church volunteer management

How to Spot High Achieving Volunteers

Finding and keeping volunteers can be challenging enough. Identifying high-achieving volunteers who are skilled leaders and humble servants is even tougher. This type of volunteer takes a weight off your shoulders and makes life a bit easier. Finding rock-star volunteers who consistently go the extra mile may seem like finding a needle in a haystack. However, there are some key signs you can look for to identify these high-potential, high-achieving volunteers Sign #1: High-achieving volunteers offer solutions It’s easy to point out a problem. Bringing well-thought-out options to solve an issue requires additional critical thinking and planning skills. What’s even better is when a volunteer comes to you with an issue and is simply asking for permission to fix it.  When that happens, let your volunteer know how much you appreciate it. Then, make sure you keep this volunteer in a role that will best play to his/her strengths. This problem-solving ability is also a potential sign this person has leadership skills and could be a good fit for leading other volunteers.  Sign #2: High-achieving volunteers will do whatever tasks are required The best leaders are willing to humbly serve. If you know a volunteer has the skills to organize an entire event but at this key moment, you need someone to move chairs, watch to see if he’ll handle that task with a great attitude. When you see that, take note and remember to put him in roles that will best utilize his skills as often as possible. Sign #3: High-achieving volunteers are proactive When you’re in the weeds of planning an event or preparing for next Sunday, it’s easy to miss something. If a volunteer mentions she’s thinking ahead to summer and has already checked with other Sunday morning volunteers about their vacation plans…praise God and ask for this volunteer to keep doing what they’re doing.  Sign #4: High-achieving volunteers maintain healthy boundaries This one may surprise you, but one sign of a high-achieving volunteer is her ability to say “no” to serving on occasion. This indicates she’s aware of her time, energy, and relational limits and carefully maintains healthy margins in her life. That may not always be the most convenient for you, but it’s something to respect as it’s a sign of maturity and wisdom.  When you have high-achieving volunteers, here’s how to keep them: Tip #1: Make sure they’re in a role that aligns with the skills and abilities God entrusted to them Ask what they enjoy doing, their hobbies, what they do at work, etc. Consider giving volunteers personality or spiritual gifting tests as well. By matching volunteers with a role that taps into their God-given talents, you provide an opportunity they’ll enjoy and will receive the best work from them. Tip #2: Recognize any specialized skills or knowledge they possess and ask for their input when appropriate When you learn what your volunteers do for a living, add the information to your church database (let’s face it, if you don’t record it somewhere you’ll forget).  Then when you need a particular expertise, you can search by that field in your ChMS and know whom to contact. This can really be helpful for special events (project managers or event planners), disaster relief efforts (carpenters, doctors, etc.), or when you’re planning to launch a new program. Tip #3: Give them challenging assignments with the authority to match Granted, this is after getting to know someone and making sure you trust his/her judgment. From there, give these volunteers room to do ministry and not simply follow directions. They need the challenge plus if they’re well respected for their abilities in the workplace but their church doesn’t value them, what’s the incentive to put those skills to work for the church? Sure, they may still do so out of the desire to serve but make that decision easier for them to make. Tip #4: Communicate your appreciation This applies for all volunteers. However, make sure you don’t take the super dependable volunteers for granted. They’re not looking for applause, but a hand-written note or simple thank you is always motivating. Take some time this week to consider your current volunteers. Who seems to fit the bill of a potentially high-achieving volunteer? What specific skills and/or leadership capacity does each person possess? How can you ensure each individual is in the best volunteer role and that they know you value their input?  Ministry isn’t supposed to be done just by a few clergy and staff members. As followers of Christ, we’re all supposed to minister to others. Help your volunteers grow in their ministry efforts. They’ll experience the joy that comes from serving others and you’ll not only see more people helped but will also see your volunteers mature spiritually as a result.  

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4 Steps to Building a Volunteer Administration Team

Most churches have volunteers who serve at weekly services in various capacities. Volunteer greeters, ushers, childcare workers, and more make weekly services happen. One area that tends to be overlooked when it comes to volunteers is administration. We don’t often consider administration as an area where volunteers could serve. However, this could be a great fit for members of the congregation who prefer to help behind the scenes.  In addition to offering a way for more people to participate in the work of ministry, these volunteers can also reduce the administration workload for your team. The key is to make a clear path to show potential volunteers how they can contribute, and invite them to get started. Here are a few tips to building a church volunteer administration team: Tip #1: Decide what administrative tasks to delegate to volunteers It doesn’t make sense to start recruiting people until you know what tasks you’d want them to handle.  If you’re not sure where to start, here are some potential options: Consider tasks you could delegate to volunteers that would free up your time to handle other projects.  Tip #2: Document each task You don’t want even the most talented volunteers to make it up as they go along.  The next time you perform a task you’d like to hand off to a volunteer, document each step of the process. This will make training volunteers easier and will greatly reduce the number of mistakes you’d have to fix later. Tip #3: Invite people to volunteer Start by finding detail-oriented, organized individuals who have a background in administrative type work. Someone who has experience as an administrative assistant, a bookkeeper, or in general office work might be a great fit.  When you’re ready to start recruiting, one-on-one invitations will probably work better than a general invite from the stage. Spread the word with small group leaders and other volunteers at your church to see if they know someone who would enjoy and be good at administrative work. Tip #4: Provide training and get them started Once you have people signing up, use the documentation you created and train each volunteer. Find out how often and when they can serve. Provide a variety of scheduling options such as: Set a schedule so they know when you need certain tasks completed.   Establishing a volunteer administrative team requires some creativity in scheduling, knowing what you can delegate, plus detailed documentation. While it does mean you’ll have some extra work to do initially, a strong volunteer administration team can save you a great deal of time in the long run. 

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How to Develop Current Volunteers for Future Growth

You may have just enough volunteers to get by today. But what will happen when your church experiences a growth spurt? Now is the time to lay the groundwork for a strong volunteer team. You might be thinking, “We don’t have enough people staying committed to serving now. How are we supposed to plan for the future?” Fair question. First off, you’ve got to stop the bleeding. That starts with learning why volunteers keep drifting in and out of serving. Here’s how: Talk with people who used to volunteer and, without judgment or accusations, ask why they stopped. Talk with your staff and see if they know why people have stopped serving. You’ve got to identify the problems before you can fix them. Start addressing those issues right away. Issue: Volunteers received multiple requests from different staff members to serve in various roles at the same event and got frustrated by the lack of coordination. Solution: Use your church management system (ChMS), or a spreadsheet if you don’t have a ChMS yet, and track who volunteers in what roles within that system. Start a new process: before staff members contact people to serve, they have to check the system to make sure that person isn’t already committed on that day/time, or that someone else hasn’t already contacted them. This also means your team has to become disciplined at entering that information into the system. Issue: Some volunteers may have entered a really busy season (new job, buying/selling a house, new baby, etc.) and had to take a break. (See this post on “Why Volunteers Quit”) Solution: Ask them if they’re ready to come back. Also, provide volunteer opportunities that are 1-2 commitments per month instead of every week. Whatever the root cause of volunteers not coming back, figure out how to address it and take action immediately. Next, make sure you’re providing sufficient training and clear expectations to new volunteers. If they don’t know what you want them to do, they’ll do their best, and make it up as they go along. That creates a lot of opportunities for mistakes and errors, and you’ll both be frustrated. If a volunteer feels stressed out and confused every time they serve, they won’t last long. Once you deal with the immediate issues and have at least enough volunteers to keep things moving, now it’s time to focus on the future. What are the goals of your church leadership team for the next 1-5 years? All of those goals will require more volunteers to help you be successful. First, you need to determine how many more volunteers you’ll need and in what roles. You need a target to aim at here. Talk with your staff about these goals. Get their input. Do you have the right roles and reasonable numbers included in your plan? Change it as needed, based on their feedback. Next, how many volunteer leaders will you need? These are volunteers who’ll coordinate and lead teams of other volunteers. Consider your current volunteers and think of those who are already natural leaders in the group.Focus your initial efforts on developing them as leaders. When you share the vision and the “why”, you inspire people and help them realize that they can play a vital role in achieving that vision. Finally, make sure your congregation knows why you want them to get involved beyond attending a service. Volunteering can’t be all about getting stuff done. While that’s a valid need, focusing on a volunteer program as discipleship instead of just a volunteer workforce is much more effective. A discipleship mindset will impact how you approach asking people to serve, how you train and develop them, and how you communicate with them. When we serve, we grow. I’ve developed lifelong friendships, learned from my fellow volunteers, and became a stronger Christian as a result of volunteering in ministry. Focus on developing an environment where those are the normal results. It takes time and focused effort, but it is so worth it. If you get discouraged, ask God to show you how your volunteers are growing spiritually. He knows we’re only human and can’t see the eternal impact of our work. Ask Him to help you get a glimpse of what He’s doing in and through you. Hold on to those testimonies and use that as motivation to keep asking, developing, and building a strong team of faithful volunteers. By investing in your current volunteers, you’ll start adding to the team and will create a strong foundation of volunteer leaders as you grow. That foundation is key to maintaining and propelling church growth.

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How to Make Changes Without Scaring Off Volunteers

Have you ever announced a change to your volunteers that didn’t go over too well? Have they ever resisted implementing a new process and you couldn’t quite figure out why? I’ll let you in on a little secret: The issue probably wasn’t the change itself. The issue was probably in how the change was rolled out. Most of your volunteers are ingrained in the current process. They’ve developed habits and know what to expect each week. When you announce a change, even one that should make their work easier, you’re creating uncertainty. How do you go from “We need to change” to actually implementing the changes without scaring off your volunteers? Here are some key steps: #1: Get input from volunteer leaders. Discuss the upcoming changes with them. Provide a compelling vision for why the changes are necessary. Get their feedback and ask how they think their teams will react. #2: Send an email update to all volunteers. Start by thanking them for serving. Mention that “we’re always seeking to improve and have a few new things to roll out soon.” Cast a compelling vision as to why change is needed and how it will make their work even more effective. Then give them the specifics about what’s changing and when. #3: Discuss the changes at the next pre-service volunteer meeting. Reiterate the reasons why you’re changing and invite them to ask questions. Give them grace and don’t be too rigid about how they implement the changes at first. #4: Follow-up with volunteer leaders. Ask how their teams felt about the changes, and how implementing them went that day. Talk individually with volunteers who had concerns. Now, that can be a lot of work. It would be nice if you could announce a change and everyone adjusted immediately. However, that’s not always likely to happen. Even good changes can be disruptive, so you need to give people, especially volunteers, some time to see the benefits and process the new way of doing things. Remember: you’re working with volunteers who are donating their time. You have to motivate them with a clear vision and a compelling reason to change. Even the most faithful volunteer will become discouraged and may consider quitting if you change too much too quickly. Use wisdom and listen carefully to your volunteer leaders. They want to support you. Make it easier for them to do so by getting their support first and listening to their feedback.

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How to Get Volunteers for Christmas and Keep Them Coming Back

Does your church have enough volunteers for Christmas services? What about those extra activities you’re hosting throughout December – Christmas concerts, family photo booths, gift drives, and charity events for the local community? If the answer is “no” or “I hope so”, then keep reading… Since you’ll probably need more volunteers for Christmas Sunday than you would for a typical Sunday service, simply relying on your usual system for filling volunteer roles may not work.  Here is why: You’ll have more first-time guests on Christmas Sunday. While it’s wonderful to have new people at church, things could get chaotic fast if you don’t have enough volunteers to help them. Also, special events, such as the various Christmas celebrations, are a great way to get people to try out volunteering. They’re just signing up for one day, so it’s a low commitment for them. However, this is your chance to make serving such a great experience for them that they decide to get involved on a more consistent basis. So, how do you make sure you have enough volunteers for Christmas AND add to your regular volunteer team? Here are a few tips: #1 – Figure out what roles you need to fill for Christmas services If you’re doing anything special or new, you’ll probably need volunteer roles for Christmas that you wouldn’t typically need on a regular Sunday. Make a list of those roles along with a brief description of what each role involves. Example: Photo Booth Coordinator – Volunteers in this role will keep the line organized, help families get their pictures taken, and keep any décor in the photo booth clean / in the proper place. #2 – Define what Christmas services will look like Before you ask volunteers to serve, you need to know what serving that day will entail. Create a service program with the order of events that details what Christmas Sunday will look like before you contact potential volunteers. They may have questions that this information will help you answer. #3 – Identify key volunteer leaders first You probably have volunteers who lead other volunteers on your behalf. You’ll likely have your hands full during Christmas services, so you want to make sure your key leaders are able to serve that day. You also need to provide them with information and instructions on what you need them to do. The better you equip them before Christmas, the more effective they can be in preventing issues and keeping things running smoothly. Once you have those who aren’t a part of your regular volunteer team sign up to serve, let the appropriate volunteer leader know. Your volunteer leaders need to make sure these new volunteers are trained, and help them have a great experience serving. #4 – Invite people to serve ASAP Once you know what Christmas services will look like, what roles you’ll need to fill, and that your key volunteer leaders are on board, start inviting others to serve. Talk with your regular volunteers on Sunday mornings, send out follow-up emails, and ask current volunteers to help you find more people to help. The sooner you start getting this on their schedules, the more likely you are to have all those volunteer spots filled way before Christmas weekend. #5 – Send reminder emails the week before Christmas The only danger in asking people to serve early is that they might forget about it. Send out reminder emails the week before Christmas services to remind them of the volunteer role they’ll fill that day, what time you need them to arrive, and where they should meet when they get to the church. #6 – Feed your volunteers Provide coffee and a few snacks for volunteers. If you have a room where they can meet for final instructions before going to their assignments, set up a small table with goodies for them. This is especially important if you have volunteers helping with multiple worship services. They’ll appreciate your kindness and you’ll keep them fueled for the morning. #7 – Send thank you notes  You’ll probably need your volunteers to go above and beyond for Christmas services. Acknowledge their contribution to making those services run smoothly with a short, hand-written thank you note. We’re so used to receiving electronic messages that a card in the mail will really stand out. #8 – Follow up with new volunteers Contact those who served at Christmas services but aren’t on a regular volunteer team yet. You can also ask your volunteer leaders to contact these individuals. That may work better since your volunteer leaders probably interacted with them more than you did. Ask what they thought of their experience serving and see if they’re interested in becoming part of the team. Don’t assume they’ll sign up without you inviting them. They may not realize you need more volunteers on a regular basis. It’s worth taking a few minutes to get their feedback and ask if they’d like to serve more often. Preparing for Christmas services isn’t a small task. However, by putting these tips into practice you can start filling those volunteer roles early, and add to your regular volunteer team, too.

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How to Fire a Volunteer

One question I frequently receive when talking about recruiting and retaining church volunteers is what to do about a volunteer who isn’t working out. In other words, how do I “fire” a volunteer?  This is obviously a delicate situation that you need to handle carefully. This individual is donating his time and efforts; he’s part of your congregation and a brother in Christ. You don’t want to offend him or damage the relationship but his performance in the volunteer role is hurting the team. So, what to do? First off, deal with any issues that involve breaking the law, overt sin, or safety concerns immediately. However, assuming that this is a matter of the volunteer not meeting expectations, having a poor attitude, or isn’t doing the work as needed, then here are a few options for you to consider. #1: Is this person in the wrong role? Someone in the wrong role doesn’t mean you need to fire a volunteer. It may indicate that person needs a different role. How do you assign new volunteers? Do you simply match up a warm body with a spot you need to fill? Do you let new volunteers choose whatever role they want regardless of skill-set or personality factors? That might be the real issue. Your poor-performing, hard-to-get-along-with volunteer may be a square peg trying to fit into a round hole. In this situation, establish a process for all volunteers (current and new) to guide them into a role that will align with their skills, interests, and personality. Part of this process should include a spiritual gifting and personality test (i.e., DiSC, Myers-Briggs). Also, develop job descriptions for each volunteer role and include which spiritual gifting and personality types would be best for each. Once your volunteers complete these tests, see if each person’s results line up with their current role. If not, talk with those volunteers about what role(s) might be a better fit and suggest they try a different one. #2: Does this person know what you expect? Have you provided this volunteer with documented instructions, a training session, and periodic reminders of what you need him to do? If not, do that before you decide he has to go. You can’t reasonably expect a volunteer to perform with excellence without knowing what a win looks like. Set your team up for success. #3: Discuss the issues before deciding to fire a volunteer Before you fire a volunteer, you need to give him a chance to change. Does this volunteer have a dreadful attitude and is consistently gossiping about church leaders? If so, you need to clearly yet kindly confront him about his behavior. It’s probably best to not do this alone, so have one other leader present for the discussion. A few pointers for this discussion: Try something along these lines for the first confrontation. If you’re still noticing issues, then a more direct approach may be necessary. So, what if you’ve tried all of the above and things still aren’t working out? The first step is to pray and seek God’s direction. You may not realize that there’s a difficult family drama or other issue going on in this person’s life right now. Perhaps he’s had a bad experience at another church and that’s impacting his response, etc. Pray for him and ask God to give you the right words. Next, set up a time to talk with the volunteer (do this with another leader at least around if not directly involved).   Never do this via email or over the phone. This is too personal of a discussion and you need to do everything you can to make sure the volunteer’s relationship with God and with the church remains intact. Start off the conversation on a positive note by honestly complimenting and stating how much you appreciate him serving at the church. Ask how he’s feeling about his volunteer role. Mention that you like to check-in with volunteers on occasion to see if they’re happy where they’re at, if they want to take a break from serving, or if they’d like to be reassigned to a different role. See where that takes the conversation. Perhaps he’s uncomfortable in that role but didn’t know how to approach the issue. Give him an easy, face-saving way out. If that’s not working, then remind him of prior discussions you’ve had to correct his behavior and/or offer a change in roles. State that you haven’t noticed any changes and that you need him to take some time off from serving. Reiterate that you value him as a brother in Christ and as a member of the church. Ask for his thoughts and if he has any questions. Close out the meeting in prayer and follow up with him within the next week to see how he’s doing. There are three key priorities in this situation: Ministry is messy and this is a perfect example of the mess church leaders must be willing to dive into with volunteers. However, when these moments are handled well the outcomes can be pretty amazing.   Hang in there, pray for wisdom, and seek Godly counsel. God placed you in this leadership role for a reason and He will equip you for these moments. Trust that He’ll lead you to do what’s best for your volunteer and for the congregation as a whole.

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What Makes People Hesitant to Volunteer at Church?

You need volunteers. You need them in the nursery, greeting at entrances, checking in children, making coffee, running sound, and much more. If you’re running short on volunteers, consider how you’re presenting the opportunity to serve. There are several unknowns that makes people hesitant to volunteer at church. Here’s what makes people hesitant to volunteer at church: #1 – They don’t know what you’ll expect. Potential church volunteers need to know what they’re getting themselves into. You probably wouldn’t apply for a job (much less accept it) if you had zero information about the expectations and responsibilities associated with that role.  Potential volunteers feel the same way. Develop a brief description for each volunteer role that includes the following: #2 – They’re worried about failing. What if a volunteer signs up for a certain role and realizes a few weeks in that it’s a bad fit? You need to give new volunteers a graceful and shame-free way out. If they serve in the bookstore for a couple of Sundays and realize they’re better suited to be a greeter, make that an easy transition. Let potential volunteers know they can try out a role for a few weeks before making a longer-term commitment. #3 – They don’t know what volunteer role to sign up for. You’ll have better success with volunteers if you take the time to match each person to the role that’s the best fit for him/her. You can have them take a personality and/or spiritual gifting test. You could also take 5-10 minutes and talk with the individual. Get to know potential volunteers and then assign them to a role you both think they’ll enjoy and be successful in. #4 – They don’t have a clear reason to volunteer at church. Now, most potential volunteers won’t come right out and ask you why they should serve. However, it’s something we all consider at least subconsciously. Why should I serve? If you can’t answer that one question, answering all of the others listed above is a waste of time. They have children to raise, bosses to report to, errands to run, and a ton of other responsibilities.  If they don’t know why serving is important (for them and for others), then serving won’t be able to compete with all the other items on their to-do lists.  Help them see how they can easily get started and how vital their participation is to the vision of the church. After all, this isn’t just about why you need people to serve in the nursery. This is about why followers of Christ should serve others. Weave that answer into your communications about serving at your church. Volunteering helps us grow in our relationship with God, make life-long friends, and enjoy the feeling that comes from knowing we’ve helped someone else. Help potential volunteers understand why, remove any mystery about your expectations or the commitment involved, and help new volunteers get acclimated quickly. This isn’t an overnight solution. However, if you’ll take the time to answer those questions you’ll end up with more volunteers who’re passionate about serving.

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2 Keys to Retaining Church Volunteers

The challenge with recruiting volunteers is it’s not always sticky, meaning just because you’ve signed up several new volunteers doesn’t mean they’ll stick around. After learning a few lessons the hard way, I know a thing — or two — about keeping your volunteers coming back. What’s the secret to retaining church volunteers? You have to effectively onboard and train them. Here’s how to develop a successful onboarding and training plan. #1 – Onboarding Before you get to the details of training for specific roles, you must first get all your onboarding to-dos checked off. Start by vetting your volunteers through background checks, interviews, and by checking references. This is especially important for those volunteers seeking to serve around children, in security roles, or with your church’s finances. If a volunteer is given the green light, find out where their interests, skills, and availability intersect with your church’s needs. Then, assign them a role! Once you’ve given an assignment, I highly recommend giving your volunteer a trial period of about a month. This is helpful for both you and the volunteer in determining if the role is a good fit before either of you makes long-term commitments. #2 – Training No matter the role, every volunteer position will require some level of training. Even if you think a job is self-explanatory, it’s important to provide clear directions so volunteers understand your expectations. If you don’t do this, things will probably not get done to your standard. Pointing out the “wrong” in their work when you never trained them the “right” way is one reason why volunteers quit. Set them up for success from the start and they’re more likely to stick around. Working with Children While it’s true that all roles require training, some roles will inevitably need more than others. As mentioned before, volunteers working with children, in security roles, or with your church’s finances will require extensive vetting. They will also need more specific and sensitive training. Ensuring the safety of your church members should be your top priority when recruiting volunteers. Taking the extra step to properly train them is beneficial to not only them but to the members they serve. Tips For Your Training Program Keep in mind, these training sessions don’t need to be lengthy and arduous, but they should happen often. Try conducting them at least once a month and provide handouts during the training for reference. It’s hard to expect anyone to remember everything you tell them, so providing documentation will help to reinforce the main points of the training. Plus, some people just learn better by reading. Take your training program a step further by assigning each new volunteer a mentor. The mentor should be another volunteer who has served in their specific role for at least a few months. This gives the new volunteer an opportunity to get to know someone else on the team and learn from them. It also communicates to the volunteer mentor that you trust him/her to help the new volunteer succeed in this role.  This is key if your goal is to increase volunteer retention. When it comes to retaining church volunteers, remember: nobody enjoys being recruited for a job and then not told how to properly do that job. Your volunteers have taken time out of their lives to serve their home church. Now, it’s your turn to take the time to help them help you. For more reading on leading the volunteers in your church, check out my book “The Volunteer Management Toolkit (Church Edition).”

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How to Get Feedback that will Help You Retain Volunteers

For most churches, recruiting volunteers is crucial to the success of your mission. Though a lot of effort goes into this recruitment process, it’s not always enough to keep those volunteers helping long term. Learning how to gather feedback from volunteers will allow you to make changes so you can retain volunteers for a long time. If this is a familiar struggle, ask yourself what your church is doing to encourage volunteer retention. Often, in the midst of recruitment and everyday church functions, retaining efforts get overlooked. When implemented, however, there are several strategies to improve retention and communicate more clearly with your volunteers. If you want to find out what’s working and what isn’t, request feedback from current volunteers. After all, they’re the ones checking in children, talking with parents, seeing jams in the parking lot, hearing comments from guests, and more. When you take the time to ask for their input, you’ll gain more insight into the happenings of your church, while showing them that you appreciate their service. Here are two methods for gathering feedback that will help you retain volunteers. Method #1 — Run An Annual Survey of All Volunteers One easy way to survey volunteers is to use an online tool like SurveyMonkey. You can create the questions, send out a link to the survey via email, and collate responses quickly. Keep the survey at a reasonable length (no more than 10 questions) to ensure people will take the time to fill it out. Here are several sample questions to ask: #1 – How long have you been serving at <church name>? If you don’t have records of when each volunteer started serving, this is a useful piece of information. If your church has been around for 20 years, but the average volunteer has only been serving for less than one year, you may have a high volunteer turnover issue. #2 – Why did you decide to start serving? This helps you identify people’s motives for serving. It can also reveal what communication methods worked best in getting people to sign up to volunteer (personal invitations, announcements during a service, the desire to meet more people, etc.). #3 – How did you get started as a volunteer? Did this person sign up on the church website or talk with a staff member about serving?  Did they fill out a card and put it in the offering plate? Knowing which signup methods have been the most popular can aid your decision-making process when it comes to which methods to promote the most. #4 – How would you describe the process of signing up to serve? By asking this question, you’ll learn whether or not your signup process is a smooth one. Maybe there was a glitch with the signup software you used, maybe it wasn’t clear who they should contact to sign up, or maybe it took weeks for someone to follow up with them. This is all good information you need to know. #5 – Have you made any new friends from serving? A sense of community is often what draws people into volunteer work. In my own experience, I’ve seen 94 percent of survey respondents say they made new friends as a result of volunteering at church. This is a great statistic to mention when you invite people to volunteer. #6 – Did you attend a training session and receive any documented instructions before you started serving? If not, you either don’t already require training before someone starts serving or there’s a hole in the process. Every volunteer role needs at least some training. It might consist of a 20-minute session with a short handout or something much more in-depth based on the role. Providing training helps you retain volunteers since they’ll know what you expect and how to accomplish it. #7 – What do you think prevents more people from serving at <insert church name>? When you’re on staff at a church, it can be challenging to see things from a newcomer’s perspective. Getting insights from volunteers on this topic will help you make adjustments as needed. #8 – Have you invited anyone to serve at <insert church name>? If not, has your experience in serving kept you from recommending that others volunteer? Volunteering with friends is a huge draw for some. If volunteers aren’t encouraging their church friends to also help, this could be a sign that there are issues within the volunteer process. #9 – Do you feel appreciated and valued as a volunteer? If not, please let us know what we could do to change that, because, we really do appreciate you! We all like to be recognized for doing good work, especially if we’re not getting paid for it. Make sure your volunteers know that their work is appreciated and their time valued. Strive to show them how their work has positively impacted your church’s mission. #10 – What else should we know about serving at <insert church name>? We want to improve and need your honest feedback to help us get better. This last question is so crucial. Give them some space to include their thoughts, concerns, or even praises that give you more information as to how you’re meeting volunteer expectations. For all surveys, make sure to set a deadline — I suggest two weeks — for volunteers to respond. This gives them enough time to give thoughtful answers but not so much time that they forget about it. Method #2 — Meet With Volunteer Leaders Hopefully, you have volunteers who lead various teams for weekly services (parking, greeting, bookstore, etc.). If so, ask those leaders to meet with you as a group at least once a quarter.  Here, come prepared with snacks, pen and paper, and a list of questions to ask. Here’s what to ask: The biggest takeaway here is to listen WAY more than you speak during these meetings. You may receive unpleasant feedback that makes you feel defensive. Resist the urge to

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5 Keys to Improving Volunteer Communication

Wondering why your volunteers aren’t quite doing what you need them to do?  Do they arrive late or unprepared?  Are you experiencing high turnover as volunteers quit? The issue may not be a lack of enthusiasm or commitment – it might be that they don’t really know what you need. Improving volunteer communication could be the key to unlocking your volunteers’ potential. Here are 5 simple ways to improving volunteer communication: #1 – Communicate early Don’t wait until the day before an event to ask someone to help.  Make the request at least two weeks before you need them to do anything – including attending a volunteer training session or meeting. #2 – Communicate often You don’t need to bombard volunteers with emails and text messages every day.  However, you do need to keep them informed and up-to-date.  A weekly email with special announcements, changes in your organization, or details on the next volunteer opportunity would be a great place to start. #3 – Consider your audience It’s easy to make assumptions, skim over details, and forget that we have a diverse audience.  Some of your volunteers have been around for years and “get” what you’re saying.  However, the newer folks may be mystified and wonder what you’re talking about.  Don’t use acronyms or “insider” language with volunteers.  Reread your communications while asking yourself, “If I was brand-new to our church, would I understand this message?”. #4 – Use various communication tools You have a plethora of tools at your disposal, many of which are free including email, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, phone calls, and text messages.  These are all tools you can use for various types of volunteer communication. Try posting a request for volunteers on the church’s Facebook page and Twitter account.  Take pictures of volunteers serving and having fun, then post that on Instagram.  Build a community online and leverage that community to keep in touch with volunteers throughout the week. #5 – Use various communication methods There are three main types of learning styles.  Some learn best by hearing a lecture (auditory), others need to see the instructions (visual), while a third group needs to experience the lesson (tactile). What does this look like in practice?  First, invite your volunteers to a training session.  Handout the instructions (visual), review them out loud (auditory), and ask if the group has any questions, then have your team walk through the event space (tactile).  By hitting all three learning styles, you increase the chances of each volunteer understanding the instructions and being able to do a great job. Remember: Communication isn’t about you – it’s about your audience.  That means you need to listen to your audience.  Ask your volunteers if they feel like they’re receiving enough communication or information from you.  Find out which method and frequency of communication they prefer.  Try a few different methods and see what works best.  Effective communication makes volunteers feel appreciated, informed, and equipped to serve with excellence.  That alone makes it worth the time and effort to get it right.

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