1. Top tips for recruitment Getting the most out of your recruitment campaign or event Lynne Woolley Growth and communities manager, Girlguiding
5 mins slide 1 and 2
Introduce self. Staff and volunteer roles.
Explain role of team Growth and insight team nationally.
Housekeeping if needed.

2. Workshop objectives Understand:
the importance of knowing what you want to get out of your recruitment campaigns/events.
the support and resources available for recruitment campaigns/events
how to get the most out of your recruitment campaigns/events
what can help maximise impact after your recruitment campaigns/events

3. Growth is… GROWTH STRENGTHENING RETAINING BUILDING REACHING OUT 5 mins
Strengthening what we have (making sure there are enough volunteers, that our unit structures work, that key volunteer roles and support is in place)
Supporting girls and volunteers to stay in guiding (supporting girls to move onwards and upwards, offering quality programme to keep girls coming back, thanking and supporting volunteers)
Building up – welcoming girls and volunteers who want to join us (opening new groups to move girls off waiting lists, giving new volunteers a warm welcome)
Reaching out to ‘communities’ (diversity (for all girls and volunteers) and inclusion (including all)). From the data we have available we know that we currently aren’t representative of the UK population for girls or volunteers and we have areas of low reach into the girl population - our reach is lower in areas of social deprivation and in areas with higher BME populations. Diversity covers wide ranging areas – health, circumstance, background, religion/no religion, socio-economic etc
Some counties and islands are growing or stable – but others are in decline. We want to support you to change that.
Our time and charity resources are precious – we need to make best use of time and resources to drive growth. The following slides include ideas and signposting to things that might help you run a really good recruitment campaign/events over the coming months.
You can’t do it on your own though – you need a team (your peers, your girls, your community champions and your parent supporters) to be on board too.

4. What do you want to achieve?
Define your #growthgoal
This is very important. Plan for success, make the most of your time and evaluate if you've achieved what you wanted.
Look at your local membership data and knowledge - what would really help your local area grow
Waiting lists or transfer lists, volunteer enquiries, unit membership, gaps in guiding units, underrepresented communities, current volunteer roles - gaps to fill.
Be S.M.A.R.T.E.R.
- e.g. if you’re looking to recruit volunteers - How many volunteers are you looking for? Where do you need volunteers? What roles and skills do you need? What flexible roles would help?
5 mins talk through
SMARTER
Specific
Meaningful/measurable
Attainable
Realistic/relevant
Timely/ time bound
Evaluate
Readjust
Link to our plan

5. Your #growthgoal 5 mins Write #growthgoal for an event/drive
Feedback to rest of group

6. E.g. Our plan for growth – Middle South Division
Our area growth goals:
1. Recruit volunteers in Middle South Division
2. Improve support for leaders in training
3. Open new Guide and Rainbow group
E.g. Our plan for growth – Middle South Division
Do?
Growth?
What?
When?
Who?
Goal?
Worked?
Volunteer recruitment push to fill gaps in existing groups and prevent three groups from closing (could also support goal 3 to open new groups)
15 (8 leaders and 7 helpers)
Also recruit young leaders
Posters in key places
Facebook – share film on community groups
Parent evening – to introduce new programme and talk about volunteering. Also parent rota letter.
Magazine advert
Event at college (4 hours) - stall
Online platform – role descriptions
Community event- recruitment stall
September 2018
October 2018
January 2019
March 2019
February 2019
All local leaders
Digital savvy volunteer
Growth Coordinator drafts. Leaders send
PRA
Volunteers and Rangers
Growth Coordinator
2 volunteers and young leader 1
1 helper
1 leader
2 helpers
1 offer of help
1 assistant leader
1 unit helper
6 occ helpers No
1 young leader
1 existing leader
5 mins
Sometimes things work and sometimes they don’t first time (or second). Try it a different way. It’s ok to try and test. Helps you to understand what works for your area.
If you’re starting from scratch you can start small and build up.
Don’t do it on your own. Build your team. Don’t just ask the core volunteers who already wear five hats. Invite new people from the membership with specific skills you need and a defined task. Involve young members – great opportunity to develop and grow. How many girls, members, recognised volunteers, parents, supporters do you have across your county. Even if a small percentage of your county membership and supporters help that’s a lot of hands to help.
Some of these might need some planning and develop - risk assessments, buying or hiring equipment, meeting to plan what to do or planning online. Others can be done without too much planning.
Girl and volunteer recruitment can be a constant task for wide range of volunteer roles – partic volunteer recruitment. Aim to increase size of volunteer teams and increase numbers of leaders so that we are more sustainable and strong locally. Many areas run on a shoestring and there is a lot of firefighting around keeping groups open due to loss of lead volunteer. Sometimes it can’t be helped even with great planning, but take a look at your data and make sure your groups are constantly strengthening the volunteer base. We can’t do guiding without volunteers and at he moment our volunteers are taking on more and more roles and responsibilities. The importance of ongoing recruitment and delegating time specific tasks.

7. Plan for success
What will help you achieve your #growthgoal within the time, skills and resources available to you/or that could be available.
What are you already doing? What’s worked before and what hasn’t. What sort of events or activities might work well for your area #growthgoal.
Ask volunteers, young members, parents and your community to help recruitment drive/events. Ask for people with the skills you need - design, photography, PR, event planning etc or see it as an opportunity for someone to develop a new skill. Share out the workload by giving people specific tasks.
Make sure you promote events/attendance at events before/during/after. Use an event promotion tool e.g. Eventbrite.
5 mins

8. Ideas for recruitment events:
Parent taster events
Waiting list info events
Volunteering info night
Student recruitment events
School/college events
Community events (community or your own)
Bring a friend nights
Linking up with partnership events
Special days e.g. national volunteer week, international women’s day, day of the girl
Existing guiding event that parents/community attend
5 mins

9. Recruitment stall – top tips
5 mins

10. What’s available?
Don’t reinvent the wheel – lots of resources, ideas and guidance available online that you can pick up and run with:
Check out the website
Lots of free resources from Trading and Online Print Centre
You Tube – free films
Ask peers
10 mins

11. You Tube - https://www.youtube.com/user/girlguiding

12. After the campaign/events – warm welcome
Leave time to follow up with prospective volunteers, families and community contacts in the days that follow– if there is enough interest you could run a welcome/taster event.
Best practice - people are more likely to join as a volunteer if you get in touch very soon after enquiry.
Use the warm welcome toolkit resources that are most relevant for your area:
5 mins

13. After the campaign/events – did it work?
Take time during and after your campaign/event to reflect on how things went, if you're achieving what you want and if anything needs to change/stop.
Don't worry if things don't go to plan. It can take a few events to get things working well. It can also take a while to see the impact of your drive.
When you find something that works do it again.
Don’t waste your time on things that don’t help you achieve your #growthgoals.
5 mins