Supervision and Support: Settling in for the Long Run
Your volunteers need clear direction and want feedback about what and how they are doing. You want and need information from them, too. Clear communication paths and expectations will be the key to your success in understanding what’s going on with your volunteers and how to support them in the best way.
1. Decide who is taking responsibility in your organization - it doesn’t matter how you decide to set it up, just that it is clear to your volunteers. You could:
- Manage the volunteer program yourself.
- Share different parts with your team.
- Appoint a senior volunteer as a first contact for new volunteers once they’ve started – this may work well if you have few staff in your organization or many volunteers.
"I heard about this method of using a volunteer as a leader (mentor) for a small group of other volunteers from someone at Volunteer Alberta. It has intrigued me for many years and I think we're at the point where we can try it out. My thought is that this lead volunteer would do check-ins and field questions from their group; passing the ones they can't answer on to me. It's exciting!" - CALP Practitioner
2. Ask your volunteers how they like to communicate – what would they prefer?
- face-to-face
- phone
- text
- some other way they specify
"At our most recent orientation, we asked the group of volunteers what their preferred method of communication was. 90% said text! This is a challenge for us as we do not have work cell phones, and I'm not comfortable sending out my personal number. We are now exploring a texting service that can be done from a computer." - CALP Practitioner
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Examples of a Communication Plan and MaterialsChecking in with your volunteers (this should happen more often for new volunteers). Find out:
- If they are enjoying their role
- What’s going well
- What’s challenging
- If the resources they have are working
- If there’s anything they need – more/different resources, support for a difficult situation, additional training or PD, etc.
- If they are in the right position
"Assume nothing! It's been our experience that volunteers are not always eager to share if something isn't going well. We have to ask the right questions to get to the heart of things." - CALP Practitioner
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Reporting what you must do for your funder or your organization. Understand what you need to collect. It may include:
- Volunteer hours
- Progress reports
- Success stories
- Information on funder outcomes (e.g. CALP Logic Model)
- Impact surveys
- Volunteer satisfaction surveys
- Feedback forms from the learners or families (that the volunteer assists with)
"In training, I explain what the reporting expectations are. I created a sheet that has questions for tutors and learners to go through together and send back to me. I ask them to complete it every 3 months or so...It covers all the things we need for reporting, but I also think it's an important exercise for the pairs to do together as it makes sure they are still meeting the learner's needs and it's a good time to reflect on progress. Those pages are also available on our website so tutors can print one off whenever they need." - CALP Practitioner
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Feedback from the FieldCreating a connected community. You can foster a positive and connected community within your organization and with your volunteers by:
- Celebrating successes
- Sharing important updates and opportunities
- Inviting them to volunteer for organization events
- Expressing how much they are appreciated and what their contribution has done
4. Create your communication plan – share it with your volunteers during the screening process and again when they start. You may have two parts to your plan:
Formal Communication
- You might include a timeline for communication with your volunteers throughout their time commitment with your organization. To see how this might look, check the Sample Communication Plan on the side of this page.
Informal Communication
- Sometimes things come up and a volunteer needs to connect with you or you need to connect with them outside the scheduled times in the formal communication plan.
- Tell your volunteers how they can communicate with you - phone, email, text, etc.
- Decide if you can make yourself available anytime or if you want to have set “office hours” for them to reach you.
- Have a plan (policy) about what to do if there’s an emergency or challenging situation that the volunteer is not expected to deal with by themselves.
"We agree on the best method of communication for the volunteer and contact them regularly (at least monthly). We try to keep the lines of communication open, and address any concerns the voluneer may have." - CALP Practitioner
"We use monthly newsletters through mailchimp as our main communication tool. It lets us see who is accessing what information. For example, if I send out our reporting forms, I can see who's looked at it and follow up with those that haven't. We connect with new volunteers at least once in the first month and then at three months - usually a phone call or email. Twice a year we do a formal satisfaction survey that includes a request for reporting information as well." - CALP Practitioner
"At any time, our tutors know they can email, phone or stop in to chat with us about anything. And they do! - CALP Practitioner
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Activity: Create a communication timeline for one volunteer, for one year. Think about what is essential to have and what is nice to have. Will certain volunteers or volunteer roles need different communication timelines?
Now look at it for 10, 20, 50, or 100 volunteers – whatever you think the maximum number of volunteers your organization would work with. Is your plan still manageable?