How to step back, slow down, and plan for long-term growth
Animal shelters and rescue organizations are often so desperate for volunteers to offset their small budgets that their volunteer programs are developed quickly, with very little structure or planning. It's therefore no surprise that serious problems often arise - including conflicts among staff and volunteers, and volunteers who are disruptive, poorly trained, and end up creating more work for shelter staff. These serious issues can slow the growth of a volunteer program and even make staff question the need for volunteers at all.

We encourage your organization to step back, slow down, and plan your volunteer programs using a series of building blocks. These steps can help give a program a strong foundation, preventing major problems and supporting healthy growth.

Each of the blocks we discuss below builds on the previous one. We recommend that all animal shelters and rescue groups with volunteers begin at the first block, focusing on addressing issues there before moving on to the next. You might even consider not bringing in new volunteers until issues in each of these areas have been addressed. While it can be difficult to stop bringing in volunteers, we believe it can create a much stronger program in the long run  - and bringing volunteers into a dysfunctional system helps no one.

We hope to get into more detail about these individual steps in future columns, but in the meantime, we hope these building blocks will help you get started!

Establish Support from Leadership
Leadership is the foundation of any successful volunteer program. Organizational leaders must set the tone for the program and promote the essential role of volunteers to staff and the public at every opportunity. The role of volunteers - and the organization's appreciation of it - should be visible in the mission statement of the organization, throughout its website, in its literature, and even in the physical space provided for volunteers.

Anyone looking in from the outside should be able to see that volunteers are appreciated and considered an integral part of the organization. Messages that reinforce the importance of volunteers are given through direct and subtle cues; messages throughout the organization should be consistent. Leadership can show support of the volunteer program by allocating resources for a volunteer manager as a part of the executive team. The manager should have input on important decision-making, as well as a budget for the tools and resources the program requires to run smoothly

What if leadership has a negative attitude toward volunteers, or fails to truly embrace the program? In that case, managers will need to take special care to screen volunteers for excellent interpersonal skills. Volunteers in this environment will need to be able to handle conflict and serve as positive examples of the benefits of volunteer involvement. They can help change leadership and staff perceptions of volunteers and embody the best argument for elevating the importance of the program.

Involve Staff
The organization's staff must welcome volunteers, show appreciation for their help, and never exploit them to do staff work. If staff are hostile or threatened by volunteers, this must be addressed before continuing to bring volunteers into what's bound to be an unpleasant environment.

It's possible that many staffers have never experienced a high-functioning volunteer program. Without an understanding of what a strong, structured volunteer program can look like, and what huge benefits an army of well- trained volunteers can bring, staff often have the idea that volunteers are more trouble than they're worth. If staff believe that volunteers are a threat to their jobs or that they'll be critical and judgmental - particularly around euthanasia decision-making - they will not embrace the program.

One helpful strategy is to let staff members help develop the volunteer program so they can identify potential problems in advance and build in the solutions to those concerns - for example, they can help create staff and volunteer job descriptions that will allay fears that volunteers will take staff jobs. Involve staff in identifying ways that volunteer help might make their jobs easier, and find the right volunteers to accomplish the tasks that need to be done.

Leadership should ensure that staff are trained to work effectively with volunteers and to treat volunteers with respect and appreciation. Employee evaluations should include an assessment of volunteer relationships.

Once staff are supportive of the volunteer program, find ways to develop positive relationships between staff and volunteers; the divide can grow larger unless processes are set in place to bring the two groups together. For example, invite staff to volunteer meetings and make sure there is time for them to socialize; post photos of the staff with their names in the volunteer room; and make sure introductions are included in any orientation/training.

Define Volunteer Roles
Developing a clear understanding of job responsibilities for volunteers will be essential in order to determine the job requirements and training needs for volunteer roles. What do you need volunteers to do?

Job responsibilities should be detailed and understandable, put in writing, and explained to both staff and volunteers. Include what volunteers should be doing, but also be very clear about what they should not be doing. Protocols, practices, and volunteer tasks should be laid out in a way that's easy to understand and follow.

Outline Requirements and Develop a Screening Process
With clearly defined volunteer job responsibilities in place, it's possible to identify what mental, emotional, and physical capacities are required for volunteers. Once you know what type of volunteers are right for your organization, you can start identifying whether prospective volunteers meet your needs. Not everyone will be the right fit; no one should be allowed into the program without first being assessed to determine whether they can provide what the organization needs.

Potential volunteers must be informed early about the organizational issues and policies they may encounter while volunteering. Be candid about the euthanasia, adoption, and spay/neuter policies that volunteers will be asked to support.

Develop and Provide Volunteer Training
Volunteer training should include everything the volunteer needs to know to feel comfortable and safe. One way to ensure everyone is doing things the right way is to teach them correctly from the very beginning. Consistency is critical! Training should be as detailed as possible to prevent volunteers from filling in gaps with their own ideas - many of which may not be consistent with the organization's views and practices. If you already have a volunteer program, enlist your best volunteers to help create the education program and to become mentors to new volunteers.

You may want to incorporate online training that potential volunteers can do from home and you may want to consider creating instructional videos that show the proper way to perform volunteer tasks. Anyone with a digital video camera and some basic editing software can help put these videos together for you.

A training checklist should be started for each volunteer-in-training to track where the volunteer is in the process and document that they've successfully acquired the skills and knowledge required.

Training helps new volunteers find their feet, but the process can also be an excellent way to determine if someone is the right match for your organization. Formal acceptance into the program should occur only after the candidates have successfully completed their volunteer training. At that point, they should be asked to sign a volunteer agreement that contains the major expectations of volunteers - including supporting shelter policies and staff decision- making. The agreement should detail the means through which volunteers may provide feedback.

For those individuals who are not selected, the volunteer manager should provide contact information for other volunteer opportunities within the community.

Grow the Program at the Proper Pace
Shelters often bring in more volunteers than they can handle. Limit the number of volunteers to a manageable number for the staff and volunteers available to screen, train, and supervise them. Recruiting the right volunteers and training them well grows the program's capacity to recruit more; existing volunteers can help mentor, train, and even supervise new recruits.

The need to actively recruit volunteers will decrease as the volunteer program's reputation improves; people want to volunteer where they will be well-managed and get the support they need. Your program will be more attractive to the types of prospective volunteers you want.

Put the Tools in Place
Volunteer managers should spend the majority of their time on tasks related to improving the volunteer experience rather than on administrative tasks. Every program has administrative requirements - including tracking hours, recognizing volunteers, and creating systems for ongoing communication with the volunteer team - but those don't need to take up the bulk of the program manager's day- to-day efforts.

Spend several days tracking how much time is used on which activities to identify the tasks that take the most time, then access the tools available to make those tasks easier and less time-consuming.

Think about how you are using your time and what tasks are really frustrating you, and then give yourself permission to imagine, "If only there were a tool that allowed me to ..." If you can imagine it, most likely someone else already has and has figured out how to solve the problem ... you just have to find it!

Acknowledge Volunteers Publicly and Privately
All staff should regularly thank volunteers for their help. A simple "thank you" from a staff member can mean so much. The organization should also identify benchmarks for when to recognize each volunteer for their contribution of time and energy. Although volunteer hours are not the only means of measuring a volunteer's donation to an organization, it can be effective to privately acknowledge individuals when they reach 50, 100, or 200 hours, etc. Volunteer databases like volgistics.com track volunteer hours and can make recognition easier; you can set the system to remind you to thank volunteers when they reach certain milestones.

Don't base public acknowledgement and appreciation solely on the amount of hours volunteers work. It can be much harder for some people to find time to volunteer, but their contributions may be just as valuable. Take the time to thank certain groups - such as all the cat volunteers - for their commitment of time, and recognize individuals who go above and beyond their regular duties. Recognition doesn't need to be an elaborate affair; nothing beats a handwritten thank-you note, which is one of the most powerful volunteer management tools at our disposal.

Keep Lines of Communication Open
Volunteers need to feel connected to the organization, to be kept up to date on changes in the volunteer program and the organization overall. It's the volunteer manager's job to keep everyone informed. The volunteer manager must listen and respond to volunteer feedback without defensiveness. Volunteers need to know that their ideas are being heard and taken seriously.

The volunteer manager should make time every day to go out into the facility to greet volunteers, thank them for being there, and listen to their ideas. Regular meetings and social events with volunteers are important to build open communication. We also recommend setting up an online communication system for volunteers and staff to discuss ideas online. Consider using white boards and message logs in the shelter for volunteers to share their thoughts. Be sure to set up clear guidelines for these types of communications; volunteers need to know what they can impact and what they can't, as well as what types of constructive criticism and feedback are welcome and what kind of public complaining is not.

Equip Your Volunteers for Success
Volunteers can feel inefficient and frustrated if they spend too much time looking for equipment, supplies, or a place to work. Consider setting up an easy sign- out system for supplies. Create a space in your shelter that is exclusively reserved for your volunteer team's use, and keep that space inviting and well-stocked.

Allow Space for Your Program to Grow
Your volunteer program should be scalable, so that all of the pieces holding it together can grow as the program gets bigger. If any of the pieces are forgotten along the way or don't grow apace, the entire program can fall apart.

Consider the role of the volunteer manager. There is a finite amount of work one person can do, and a finite number of volunteers one person can manage. Divvying up the orientation and training duties among staff and senior volunteers will allow the volunteer manager to focus on making sure the program's capacity grows and that necessary improvements are made.

We have consulted with shelters whose volunteer programs have had the same training manual for 20 years. The same volunteer manager has performed all volunteer training in that time. These stagnant programs are constrained by the capacity of that one volunteer manager, and new volunteers often feel left out since there is little room for their input to make change. Review the program carefully for barriers to growth and change, and work on overcoming them - your program can be as dynamic as you let it be.

Source: By Hilary Anne Hager And Megan Webb - Takingactionforanimals.org