Best Practice for Organisations

Insights and Guidelines to Optimise Volunteer Engagement and Management

Need volunteers? Our top tips for recruitment!

So, you need volunteers? Of course you do! Here are some of our top tips for volunteer recruitment by ensuring your roles are clear and attractive to potential volunteers. What exactly are you looking for in a volunteer? Read more.

Volunteer Retention

So, you’ve successfully recruited volunteers for your organisation – great! Just as important is volunteer retention – making sure they are happy and motivated and want to continue volunteering with you for as long as possible. Here are some tips and suggestions to help with volunteer retention. Read more.

Recognising & Rewarding Your Volunteers

Recognising and rewarding your volunteers should be a key part of your strategy for volunteer retention. There are also some pitfalls that you also need to avoid. Read more.

Volunteering and GDPR

Personal Data refers to “any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (data subject)”. A volunteer’s data MUST be treated with the same level of care as that on an employee or a client. 

Volunteering and the Law

Volunteers are generally understood to be individuals who freely choose to give their time to carry out activities of benefit to the community or wider society.  

Managing Challenging Volunteers

Managing challenging volunteer situations requires a blend of empathy, clear communication, and effective conflict resolution skills. Here are some steps you can take: 

Refugees and Asylum Seekers as Volunteers

Volunteer managers are usually keenly on the look-out for new volunteers and we all want to ensure volunteering can be inclusive, open and beneficial to everyone

Volunteer Expenses

At GoVolHerts, we believe in fostering an inclusive volunteering environment where financial barriers do not hinder participation. So, it’s good practice to have a simple system to reimburse out-of-pocket expenses.  

Safeguarding

Every organisation should have a Safeguarding Policy agreed by the Board of Trustees. For organisations working specifically with vulnerable groups, this will be more detailed, but all policies should cover staff, volunteers, service users and any others who work alongside or come into contact with your charity.

Disclosure and Barring Checks

Do your volunteers need to have a DBS check? DBS checks are only needed for regulated activity. This diagram should help you in working out if your volunteers are taking part in such activity.