Recognising Volunteers

When volunteers are recruited to your organisation it makes the utmost sense to make

every effort to retain them. It is a costly proposition to recruit and train replacement

volunteers. Moreover, the time lost in recruiting replacement volunteers can result in

lengthy periods where an organisation may not be able to deliver the additional quality of

service that a volunteer may bring to the organisation.

One important way of encouraging your volunteers to remain with your organisation is to

give then adequate recognition. Recognition to be effective should be consistent and

ongoing. Volunteers can quickly loose motivation if they feel that their work is not valued.

Volunteer managers should be aware that the way volunteer efforts are recognised is of

importance. This is because one volunteer may regard one type of recognition as valuable

whilst another volunteer may feel it has little worth. If a Volunteer Manager is aware of the

volunteer's motivation in working for the organisation then this will provide a good

indication for the type of recognition that the volunteer is seeking. For example if a

volunteer is hoping to obtain paid employment, they will value opportunities to receive

training and obtain a certificate of training recognition or they may value a referee for their

résumé?

In many cases volunteers that are motivated by helping the community will see their work

as reward and will only require support from their volunteer organisation. The support of

paid staff and the Volunteer Manager can be shown in many ways. The enthusiasm of

paid staff to the aims of the volunteer program is very important because it will naturally

engender within the organisation the recognition that volunteers are important.