Have you ever been responsible for developing and launching a new program, procedure, system or guideline across your organisation and to your volunteers? What about volunteer recruitment and the way your organisation trains and deploys volunteers; have those processes been subject to change? Considering managing volunteers comes with a constant barrage of change, I’m guessing you answered ‘yes’ to both of these questions.

Change management is a capability many organisations are seeking to grow their maturity in but how can this be leveraged to support the way we engage with our volunteers? After all, we typically aren’t talking about large scale change here, so what tools and techniques can we apply to aid change? I’m not so sure a formal change methodology is always necessary, but keeping a few of the following change management principles front of mind is a handy addition to your toolkit.

• Determine who the best person is to act as an active and visible sponsor for your change. Ideally this would be someone in a senior leadership role who is influential in the organisation.
• Develop a communications strategy and tailor key messages in the most effective format for the volunteers. Consider communicating through multiple channels and provide opportunities for two way engagement.
• To increase buy-in; involve the volunteers in the change. Consider inviting them to workshops or sending them a survey. Provide opportunities for the volunteers to ask questions so they understand the change. Ask for their feedback, listen to their concerns and act accordingly. Never underestimate the emotional bond a volunteer has with their role.
• Consider what impact the change will have on the volunteers? Are there any actions you can take to motivate the volunteers to accept and actively participate in the change?
• To assist with embedding and sustaining the change, invite senior volunteers to act as change champions. Consider what training they may need to support them in this important role.

By keeping these tips in mind hopefully you will be able to benefit from volunteers who are engaged and supportive of the change and increase the likelihood that the change will be successfully implemented and sustained.

Feel free to comment and share what strategies have worked well for you when implementing a change while working with volunteers.

To finish with a little known secret, an Australian based training provider offers free scholarship places to their change management certification program for people who work in the not-for-profit sector. It’s a great skill set to have as a Volunteer Manager and I recommend looking into it.

To find out more about the Being Human Heart Place scholarship, visit Heart Place.