel social worth and support, while simultaneously reducing their feelings of uncertainty about whether they can help effectively (Grant & Gino, 2010). 

So, don’t forget to say thank you to volunteers and show and share your, and others, appreciation! There are lots of ways you can do this, and NCVO has some great reflections on thanking volunteers.  

Events such as volunteer socials with food provided can also be a way to show appreciation, as can tapping into campaigns such as #volunteersweek. 

Resolving challenges proactively avoids things ending badly and prematurely 

Sometimes issues arise within someone’s volunteering that warrant a more serious conversation. For example, if: there is friction within a team; the volunteer isn’t following codes of expected behaviour or there has been a complaint about them; your leadership isn’t being respected; the volunteer is frequently late, absent, or not contributing as expected/hoped. Addressing this sooner rather than later can often mean that relationships are salvaged and volunteers better understand what is expected of them – it can stop smaller issues becoming bigger issues, and ultimately a volunteer or volunteers leaving in negative circumstances. This resource from Volunteer Plain Talk on how to approach difficult conversations with volunteers includes some useful tips. 

Rarely a volunteer may behaviour in a way that means they can no longer volunteer, for example if they have behaved entirely inappropriately, unacceptably or unsafely – where dismissing a volunteer is the only appropriate option. 

NCVO has good information about ending volunteering well, considering a variety of contexts. 

Disclaimer

We make every effort to ensure that our information is correct at the time of publication. 

This is only intended as a brief summary of relevant issues and information. Legal advice should be sought where appropriate. The inclusion of other organisations in this information does not imply any endorsement of independent bodies, they are just for signposting purposes.

Voscur is unable to accept liability for any loss or damage or inconvenience arising as a consequence of the use of this information.