Screening Volunteers for Attitude

• Involving volunteers gives people without a financial interest in the organization a firsthand look at how things work. Involving volunteers -- representatives of the community -- helps educate the community about what the organization does.

• Community engagement is community ownership. Volunteer involvement demostrates that the community is invested in the organization and its goals.

• Volunteer involvement can help to reach constituencies/demographics not represented among staff, board leadership or clients.

• Volunteers may be the most appropriate people for certain tasks, rather than paid staff; your clients may prefer to be counseled by volunteers with certain backgrounds rather than paid employees, for instance.

• Volunteer involvement may create other support for an organization: volunteers may become financial donors, they may speak at local government meetings or write letters to the editor of your local newspaper on your organization's behalf, or they may tell their friends and colleagues about your organization in conversations or via their blogs and online status updates.

When an organization involves volunteers in high-responsibility, long-term roles, volunteer turnover can be a program killer. It's vital that organizations continually look for ways to ensure that volunteers are well-supported, that volunteers feel their concerns are heard and addressed promptly, that volunteers feel respected and valued, etc., but screening is also vital to help screen in the right people for high-responsibility, long-term volunteer roles, particularly those where the volunteer will work with clients and the general public, and to screen out people who may be better in shorter-term assignments or assignments where they would not work with clients or the general public, or who would not be appropriate in any role at the organization.

While volunteer managers are much more than HR managers, there are resources from the HR management world that can be helpful in the new paradigm of volunteer involvement / community engagement. For instance, this article from workforce.com on screening and hiring employees with an eye to their attitude can help volunteer managers seeking to create a screening process that will keep turnover low for high-responsibility, long-term volunteer roles.

(note that you will have to register to read articles on workforce.com, but registration is free)

The article notes that the idea of hiring for attitude has been made famous by such companies as Southwest Airlines and Nordstrom. One CEO of a real estate services company in New Jersey, which traditionally has a high-turnover rate, used various books about this model to develop his own test to measure five qualities among potential candidates. Such an assessment tool could easily be adapted at nonprofit organizations looking to reduce turnover and create a particular type of culture among long-term, high-commitment volunteers.

The recruiter or hiring manager administers the test verbally, face-to-face or by phone. One of the qualities sought is demonstrated integrity, measured through a series of questions about ethical behavior. Another quality sought is passion, which candidates can demonstrate through a hobby or a personal project where the candidate succeeded (not just through a paid or volunteer role).

The third quality test—longevity—determines whether the candidate is looking for a job or a career. Adapted for a volunteer model, the goal could be to see if the volunteer is looking for a long-term relationship with an organization or cause through volunteering.

The fourth step measures positive attitude and asks candidates to describe a positive customer service experience. It also asks how the candidate’s friends would describe the candidate’s personal characteristics. The final element of the test measures the candidate’s knowledge of tasks that are relevant to the job and the company’s mission and role.

What could the assessment questions actually look like? Some very general ideas:

• Why do you want to volunteer with us?
• What do you hope to accomplish or gain through volunteering?
• Why do you think our organization involves volunteers?
• Tell me about a time when you have felt passionate or excitement about a project; this can be at work, through volunteering, or just through a hobby -- skate boarding, singing, helping a family member, whatever.
• What is your greatest personal or professional accomplishment?
• What makes you excited or motivated to get a task done?
• How can you tell when a supervisor is satisfied with your work?
• How can you tell when a customer or client is satisfied?
• Tell me a time when you went above and beyond for a customer, a client, a co-worker, or someone else, to make sure they got what they needed or were satisfied with an experience?
• How would you define "great team work"?
• Tell me about an experience in which you demonstrated commitment.
• Tell me about an experience in which you demonstrated resilience.
• What would you do if you saw a good friend and fellow volunteer doing something inappropriate at the organization?
• Tell me about a time when you have had to deal with a difficult personality (for instance, an angry customer), and how you addressed the situation.
• Tell me an example in which you successfully persuade someone to do something.
• What would your friends or co-workers say about how you work under pressure (having to get something done sooner than expected, or to get something done that's come up unexpectantly and, therefore, you hadn't planned for, etc.)
• How do you define diversity?
• Tell me about a time when you have worked with people who are different from you, in terms of age, economic background, ethnicity, etc. (what you liked about the experience, what might have made you uncomfortable, what you learned from such an experience, etc.).
• Tell me about a time when you had a negative impression of someone, but later, it changed to a positive impression, and why that change happened.
• How comfortable are you with name of an activity that a volunteer would undertake (such as asking friends and associates for donations, dealing with angry people, etc.)

• who have a different work style than the rest of your organization but that would be, nonetheless, quite capable of volunteering and working with others
• who don't have an excellent command of English (if such isn't required for all volunteer roles)
• who don't interview well (if such a characteristic isn't required for all volunteer roles)
• who are shy
• who don't verbalize their feelings well
• who aren't ready yet to make a long-term commitment but may be ready to do so in the future
• who could use certain volunteering activities to build their professional and personal skills such that they could take on higher-responsibility roles later
• etc.

Do you know who will be a great volunteer just by the "vibe"?

Recruiting Local Volunteers To Increase Diversity Among the Ranks
Having plenty of volunteers usually isn't enough to say a volunteering program is successful. Another indicator of success is if your volunteers represent a variety of ages, education-levels, economic levels and other demographics, or are a reflection of your local community. Most organizations don't want volunteers to be a homogeneous group; they want to reach a variety of people as volunteers (and donors and other supporters, for that matter). This resource will help you think about how to recruit for diversity, or to reach a specific demographic.

Virtual Volunteering Myths
Common misconceptions about virtual volunteering versus the reality of the practice.

Research on online volunteering
All of the academic research and journal articles about online volunteering and online community engagement.

Online culture

---

 Quick Links 

---

go to my home page my consulting services my workshops & presentations my capacity-building work my credentials & expertise my core professional competencies my volunteering/pro bono experiences

about Jayne Cravens contact me see my schedule linking to or from my web site

talk about this page with others in my network subscribe to my blog via RSS become my fan on Facebook follow me on Twitter subscribe to Tech4Impact, my email newsletter

---

Disclaimer: No guarantee of accuracy or suitability is made by the poster/distributor. This material is provided as is, with no expressed or implied warranty.

Permission is granted to copy, present and/or distribute a limited amount of material from my web site without charge if the information is kept intact and without alteration, and is credited to:

Otherwise, please contact me for permission to reprint, present or distribute these materials (for instance, in a class or book or online event for which you intend to charge).

The art work and material on this site was created and is copyrighted 1996-2011
by Jayne Cravens, all rights reserved
(unless noted otherwise, or the art comes from a link to another web site).