Complete the health check and then answer the questions honestly. If the answer is no or you would like more information on this area, click the corresponding links below

• Planning for Volunteer Involvement
• Do you know how willing your members are to get involved?
• Do you have an action plan for volunteering?
  • Does the club have a volunteer policy/ procedures?
• Recruitment & Selection
  • Does the club have a recruitment procedure for volunteers?
  • Do you have role descriptions for your volunteers – outlining key duties, responsibilities and time commitment?
  • Do you advertise roles internally i.e. within the club and asking people?
  • Do you advertsie roles outwith the club i.e. volunteer centre, web, community locations?
  • Do you use the following selection methods?
• Retention
  • Do you provide an induction for all volunteers?
  • Do you provide all volunteers with a named contact person?
  • Do you operate a buddy system for new or less experienced volunteers?
  • Do you offer your volunteers training to enable them to carry out their role effectively?
  • Do you pay out of pocket expenses?
  • Do you recognise the contribution of your volunteers – click for ideas
  • Do you provide references for your volunteers?

Planning for Volunteer Involvement

If you put in some preparation before you embark on a new recruitment drive, you will reap the benefits in the long term. Recruiting a Volunteer Coordinator would be a good place to start because once you have recruited them it becomes a less daunting task as that person becomes responsible for recruiting and retaining other volunteers. The club will still need to support them though!

Do you know how willing your members are to get involved?

It is a good idea to consult within your club, particularly if you have a high turnover of volunteers or reluctance of members to get involved. This will help you establish the views of your members, volunteers and staff, which may in turn encourage them to become more involved. Believe it or not most people will get involved if they are asked and they know what is expected of them.

When consulting it is important to consider the following areas:

• Recruitment
• Retention
• Recognition and reward

The consultation process should identify strengths and weaknesses in the above areas. It may also highlight any issues that volunteers have and give you a good understanding of how willing your members are to get involved. There are various ways in which your club can identify areas for action. If your committee wants to identify a starting point a SWOT analysis is a quick and simple method, but not particularly in-depth.

Questionnaires can be used to consult with volunteers, members and staff, and will provide a good picture of the current situation. Whether you consult with all of your volunteers or with a cross section will depend on the size of your club. You need to decide which method is the most appropriate for your club.

Do you have an action plan for volunteering?

Using the consultation process (see Do you know how willing your members are to get involved? for info) to identify strengths and weaknesses is a good start. When you have this information you can produce an action plan. The action plan is a template for considering where you are now, where you want to be and what you have to do to get there.

Key themes may emerge from your consultation. For example, are too many jobs being done by too few people? It is important to examine this information and identify actions to address areas that need to be improved. Using the example; “too many jobs are being done by too few people”, an action to rectify this might be “recruit more volunteers to spread the workload”. If you do not have a Club Development Plan, there is a sample Action Planner that you can use for this process.

• Recruitment and selection
• Retention
• Recognition and reward

One aspect may currently be a priority; however, good volunteer practice only comes about when all of the three R’s are considered together. Be realistic about your actions to reflect club resources; there is no point in setting a goal you cannot achieve.

Does the club have a volunteer policy / procedures?

Having a more structured approach to volunteer recruitment and retention may take some effort initially but will save you time and resources in the long run!

Developing procedures or guidelines is a good way of ensuring that all volunteers are recruited, retained and rewarded consistently and effectively. This is very useful because regardless of who is in post there is written guidelines on recruiting, retaining and rewarding volunteers. It also ensures that everyone knows what is expected of them and what to expect from the club.

This does not need to be a long complicated document, simply an outline of what happens from recruitment through to a volunteer’s exit from their role. The following list suggests areas to cover when producing guidelines.

• Recruitment and selection
• Induction/ training
• Support and supervision
• Code of conduct
• Insurance
• Expenses
• Complaints procedure

An example of volunteer procedures is given here for your information.

Volunteer Policy

Why not demonstrate the value of your volunteers to others by producing a valuing volunteers policy? Firstly what is a volunteer policy? Quite simply, a Volunteer Policy is a written statement of the aims and values of your club, and of the role that volunteers have in it. It addresses what your club expects of its volunteers, and what volunteers can expect of the club.

 Creating a volunteer policy will help you think through the involvement of volunteers in your club. Adopting the policy will help you involve volunteers effectively, by ensuring that everyone knows why volunteers are involved and what roles they carry out.

An example volunteer policy is given here for your information.

If you choose to write a volunteer policy or set of procedures you need to ensure that it doesn’t sit unread on a shelf gathering dust; after all, the policy can form a framework for the recruitment, retention and recognition of your volunteers. You should review your policy or procedures annually by going through each procedure and checking that this still takes place. If not then you should revise the procedure to reflect practice.

Recruitment & Selection

Volunteers will only give their time and become involved in your club if they are motivated to do so. You need to decide what roles need filled and who is likely to want to get involved. You can then decide on how to recruit them for the roles available. There are various options depending on who you want to recruit and where you want to advertise.

As a sports club, you will probably look firstly to your members and then to others associated with the club such as parents or grandparents. However don’t forget that there are a lot of people in the wider community that have time or skills that you could utilise—you may even attract some new members!

Targeted Recruitment

Ask yourself “who would want to do the job that needs to be done?” It is easiest to recruit the right person for the role if you target your message to them. General recruitment messages tend to attempt to apply to everyone and end up not attracting anyone! Consider what motivates people to volunteer, for example if you are trying to attract a young person to a marketing role then it would be good to highlight the benefits to them in terms of gaining experience and skills. If you want to attract parents of junior members then highlighting the benefits to the kids may be more likely to encourage them to get involved.

Research and practice suggests that face to face is the preferred and most effective method of recruitment—so ask people!!! A word of caution though - never say you are desperate as people may be reluctant to get involved for fear of being overloaded.

ACTION: Identify who you want to target and what might encourage them to get involved.

Does the club have a recruitment procedure for volunteers?

You may already have a recruitment procedure in place if you are working on a Child Protection Policy. This will apply to volunteers. This does not need to be a long complicated process but does need to highlight how volunteers will be recruited and selected. See example volunteer procedures for information.

Do you have role descriptions for your volunteers - outlining key duties, responsibilities and time commitment?

Volunteers will be more willing to offer their time if they know exactly what is involved in their role. All volunteers should have an outline of the tasks that they are expected to carry out, and the time commitment involved.

It is important to note that role descriptions are NOT formal job descriptions; they should meet the needs of both the volunteers and the club. Therefore flexibility is necessary in reaching an agreement with the new volunteer regarding their role. Your initial consultation may have identified particularly onerous roles; consider splitting these roles between people in order to utilise skills and ensure that people do not become overburdened.

There is a sample role description here . Others can also be found at the Help for Clubs website.

Do you advertise roles internally i.e. within the club and asking people?

A common barrier to volunteering is that people don’t know how to get involved or haven’t been asked. Ensuring that your members know of all the opportunities to volunteer is a good start. If members see that volunteers are a valued and important part of the club they are more likely to offer their time. There are various ways to do this—some clubs have conducted an audit of their members’ skills to identify what help is available internally. Another possibility is to have a welcome pack for members including information about how and why volunteers are involved.

Do you advertise roles out with the club i.e. volunteer centre, web, community locations?

You may want to target particular groups of people, i.e. young people on college courses for short term help or parents of junior members. For advice on asking people to volunteer, click here.

Also contact your local Volunteer Centre for advice and support on recruiting and retaining volunteers. They have a wealth of knowledge and experience in this area and may be able to help. Volunteer Centres also maintain a national database of volunteer opportunities, which works a bit like a job shop for volunteering as it is a way of connecting people who want to volunteer with organisations that need volunteers.

ACTION: Identify which roles could be advertised externally and register for free with your local Volunteer Centre.

Do you use the following selection methods?

The selection process involves ensuring the best fit for both the volunteer and the club. If a volunteer is not suitable for a role, consider other ways that they may be able to help. The volunteer can, of course decide that they do not want to volunteer for the club and may deselect themselves. Your governing body or Child Protection Policy may stipulate good practice here so check with them to ensure that selection methods are appropriate and effective. There are various methods that can be used and are listed below:

• Informal chat
• References
• Application form
• Taster sessions / shadowing
• Disclosure checks

Retention

Retaining volunteers is all about supporting them to satisfy their motivational needs whilst meeting the needs of the club. If you know what motivates your volunteers it will help you to support and reward them effectively, therefore you are more likely to retain them. There are numerous ways that you can support your volunteers as you will see from working through the questions below

Do you provide an induction for all volunteers?

The purpose of induction is to ensure that volunteers feel welcome, understand their role and how their contribution will benefit the club. At a basic level, regardless of their role, every volunteer needs to know what they have to do and who their contact person is. However, in a defined role an induction should cover more information. See the Induction checklist for details.

Do you provide all volunteers with a named contact person?

It is recommended that you have someone within your club that is responsible for volunteers. This can be part of an existing position or can be a new post.

Do you operate a buddy system for new or less experienced volunteers?

It can be helpful for some roles and to encourage people to come forward knowing that they have support or have an opportunity to see what the role involves before committing fully.

Do you offer your volunteers training to enable them to carry out their role effectively?

For some volunteer roles training will be essential (this may be coaching, first-aid or health and safety etc). You should consider how the club will provide this training for the volunteer – can it be in-house or will it need to be external, can it be ongoing or is a qualification necessary.

As training in sport often comes at a cost, consider how you can help support the volunteer in meeting this. Contact your Local Authority or Sports Council for information regarding financial assistance.

Do you pay out of pocket expenses?

It is good practice to cover any expenses that a volunteer incurs whilst carrying out their role. This includes travel expenses. For information on paying expenses click here.

Do you recognise the contribution of your volunteers?

All too often volunteers are not recognised or rewarded for their commitment to Scottish Sport. Make sure that your club recognises volunteers’ efforts regularly – it doesn’t cost anything to say thank you! However it is important to try to vary the reward or recognition so that it is appropriate to the individual volunteer. Rewards can be both formal or informal.

There are considered to be 3 main reasons why people volunteer, to influence, to achieve or for social reasons. If you match the reward to their motivation you are more likely to retain them. For example:

• A volunteer who wants to give something back to sport may appreciate knowing that they have made a difference.
• A young volunteer who wants to develop skills might appreciate the opportunity to gain additional qualifications.
• Someone who volunteers for social reasons may enjoy a social event.

Ideas to reward and recognise your volunteers:

• Offer perks (i.e. trips or tickets to events)
• Nominate volunteers for local/ national sport awards
• Provide goodies (i.e. drinks, t-shirts etc)
• Plan an annual award or recognition event
• Allow use of facilities
• Provide additional training opportunities
• Offer additional responsibility
• Ask existing volunteers to buddy new ones
• Sign up for Millennium Volunteers (MV), a recognition scheme for young people
• Provide a reference
• Put features in local media about the valuable contribution of volunteers
• Plan social events (a good way to recruit new volunteers if they bring friends and family)
• Have a volunteer profile on your web page
• Provide constructive feedback and opportunities to develop skills
• Have a recognition section in the club newsletter
• Say ‘thank you’

Do you provide references for your volunteer?

Providing a reference for your volunteers whilst they are volunteering for you is good practice. Young people in particular will find this useful when applying for jobs or courses.