Managers of volunteers serve as the human resource professionals for their organization's unpaid staff. While they may not need toknow the specifics of health insurance plans or retirement packages, knowledge of workplace dynamics and trends can be very helpful. The majority of today's volunteers are employed people and the trends and patterns emerging in the workplace hold interesting clues and insights into potential shifts in volunteer programs.
Generational research tells us that each successive generation enteringthe workplace has brought different values than the proceeding generation. Those same generational differences have led to changes in volunteer programs. Managers of volunteers have seen increasing emphasis on short term or episodic volunteering, professionalization and impact measurements. These changes are the direct result of volunteer pressure to make volunteer work more compatible with lifeand work styles, to be more effective and efficient, and to be more accountableto volunteers. In an attempt to identify the next wave of change, it is helpful to explore some of today's basic shifts in employment expectations as identified by human resource professionals in the corporate community.
Potential employees are looking for different things from their work life than they were a decade ago. Today's employees are looking forbalance. Sixty hour work weeks, extended travel schedules, dinner meetings, breakfast meetings, weekend training and work schedules must be put into perspective in relation to family life, community involvement and recreation. Employees are looking for a synergistic approach to life. Work is a piece of a bigger picture. (Blandford, 2004, p139)
While it is encouraging that community involvement is mentioned as an important facet of a balanced life, it is equally challenging to find creative, flexible, meaningful opportunities for volunteer engagement that respect and support the value of balance in family life, recreation and work. If employees are looking to their employers for tuition reimbursement, flexible hours, and job sharing opportunities, as well as company commitments to society, the environment and diversity, what are these same individuals seeking in a volunteer program? Can volunteer work blend with family time or recreational time? Volunteer programs may need to offer greater options for engagement, as well as market volunteerism as part a balanced life that includes family, work and recreation.
Today's workers place a higher emphasis on the acquisition of new knowledge and skills that lead to personal and professional development. The corporate world is advertising for consensus builders, team players and creative thinkers, yet many volunteer programs continue to ask for task-specific workers to fill well defined, highly structured roles. As the corporate world has flattened, many volunteer organizations continue to operate with highly structured, hierarchical management styles, including board structures with clearly defined roles (President, Secretary, etc.), a leadership succession process (President elect, president, past president), standing committees and long-term time commitments. There is often considerable disconnect between an evolving working environment that promotes team projects, flexibility and skill development and a more traditional and static volunteer environment.
Changing employee expectations are leading to changes in processes likeinterviewing and job design. Employment interviews are now a two-way inquiry where the applicant showcases his/her skills and talents and the corporation sells its culture and vision to the applicant (Blandford, 2004). There is an increasing emphasis on team interviews where applicants are evaluated on their ability to be team players and a good fit with the organizational culture. Team interviews are intended to reflect a culture that values team input and collaborative action, with less reliance on the judgment of a single "expert."
Job design is being replaced with "job sculpting" as a process for engaging prospective and current employees in the process of developing work positions to capitalize on more than skills and talents.
Many talented professionals leave their organizations because senior managers don't understand the psychology of work satisfaction; they assume that people who excel at their work are necessarily happy in their jobs. . . But the fact is, strong skills don't always lead to job satisfaction. So companies strive to 'sculpt' jobs in ways that reflect employees' deeply embedded life interests. (Florida, 2002).
Contrast this approach with many volunteer programs that have pre-defined position descriptions and look for an applicant to fit the position, rather then sculpting the position around the "deeply embedded life interest" of the volunteer. I have long believed that volunteering can be an opportunity for risk taking. It can be a safe environment for a person to try something new, venture beyond where they have been, spread their creative wings and soar to some new personal height. Job sculpting attempts to draw out and foster creativity and deep personal satisfaction.
The business world creates options for learning new skills by fosteringfunctional teams and lateral moves, recognizing that opportunities for upward movement may be limited but opportunities for lifelong learning are powerful incentives for retaining employees. Volunteer programs too often slot volunteers into specific functions, activities and/or work, and may never offer a volunteer the opportunity to be cross trained or to move laterally between departments, programs or even events (in the case of special event volunteers).
The business world is designing new reward and recognition systems that recognize and encourage creativity, the ability to apply learning, and the ability to extrapolate from one experience to another.
Employees are being recognized for team behaviors and initiative, rather than simply showing up and punching in and out. Being there is no longer enough. Longevity is only relevant if it is tied to contribution. Increasingly, experience is only rewarded if it is applied. (Blandford, 2004, p. 139)
Many volunteer programs rely on certificates, T-shirts, and awards for hours/length of service. They promote the "feel-good" altruistic rewards of volunteering as incentives for enticing and keeping volunteers while volunteers tend to have "egotistic" expectations, such as broadening personal knowledge, making friends and personal satisfaction (Ostwald & Runge, 20040). Managers of volunteers are encouraged to make greater efforts to listen to the expectations volunteers have for their personal performance and satisfaction. Opportunities for skill or issue training, measurement of impact, or opportunities to work with a diverse and changing group of skilled and knowledgeable people may be more appropriate forms of reward for today's volunteers.
The corporate world recognizes there are new values and new expectations today. Loyalty is now interactive. Employees want to work at companies that offer opportunities to contribute and grow. Those companies that provide channels for personal contributions and growth, both within the corporate environment AND in outside endeavors, will attract. . .and will retain their most resourceful employees. (Blandford, 2004, p.139)
Volunteer programs have been very skillful about creating incentives and systems to retain volunteers. But, many programs, while saying they welcome creativity, innovation and volunteer input, in practice reward (formally and informally) conformity, consistency and continuity.
Employees continue to demand opportunities to contribute and grow in an atmosphere that respects personal preferences and a balanced life. Managers of volunteers should look carefully at current systems for interviewing, placing and retaining volunteers. Each new generation of volunteers has new values and expectations. Managers of volunteers must be able to look to the broader trends and issues effecting the workplace and society to extrapolate information and apply it to their volunteer management system. Building volunteer loyalty may require new levels of creativity and innovation!
Blandford, Teresa (2004). Expectations changing in the employment relationship. The Columbus Dispatch, Sunday, January 11, 2004.
Florida, Richard, (2002). The rise of the creative class. Basic Books: New York.
Ostwald, S. & Runge, A. (2004). Volunteers speak out: Motivations for volunteering. The Journal of Volunteer Administration, 22:1, pp. 5-11.