International Volunteer Managers Day on the 5th November is fast approaching and the theme for this year is ‘what’s next?’
The COVID-19 global pandemic has challenged us in many ways and this year’s theme provides an opportunity for leaders of volunteers to reflect, collaborate and consolidate a way forward.

The Impact of COVID-19

Disappointingly, for many leaders of volunteers, COVID-19 has impacted their employment. Whether through being redeployed, furloughed, or made redundant, the impact has been devastating on our profession. Even those of us fortunate to remain employed have felt the impact deeply.

Unfortunately, many organisations across the globe have viewed the reduction of volunteer hours and the pause of onsite volunteering as an opportunity to reduce resourcing. In doing so they have failed to understand that now is a critical time to focus on the engagement and connection with their volunteers. This removal or reduction of leaders of volunteers has left many organisations unable to provide a basic level of support for their volunteers and they will no doubt now find themselves unlikely to retain their volunteers into the future.

In addition to managing the realities of the pandemic and the specific impacts it has had on organisations and volunteering programs, leaders of volunteers are equally supporting their volunteers through anxiety and other mental health conditions triggered by COVID-19. Simultaneously they are faced with their own personal challenges, such as their own mental health, employment security and government-imposed lockdown measures which for many have involved severe measures and significant challenges within their home lives.

Adapting our Approach to Volunteer Engagement

In response to the pandemic, we have found ourselves adapting our way of thinking and working and have transitioned away from traditional volunteer engagement. This has often called for us to step outside of our comfort zone and learn at a fast pace. Some of the approaches which we have adopted and learnt include:

• Expanding our capability to engage in a virtual environment: Navigating breakout rooms and running polls has become the norm as we have moved to virtual meetings and training via platforms such as Zoom and Teams. Fostering connections with our volunteers by providing virtual social events such as trivia and movie nights has tested our creativity and of course the catch phase of 2020 fast became ‘you are on mute’.
• Mitigating health and safety risks: How many of us would have had the first idea about developing a health and safety plan to address the spread of a global pandemic in our workplace in January? Developing COVID-19 safe plans specific to our volunteering programs quickly became a base requirement to protect our volunteers, employees, clients and the public.
• Embracing virtual volunteering: Although virtual volunteering has existed for over 20 years, for many organisations, COVID-19 was the push to really explore and embrace the value in virtual volunteer roles.
• Developing creative solutions to recognise and celebrate our volunteers: Stepping away from the traditional morning teas we have consulted our volunteers and delivered a range of creative activities. To support the wellbeing of our volunteers we have organised online yoga and meditation classes. We have created heartfelt videos and cards from service users and employees to show our volunteers that they are valued. We have provided virtual training opportunities so that the volunteers can learn and develop their skills to support our mission.
• Understanding the importance of good mental health and wellbeing: Being exposed to the vulnerability of our own mental health and recognising the challenges those close to us may be facing has been confronting. Developing strategies to build resilience through mindfulness and self-awareness of this has never been more important to manage our own stress levels.

Keeping the Momentum Going

We have all experienced rapid change over the course of 2020, and frankly much of it has been unwanted and unpleasant. As the saying goes, we have all been sailing the same sea throughout this pandemic, however our experiences have been widely different depending on which boat we have found ourselves in.

This rapid period of change has also been a time of significant learning for many of us. On International Volunteer Managers Day I encourage you to pause and reflect on what you have learnt in 2020. What professional and personal development have you experienced in response to COVID and what new skills have you developed? What challenges have you faced, how did you overcome them and what would you do differently? And above all, give yourself a break. Just getting though each day and keeping your head above water is more than enough.

As we ask ourselves ‘what’s next’ I urge you to cultivate your learnings from this year. Keep the momentum going in developing your personal and professional development. To kick start some ideas to consider for investing in your own personal and professional development a past blog of mine talks to the continuous development of your leadership skills.

If you are happy to share, I would love to hear what your next steps are in investing in yourself.