Volunteering Magazine, Issue 108, June 2005
Dr Stuart's Casebook
I've recently been given responsibility for volunteer inductions in our organisation. The way they run at the moment is really boring, and Id love to make them a bit livelier - but there's so much information to get across! Do you have any ideas?
Its true that induction can be a remarkably tedious process, driven by the sheer amount of information that has to be imparted. But its a really important part of welcoming new volunteers, and ensuring that they understand the organisation and their place in it. If you were running any other sort of training (and thats really what induction is) would you dream of spending the whole time just talking at your group? Of course not you'd try to make the experience as interesting and participative as possible.
Having said that, if you just want them to know where the toilet is, and how to claim their expenses, maybe a 10-minute chat will do the trick. It depends a lot on how big and complicated your organisation is, and how much you think they need to know, how soon. It also depends on your volunteers roles, since there might be some important information they really cant operate effectively without. Make the distinction between need to know and nice to know, and prioritise accordingly.
Given that so much of the need to know stuff is so dull, how can you make sure your volunteers arent falling asleep and missing it all? Sometimes its possible to turn a list of facts into a quiz get people to work in pairs or small groups to make it more sociable, and give it a competitive edge. If induction is happening in the same place where the volunteers will be working, you could adapt the same information for a set of clues for a treasure hunt getting up and moving around helps people stay awake, and they'll be more likely to remember where things are if theyve found them themselves.
Think about using visuals, too. People dont all take in information in the same way, and some respond better to pictures than to talk or text. You might be able to do a slide show or have overheads or stick pictures around the walls to liven up a talk about what your organisation does. Better still, get some real people involved; invite current volunteers to take part, and give some feedback about their experiences, or have clients talking about what makes a good volunteer.
The input doesnt have to be all one way, either. Your volunteers may have questions they want to ask, or be anxious about something, so its a good idea to allow an opportunity to address any burning issues. One way of doing that is to have a Q & A session; if you ask the volunteers to write down their questions and throw them all in a box, they can be drawn out and answered without anybody knowing who asked what.
If you have any useful tips on how youve made the induction process more interesting for your volunteers, do get in touch email Dr Stuart on information@volunteeringengland or call the information team on 0800 028 3304.
