Recruit and Retain Volunteers

Outcomes  Explore the current trends in volunteering and relate them to community sport  Examine strategies for volunteer recruitment in Sporting Clubs, which will include opportunities to include People with a Disability  Learn skills for volunteer management in Sporting Clubs  Broaden your knowledge base for recognising/rewarding volunteer contributions

Sports Volunteering in Australia  2.3 million people or 14% of the Adult population volunteers in Sport in Australia  Families with children under 15 years make up 25% of all sport volunteers  Sports volunteers are most likely to volunteer at least once a week  40% of Sports volunteers are employed full time, compared to people employed part-time/casually 30% and unemployed persons 30%  What can we gather from this? - Sport volunteering activities in Australia are vastly left to a minority of people who are already time-poor and prioritize sport behind work and family commitments.

CSIRO Megatrends in sport

Current Trends in Sports Volunteering  Volunteers want roles that are smaller and more flexible  Shorter term commitments- Volunteers are more likely to spend smaller periods of time volunteering.  Volunteers are more likely to take on roles that are broken down into smaller portions.  Potential solutions to combat these trends?  Conduct an assessment of roles within the club and determine which can be modified or broken down  Could be changed to project based roles or a splitting of duties

Activity  On the paper provided, brainstorm the volunteer roles that are undertaken at your club.

Concept Framework

Why do people volunteer in sport?  No-one else will do it - coercion  They want to learn new skills  They get asked to and some people just want to be asked  They want to give back to the community  They may already be a player or a past player, they have an existing connection to the club  They want to make new friends and establish social networks

Barriers to volunteering in sport  Lack of time  They have never been asked  Nothing to identify role or expectations  Lack of necessary skills  Cost of volunteering-  What are the volunteers giving up in order to do their role  Is the club reimbursing their volunteers for expenses?  Cost to the club- red tape and insurance cover makes volunteering unaffordable  Inflexible volunteer roles  Lack of support procedures  Previous incumbent created silos and now the role is too big

Strategies to recruit  Targeted recruitment – People with a disability  Development of position descriptions or duty statements  Direct approach to suitably skilled individuals  Skills analysis of members matched to club roles  Offering roles reflective of current volunteering trends  Identifying and acknowledging the motives behind volunteering

Video 

Benefits of Targeted Recruitment….  Saves time  Helps clubs recruit new people  Breaks down one of the barriers to volunteering  Helps clubs recruit the right people to the right jobs – skill matching  Can help broaden membership base including extension of income stream

Engaging volunteers with a disability  1:5 people have a disability, yet volunteer less than the general population  40% less likely to be employed full time  Massive untapped market of people who want to contribute to society  75% of disabilities are invisible  The older our population becomes, the higher the rate of disability.

Engaging volunteers with a Disability- Benefits  Broaden the club’s volunteer recruiting base  Promotes the club as a welcoming and inclusive club  Volunteers with a disability are more likely to stay involved in the club for longer periods of time  Helps spread the workload within the club

Strategies for Working with Volunteers with a Disability  Get to know the person, not the disability  Research through family and friends the capacity for work of the individual  Provide the person with a position description that is clear and concise  Sets out the exact tasks that they are to complete  This may include verbally explaining the tasks and demonstrating them  Find out what support they need to do their role e.g. a mentor  Bottom Line- Treat all volunteers with respect and manage them accordingly

Position Description  Clearly sets out the roles and responsibilities of prospective and existing volunteers  Is simple and easy to understand  Is a support mechanism for volunteers to fall back on if they are unsure of their role.  May take time to initially design but will save the committee time in the long term

Example PD

Activity  Have a go at developing a position description for your own role at your club  Use the resource of the example position description and follow that guidelines to keep the PD clear, exact and easy to interpret

Rewarding/ Recognising volunteers  Internal  Acknowledge volunteer contributions at club events/ AGM  Certificate of thanks at the end of a season  Provide new volunteers with welcome letters when they begin their role  External  Fund or part fund training for volunteers  Organise a thank you function for volunteers  Provide them with cheap club gear  Reduction in fees

In summary  Explored the current trends in volunteering from the context of community sport  Explored volunteer recruitment methods in community sport, in particular how to become a inclusive club  Looked at how to manage volunteer roles in community sport  Provided examples of how to reward and acknowledge volunteers within a sporting club

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