How to Create Volunteer Positions

Volunteers can extend your office's productivity without adding to the cost to conduct business.

Volunteers can be a cost-effective way to extend your office's productivity. Regardless of if you are a political organization or a business, creating voluntary positions allows you to get extra labor for basic tasks without costing the company the money for an extra paid worker. However, volunteers don't appear out of thin air. You need to do some work to prepare your office to be able to handle them, advertise to actually get volunteers to come forward and organize a process for volunteer intake.

Instructions

1. Identify jobs volunteers can handle. Are they going to act as general assistants to a specific employee? Will they perform the same tasks everyday? Will they be on-call for special assignments? Determine what time commitments will be required from the volunteers.

2. Assign someone the responsibility for handling volunteer applications and for managing volunteers once they are in the office.

3. Prepare your office to accommodate your new volunteers. Will they need phones? Computers? Desk space? Make sure you're ready to put them to work once they are hired.

4. Compile volunteer job description. Volunteers need to know what is expected of them whether they will be volunteering with a business or an organization.

5. Set-up a process to screen candidates. This does not have to be a lengthy process, a single interview would suffice. You just want to make sure the volunteer will increase your office's productivity, fill a need and understand responsibilities.

6. Structure your positions to accommodate sudden losses of volunteers. Unless you are able to offer a prestigious internship that people will actively compete for, a volunteer could leave you shorthanded. Volunteers are not paid, so they have no incentive for showing up beyond wanting to be a part of an organization or business. They could choose not show up, or the quit without notice.

Tips & Warnings

• Make sure you are organized and ready to put volunteers to work once they are hired. If you are unorganized and not able to effectively manage or assign tasks to your volunteers, do not be surprised if they quit.

References

• Fundraising-Guide.com: Planning a Volunteer Position
• "Developing and Managing Volunteer Programs"; Carter McNamara