Volunteers are a vital part of many organisations, so looking after their happiness is important. Looking after them well increases their willingness to serve and contributes to their longevity in the organisation. Happy volunteers can really improve the health of your core business.
I’ve been a volunteer on numerous boards for the past twenty or so years and have put together some tips from my experience on ways to help keep your board volunteers happy:
- Provide good support to enable your board members to easily partake in meetings. This at the very least should mean that all documents required to be analysed or commented on at the meeting (and particularly those hard to read online, such as detailed financial statements), be printed out and accessible during the meeting. If you have the funds, it is a bonus if you can supply each board member with an iPad.
- Make sure your meetings are at times each board member can easily attend. Just as you would not schedule a board meeting during the work day for professionals (unless it is convenient to hold it over a lunch break), be mindful of scheduling meetings during the dinner/bedtime hour for parents of young children.
- Find out when your volunteers will be on holidays and endeavour not to contact them during this time, unless it is an emergency. Just as you would not contact an employee during their holidays, the same courtesy should be extended to your volunteers.
- Provide secretarial and administrative backup to your board members, so tasks they need to carry out on behalf of the organisation can be easily accomplished. This will free your board members up to be more productive and mean the bulk of their time is spent on governance, rather than administration.
- Last, but not least, provide food and refreshments at your meetings, particularly if they are over lunch time or dinner.
What has been your experience as a volunteer, or would you like to be one? Have there been any barriers to your participation?