Events

Recruiting Volunteers

Before Starting

Before you start your volunteer recruitment, think about why you are recruiting volunteers and how you can offer them a good experience.

  • What are your organisation’s goals and objectives? How will your volunteers support these?

  • What skills and experience do you want your volunteers to have? Try to identify any skills gaps in your existing team.

  • Motivations – People have different reasons for volunteering, such as wanting to ‘give back’, learning new skills or socialising.

  • Consider how new volunteers will fit into your existing work. 

  • Think about any barriers which might make it harder for new volunteers to find your opportunity and apply eg. Language barriers.

  • Plan what resources you’ll need for your volunteers and volunteer managers. Consider how much time and money you can allocate to supervision and training.

  • Plan how you’ll support your volunteers’ wellbeing. Many volunteering roles can be emotionally demanding.

Volunteer Role Descriptions

Write a description for each role you are recruiting for.

Your description should explain what tasks are involved, the types of skills and experience required and what support you will offer.

What to Include

A role description should include:

  • title of role
  • aims and expectations of role
  • an outline of the role’s tasks and responsibilities
  • role boundaries and any activities volunteers need to avoid
  • who to ask about changes to the role (for example making a role home-based if that helps someone to volunteer)
  • if you will pay expenses and for what
  • performance targets or measures.

You could include:

  • the name of the person the volunteer reports to
  • why a new volunteer might like to take up the opportunity
  • location and hours
  • how the role fits with the organisation’s work
  • expectations of behaviour and dress (if appropriate)
  • essential and desirable skills and qualifications
  • required person specifications (if appropriate)
  • how to find out about other opportunities.

When writing your role description, make sure it offers a good volunteering experience. This will make sure the role is attractive to new volunteers.

In January 2019 NCVO published its Time Well Spent report on volunteering. This found eight things that make up a good experience for volunteers.

  • Inclusive of everyone

  • Flexible around people’s lives

  • Impactful and makes a difference

  • Connected to others, the cause and the organisation

  • Balanced, doesn’t overburden the volunteer

  • Enjoyable and makes people feel good

  • Voluntary, not an obligation

  • Meaningful to volunteers’ lives, interests and priorities

Role Advertisement

Once you have your role description sorted, you will want to advertise this throughout various networks and avenues to make sure you get applicants.

Some places you can advertise are:

These are all free, you can however use paid advertising throughout your social media platforms to help get hits.

Make sure your posts and job descriptions are clear and concise.

Volunteer role descriptions can look a lot like job descriptions. They are not. Instead, they describe unpaid roles and should only describe expectations of a role.

You must be careful not to imply a volunteer is under contract to perform specific tasks. If it looks like you treat them as an employee, they may be eligible for full employment rights. You could also find yourself in breach of employment law.

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