3 Steps to Find Your Best Employee Volunteer Leaders
Chris Jarvis
Executive Director, RW Institute | Chief Strategy Officer, Realized Worth, Employee volunteering and giving
The success of your employee volunteering program rests on the ability to form, mobilize, and manage teams across all of the regions in which the company operates. Here are three steps to success in finding and supporting leaders in your employee volunteer program.
Step One: Finding the right employees to lead your teams
First, you’ll need to identify the group of employees who will be instrumental to the program’s success. In order to generate widespread participation in the program, it is essential to find and collaborate with employees who are already volunteering in the community, either on their own time or through your company’s volunteering program.
How can you tell if you’ve found the ‘right’ person to fill the leadership role? Good question. You are looking for employees who demonstrate strong leadership skills through the practice of pro-social behavior such as volunteering. These are people with the existing enthusiasm, experience and energy upon which to build your program. When looking for the right leaders it is helpful to see volunteering as a journey with three stages. At each stage your volunteers will need something different. The following explanation is a simple guide to help recognize each stage an individual may be at in their journey (learn more: Free Online Course by Realized Worth, Empathy in Motion).
Stage 1: TOURIST
The first stage on the journey of the volunteer is one of investigation and curiosity. Like a tourist visiting a new place for the first time, in the first stage a volunteer is not yet sure if this experience is the right fit for them. They cannot be forced or coerced into liking it; instead, they must be given basic, experiential tasks that will allow them to look, taste, see and discover. If they’re ready, they’ll return to the space and continue through the stages. Tourists will make up about 70-80% of any group of volunteers.
No matter how enthusiastic or agreeable people may be, if someone is working through the first stage of their journey as a volunteer, they are not the right person to be leading events or guiding other volunteers. The objective here is to provide the right kind of experiences so that tourists may become travelers (check out the infographic here).
Stage 2: TRAVELER
The second stage is one of meaningful discovery. Like a traveler who has begun to feel a sense of belonging to the place they’ve visited, second stage volunteers will begin to internalize their motivation for returning (what you should know about motivation). As they own the experience for themselves, they will become ready to take on leadership responsibility and tasks that require increased commitment. Travelers can be hard to recognize, but they’re worth looking for. Travelers will make up about 25% of employee volunteers and average between 50 – 150 hours of volunteering per year. They’re on their way to becoming advocates and leaders for the volunteer program.
Travelers are excellent candidates for leadership roles if there is a formal development process in place. In step three we discuss what this should look like.
Stage 3: GUIDE
The third stage in the journey of the volunteer is one of intentional alignment. Like a guide who introduces friends and strangers alike to the charms of his favorite country, third stage volunteers are motivated entirely by personal, intrinsic reasons. Guides can be trusted to run the program when no other leader is around and will recruit new volunteers without being asked. Guides make up only about 5% of any group of employee volunteers, volunteering between 150 hours to 500 hours per year (sometimes Guides volunteer upwards of 900 hours per year). This group should receive the greatest percentage of time and energy from those responsible for managing employee volunteering.
Obviously, a Guide is the perfect choice to lead employee volunteer events. The difficulty is twofold; a) there are so few of them and b) they are always currently invested in some other program or organization. What is required is a conversation to discuss how the company or organization can support their current areas of interest while gaining their contributions towards the objectives of the corporate volunteering program.
Sometimes senior managers appoint people to lead the program at their site or in their region based on availability or their role within the company. Without consideration of the person’s volunteer journey and experience, this strategy always leads to failure. A solution we’ve found very successful to identify team leaders involves a fairly simple interview process.
Potential second and third stage leaders typically possess distinguishing characteristics:
- They already volunteer somewhere – or have in the past for significant periods of time.
- They think everyone who gets into volunteering will love it. Volunteering is a way of life.
- They have strong personal reasons for wanting to volunteer. It’s not about doing something for others as much as it’s about doing something for themselves.
- They regularly invite other people to join their volunteer activities.
- They understand the issues they volunteer for and are eager – but are not pushy – to share their knowledge with others.
- They have strong opinions about the issue they volunteer for – particularly regarding the use of resources and the types of activities
Not all employee volunteers are the same nor should not be treated the same (and the worst mistake is to treat everyone the same). If you pay attention, and if identify which stage your participants are in and respond appropriately, your volunteer events can become transformative experiences (read more: 4 Reasons to Adopt the Transformative Volunteering Method). Employees will become better at what they do and who they are, communities will benefit from the efforts of your company, and your company will be filled with better, more capable people.
Step Two: Engaging fellow employees and leading events
With the right people in leadership roles they will be eager to engage fellow employees in company supported or sponsored volunteering activities. But those of us who have organized and led volunteer events before we know that one of the first hurdles is recruiting coworkers to join you. A common challenge could be that the same people show up over and over and it can get discouraging to keep trying to get new people to participate. We see this at the most exemplary corporate volunteering programs. The key to overcoming this hurdle is understanding what motivates people to volunteer.
First, there are two types of motivation: extrinsic and intrinsic. We are extrinsically motivated when we choose to perform a behavior or activity to earn a reward or avoid a punishment. This motivation comes from outside of us and often feels like an “obligation”. We typically describe this feeling with the words “should” or “I have to”.
Intrinsic motivation, on the other hand, involves engaging in a behavior because it is personally rewarding; essentially, performing an activity for its own sake rather than the desire for some external reward. Intrinsic motivation comes from inside us - it’s an expression of who we are. The fascinating aspect of intrinsic motivation is that when we are experiencing it, we are highly motivated to learn and explore. This is when humans are at their healthiest. It’s a critical element in cognitive, social, and physical development because it is through acting on one’s inherent interests that one grows in knowledge and skills.
Most people who volunteer for the first time will do so because of extrinsic motivators. Volunteer leaders need to create the free space that will allow volunteers, when they’re ready, to discover their own intrinsic motivators. You can achieve this by offering some space for critical reflection at the end of an event with two simple questions; a) what did you experience and b) was it what you expected. These two simple questions will be enough for people to begin to assign meaning to the experience and thereby discover their own intrinsic reasons for participating in volunteering events.
Now, how should leaders promote the volunteer opportunities? Well, the same principles that work in real-life relationships work in digital communication:
1. Digital communication is an extension of human relationship.
It is not a replacement. Email is a great way to start a conversation about attending an event or as a follow up, but face-to-face human connection will always be the most effective way to invite and remind.
2. Amplify your voice by deputizing others to communicate.
Leaders should consider the people in their immediate sphere of influence who have expressed interest in employee volunteering. Ask each of them to think of two people in their sphere of influence who may want to learn more (or even join a volunteer activity!) and spread the message, too.
3. Listen carefully to your coworkers and your volunteers and pay attention to their emotional cues.
Anytime something you enjoy doing becomes something you’ve committed to doing (like helping out with a volunteer project), there’s always a risk of turning play into work. If people seem annoyed or close to burn-out, encourage leaders to check in on how they’re feeling and work together with them to bring back the joy of simply volunteering. One way to bring back the joy is to ask “Why” questions: Why did you volunteer for the first time? Why is it meaningful to you to give back to the community? “Why” turns tasks into meaningful expressions of value.
Step Three: Set your employee volunteer leaders up for success
Leaders of employee volunteering programs need a lot of support to be successful in their role (here are some ways we can help). Admittedly, if you’ve been able to interview and select the right people, they’ll bring with them extensive experience and insight. But corporate volunteering programs are unique because what they do as volunteers may also reflect on who they are as employees. Most people are very aware of the risks and require constant communication ensuring that the actions they take will not adversely affect their career or position within the company.
You will need to provide clear policies and guidelines, strong communication, and an easy to use (understand) online management tool. Along with regular trainings (monthly) these elements are essential components in a supporting ecosystem of community investment. The most successful volunteer teams will also have a support network comprised of fellow employees. This can take the form of peer teams meeting to share successes, barriers and even concerns.
Here’s a list success elements to consider for your program
1. Provide a formal orientation and assessment process for new team leads.
2. Conduct a review process including references, brief interview, orientation and an assessment of previous experience as a volunteer.
3. Provide practical tools for project development and execution such as email templates (to invite other employees) scripts, guidelines, and planning forms.
4. Offer training and other activities that may provide insight on the social or environmental issues the volunteer team is addressing.
5. Develop a mentoring process that clearly communicates the purpose, values, goals and expectations of the company’s employee volunteering program. Experienced team leads may be paired up with new team leads for a effective transfer of knowledge.
6. Ensure visible support at volunteer projects from senior leadership (remember, everyone is wondering how this ‘really’ affects their career).
The Practical Help You Need
Equipping employees to play key leadership roles as part of a volunteer team ensures your company’s employee volunteering program is both engaging and sustainable. At Realized Worth, we offer some of the best content and support in the pursuit of world-class employee volunteering and giving design and implementation.
Online Training Resources for All Your Employee Volunteer Champions/Ambassadors
For an example what online training looks like we invite you to look at the RW Institute (RWI) Voyager course. This is a highly interactive, globally accessible online volunteer training and certification designed for employee volunteers, for nonprofit professionals and their volunteer membership, and for people passionate about volunteering. The course includes an engaging series of video trainings and knowledge-testing assignments challenge participants to reflect on the power of Transformative Volunteering. Training is accompanied by helpful guides, checklists and resources. Participants are connected with like-minded people through discussion forums and community boards that bring together a global community of people who are driven to volunteer.
A 2-Day Immersive Learning & Development Course for your Key Employee Volunteer Champions
The RW Institute Regional Campus is a two-day experiential learning and development course designed for corporate employee volunteer leaders and corporate nonprofit partners. This two-day intensive training is a highly experiential learning opportunity that brings together employees from multiple companies to create a shared understanding of the significance and power of volunteering and develop leadership competencies required to deliver effective volunteering experiences.
Employee Activation Workshop: For the CSR Team
The Employee Activation Workshop can help you dramatically increase participation rates in your giving and volunteering programs:
- prepare for the downstream challenges that come with a significant increase in participation,
- design your program to sustain growth at scale,
- discover the resources to support the plan, and
- do it all in just 3 days.
Champions Network Workshop: For the CSR Team and Key Leaders
The Champions Network Workshop is a one-week kick-starter to scale your program across a broad employee base by building a sustainable, well-equipped network of the right champions throughout your organization:
- the right people,
- met at their highest level of contribution,
- with the best in class resources and support
User Behaviour Diagnostic: For the CSR Managers
The User Behaviour Diagnostic is a simple, non-intrusive assessment to;
- evaluate how your employees are interacting with your technology solution such as YourCause, Benevity, Salesforce and others (download the Technology Review for free here),
- identify friction points, and
- provide simple interventions to improve the ROI of your technology solution investments.
Articles, Research and Challenging the Status Quo
Most of the articles we write are geared toward managers responsible for employee volunteering, workplace giving, and sustainability programs. Our intention is to help you be more successful – whether you engage us formally or not. The work you do is critical to addressing the huge social and environmental issues facing our global society. The role you play in the company you work for is key to humanity’s future.
If you’d like our help with your employee volunteering or workplace giving program, please feel free to drop us a line at [email protected], or call us at 855-926-4678. You can also reach out to us on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Be sure to keep up with all of our blogs and the latest news here.