Thoughts on Volunteers
Thanks to the individuals on our team our use of volunteers has gone through the roof. Below are some lessons learned as we’ve increased our reliance on them. Some of these concepts might seem a little contrary to popular opinion, but they have worked for us.
The Three Resources of a Volunteer
Any new volunteer should be assessed on three characteristics talent, time and heart (sorry I couldn’t find a t word for the last option… guess I’ll never be a pastor). A successful volunteer must have the heart for long-term ministry AND at least one of the other two (talent or time). Having all three makes for an uber volunteer. These are rare and should be retained at all costs (save hiring… but more on that later)
The Gift of Time
In an Church IT department there’s room for both types of individuals. If an individual has time and little talent they can but put to use handling tasks like imaging computers, running wires, installing software and possibly even doing break-fix on desktops. We have a retired individual on our team who is worth is weight in gold. He gives us two days of his time every week. While he doesn’t have server / network experience, he does all of our PC deployments, runs wires, replaces hard drives, researches part numbers, orders parts, and much much more. His time (and heart) makes up for deep technical talent. If we were to lose him we’d be hurting big time (plus he’s just a fun guy to be around).
Below is a quick list of other jobs that people with time, but limited skills can accomplish:
- ChMS Data Entry – This job could keep 2-3 individuals busy
- Account Creation / Deletion – Have them add new hire and volunteer accounts.
- Desktop / Laptop Deployment / Moves – You can teach anyone which cord goes where
- Computer Cleaning – A clean computer (including monitor, mouse, keyboard) is perceived to run faster and be more reliable.
- Software / Parts Ordering – If someone has the time / heart trust them enough to give them access to your vendors to order things and make sure they get in.
- Run Wires – Again if someone is the least bit handy you can teach them to run wires at least the easy ones.
- Printer Maintenance – Have then clean the printers out on a regular basis.
- Software Audits – Have them get your software inventory up to date and accurate.
- Clean the MDF – Have them sweep / wash / wax the computer room floors.
Someone once said that the creation of a checklist can turn any task that once too a genius to do into a task that anyone can do. A checklist also makes a repeatable process that improves quality. Win win.
The Gift of Talent
If someone has talent they usually don’t have much time to give. They’re skills are in demand by a lot of people. If given the heart to serve though these individuals still be a valuable resource. We currently have several of these individuals on our team that help us write SQL reports, write code and give us technical advice.
One key to effectively using these volunteers is being flexible with their schedules. Also, giving them access to work from home is huge.
You’ll Never Have Enough
After getting a couple of solid volunteers there’s a temptation to put the brakes on and not bring in any new ones. Two forces though are working against you at all times: 1.) The amount of work always grows 2.) People, even good people with good hearts, eventually leave for lots of reasons (re-location, illness, etc.) You should always be actively recruiting. It’s also valuable to train your volunteers to help recruit.
Assigning Work
Treat them like new hires… you’d never tell a new hire ’sorry we don’t have anything to do today’. You should translate that in your psyche to, ’sorry there’s not enough work to go around and since I’m paid I guess I better start looking for another job’. Well… OK within reason… there may be certain things that volunteers don’t have the skills for, but more times than not we don’t give them the work because we 1.) feel like it’s more work for us to get them started or 2.) wonder if they do it what we’ll work on. We have to see this as an investment of our time. Teach them once and now we never need to do that job again. You can even assign them to document it so the next person can do it without instruction.
When a work request comes in the first question you should ask is “which volunteer can I assign this to?. If none are currently capable then the second question is “which of my volunteers can I train to do this?” Only after exhausting both of these options should an paid person do the work.
Once a new volunteer starts get them plugged into the workflow as soon as possible. No one likes to show up and have to ask someone what they need to do (seriously, imagine if you had to do that). Get them added to your request system (even if it’s just a whiteboard) so that they can sit down and look at what needs to be done (just like you do). This will give them much more ownership into the work and the team. It will also remove the burden off of you to stop what you’re doing to get them started. If you don’t have an IT request system consider getting one fast. There are several free options like Spiceworks (we use the assignment functionality inside of the Arena ChMS).
A last thought on assigning work, trust them. Give them the access they need to do the job even if that means administrative privilege. You’ll know in the first few weeks of working with them whether they can be trusted or not. Once you have the trust give them the rights. Will they make mistakes… yep… we all have. They’re of no use to you though if they can’t do the work themselves.
Don’t Hire Your Volunteers
Ok this sounds odd. Aren’t they a good source of talent? Yes they are, but you’re goal should be to grow through the use of volunteers not staff. If a staff person leaves you should consider assigning the work to volunteers. We’ve been able to do this now that we’ve ramped up volunteers. We’ve not replaced a few people who have left and while difficult we’ve been able to manage through the expansion of our volunteer program.
You will have situations where you do need to hire, and then of course consider volunteers for those openings. Too often though I see people get great volunteers that they then open a position for even though they were willing to work for free. You’ve then done something very drastic with the psychology of your relationship, you’ve moved it from operating on social norms (I’m doing this for the greater good) to market norms (thanks for the paycheck). This change may not seem like a big deal but it’s drastic. For a great treatment of social vs market norms see the book Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely. This is a great way to ruin a productive resource who was happy working as a volunteer. Many times if the truth be told volunteers are hired as it makes it easier on us (increased retainment, easier to lead) than as a benefit for them.
In order to be successful in keeping your volunteers happy you should never discuss the possibility of being hired in the future. Once you do you’ve started the decent into market norms and have created expectations not you’ll now be held to.
Volunteers in Creative Technologies
- Podcasting: Individual comes in each week to upload the podcast in all of it’s formats.
- Search Engine Optimizer: Individual works from home weekly to review our search logs and optimize keywords and prepare metrics for us to review
- Desktop Support: We have 4 solid individuals who give us 5-15 hours a week handling desktop tasks and projects. This is an awesome bunch of guys who have transformed our team. Most churches our size have more staff in this area than we current do. That said I don’t see a need to hire more people for a long long time, if ever. The success of this area really goes to Eirk and Mason.We also have a team of 12-15 volunteers who come in monthly after hours to help use with large deployments and PC upkeep.
- Data Entry: We have an individual who comes in every day for 4-6 hours. She does an amazing job scrubbing our data and processing the classified ads from our website.
- Reports: We have one individual who works from home creating SQL reports for our staff. This is a huge burden off me. When we get a request I just pass them off to him and then… done!
- Development: We have a new individual helping us write custom modules for Arena. This is one area I thought we’d never find someone for, but God sent someone our way.
Hopefully these tips help you in your ministry. Have any nuggets of wisdom from your ministry? Share them in the comments!