We still need to talk about volunteer teams

This is the third article of an occasional series on my blog where I dive back into the archives and surface some older content that, I think, is valuable for Volunteer Engagement Professionals today.

I’ve been writing for this blog for almost thirteen years and everything I’ve written is available, for free, online. I hope you find this ever-growing library of content valuable, and please do share it with others.

For this next journey into the archives, we’re going back to something I published on the 16th February five years ago, the article, “We need to talk about volunteer teams”.

The original piece came hot on the heels of the first Time Well-Spent study, and juxtaposed this with insights from Wharton Business School Professor, Adam Grant. In it, I tried to help us rethink our approach to recruiting and retaining great volunteer teams.

That was, of course, in the days before Covid-19, and so working with teams has changed. Lockdowns required us to embrace more flexible and hybrid approaches to working with volunteers.

Given these new dynamics, it is my hope that this article from the archives will help us re-think how we can adapt in a changed landscape.

As I said five years ago:

Shifting to group recruitment and retention strategies will present come challenges. We’ll have to try new approaches. Which means risk and the possibility of failure. Yet from such failure will come new ideas and approaches that will work better and better until we get it right.

Please give this article from 2019 a read and leave a comment either on the original post, or on this post, to share your thoughts, reflection, and ideas.

I look forward to reading what you have to say.

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Sign up here for the free Rob Jackson Consulting Ltd newsletter, published every two months.

Rethinking retention

This is the second article of a new occasional series for this blog where I will dive back into the archives, and surface some previous content that I think is valuable for Volunteer Engagement Professionals today.

As I said last time, I’ve been writing for this blog for more than twelve and a half years and everything I’ve written is available, for free, online from the blog site. I hope you find this ever-growing library of content valuable.

For this second foray into the archives, we’re going back a little over ten years to September 2013 and the article, ”It’s time to ditch the word retention”.

We all know that volunteers today want flexibility when they give their time. They want shorter commitments (at least initially) that fit around their availability, not volunteer roles that they have to organise the rest of their lives around.

This shift has become more prominent since the Covid-19 lockdowns but, like many volunteer engagement issues, the move in this direction has been happening for years. What the pandemic did was speed them up.

Crucially, as volunteers adapt their approach to volunteering, so we have to change our approach to how we keep them. Back in 2013, that’s what I was trying to articulate in my article, ”It’s time to ditch the word retention”.

Please give it a read and leave a comment either on the original post, or this post, to share your thoughts, reflection, and ideas. Oh, and check out the comments on the original post from ten years ago, because not everyone agreed with me.

I look forward to reading what you have to say.

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Find out more about Rob and Rob Jackson Consulting Ltd on the website.

Sign up here for the free Rob Jackson Consulting Ltd newsletter, published every two months.

Increasing volunteer engagement

In a new feature for this blog, I want to occasionally dive back into the archives and surface some old content that, I think, is valuable for Volunteer Engagement Professionals today. This article is the first of these.

I’ve been writing for this blog since 1st April 2011 — you can view that first article here. I’m amazed to think that I’ve spent twelve and a half years putting my thoughts, ideas, reflections, and opinions on volunteerism into writing. Likewise, I’m even more amazed that people find this ever-growing library of content valuable! Hopefully, my writing has got better with time.

For our first foray into the archives, we’re going back five years to September 2018.

Volunteer engagement is a term that has become much more widespread than when I started the blog in 2011. Today we talk increasingly about Volunteer Engagement Professionals rather than Volunteer Managers and Volunteer Co-ordinators.

But what does volunteer engagement actually mean, and how can we increase the feeling of engagement our volunteers have?

Both those questions were explored in the article, “Three ways to increase volunteer engagement” which drew on insights from colleagues Erin Spink and Roger Parry.

So, if you are looking for how you and your organisation can get better at engaging volunteers in your cause, mission and work, then please go and read “Three ways to increase volunteer engagement”.

Please leave a comment on the original post, or this post, to share your thoughts, reflection, and ideas. I look forward to reading what you have to say.

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Find out more about Rob and Rob Jackson Consulting Ltd on the website.

Sign up here for the free Rob Jackson Consulting Ltd newsletter, published every two months.