Looking after our volunteers – What’s your role as a leader/manager of volunteers?

By Alan Murray, Director AVM and Head of Volunteering at RSPB

So, you’ve decided to volunteer with your local conservation group. You’ve got bags of enthusiasm and a few days to spare each month to help. You’re really looking forward to getting stuck in and making a difference locally. So far so good and all sounds straight forward.

Ninety nine percent of the time everything goes well, your volunteering is enjoyable and fulfilling and everything runs smoothly but what about when it doesn’t!

What happens when a volunteer . . .

• Has an accident whilst volunteering?
• Is bullied or verbally/racially abused by a colleague
• Discriminated against
• Has a complaint about how they are managed as a volunteer
• Has a complaint about their line manager/main contact
• Sees someone stealing from the organisation
• Wants to appeal being disciplined or indeed dismissed
• And any other worst-case scenario you can think of?

It might seem obvious to say but volunteers are people just like all your paid staff and in all instances, they need (and indeed expect) leadership, management, and support to succeed in their volunteering– just like the paid workforce. Whilst on occasions the law may apply slightly differently to volunteers than employees (see LawWorks link in Useful Links below) in principle you would be well advised to see your volunteers as an integral and key part of your workforce due a similar duty of care.

So, what is duty of care? NCVO (National Council for Voluntary Organisations) guidance on Duty of Care Duty organisations owe to volunteer's states:

The duty of care is a common law duty to take reasonable care to avoid harming others. Organisations have a duty of care towards their volunteers. The organisation and its trustees could be liable if a volunteer is injured because the duty of care was not met.

This means that reasonable steps should be taken to reduce the likelihood and potential seriousness of injury to volunteers, for example:

• giving volunteers the right information
• training volunteers
• making sure volunteers use safety clothing or equipment
• supervising volunteers appropriately.

So, what does all this mean in practice for those of us leading, managing, and supporting volunteers on a day-to-day basis? It’s not just our legal obligations we have to consider but the moral obligations of the personal relationship we have between our organisation (us) and volunteers who are donating their time and talents.

Well, it might mean you want to consider if you have the following in place for volunteers in your organisation just as you would for your employees and in many cases, it may even be the same policy/procedure/approach.

• Training – what training do your volunteers need access to in order to complete the role safely and effectively? Is it readily available to them and does it meet their and your needs?
• Insurance cover – for where a volunteer is injured whilst volunteering (Personal Accident) or where their actions whilst volunteering injure others (Public Liability).
• Code of Conduct – the standard of behaviour you expect from people who are delivering your work, so you are all one team for nature.
• Health and Safety – guidance on how you expect tasks/activities to be undertaken to minimise or remove any of the risks associated with that task/activity.
• Assistance Programme – a service to help volunteers deal with personal problems that might negatively impact their volunteering performance, health, and wellbeing.
• Whistleblowing Policy – who can a volunteer speak to in confidence to raise any issues or concerns they feel they cannot raise directly with their Volunteer Manager/main contact.
• Problem Solving Policies – how to address and manage inappropriate behaviour or poor performance by a member of your workforce – and yes, we mean volunteers as well here.
• Appeal process – how can a volunteer appeal a disciplinary outcome or indeed a dismissal?
• Safeguarding young people and adults at risk – what is your approach and policy here for working with these groups? How do you ensure their welfare and safety? What training do people need in working with these groups?

   
When considering all the above our advice would be to review whether you need to have separate policies or procedures for volunteers. In most instances one policy for the team (paid or unpaid) will usually do. In some cases though it may be essential to maintain the uniqueness of the nature of the volunteering relationship.

On a final note, is it is particularly important to be clear on the professional boundaries between you and your volunteers. It is not your role to support or manage volunteers through complex personal issues outside of their volunteering role. Easy to say but difficult to do we know.

In these situations, please direct your volunteers to professional and appropriate sources of support from experts. If you have them in your organisation and they are available to volunteers direct them to your Assistance Programme or other suitable sources of support e.g. Mental Health First Aiders, etc

Useful Links:

LawWorks - What responsibilities does my organisation have towards volunteers?
Gov.uk - Involving volunteers in your organisation
Health & Safety Executive - Health and safety law: Your duties to protect volunteers
VolunteerNow – Health and Safety and Volunteering
VolunteerNow – Volunteers & The Law Information Sheet
Volunteers and the Law – Mark Restall

The Association of Volunteer Managers (AVM) is an independent membership body that aims to support, represent, and champion people in volunteer management in the UK regardless of field, discipline, or sector. It has been set up by and for people who manage volunteers.

Our vision is...

Connecting leaders of volunteering to make change happen together.

Our mission is…

• To inspire and empower leaders of volunteering.
• To be a recognised community of leaders of volunteers, sharing expertise and support.
• To build this through the provision of engagement, resources, and advocacy.

   
If you manage, co-ordinate, lead or administer volunteers or volunteer programmes, directly or indirectly, then AVM is for you.

Join here.

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