developing guidance to help clubs recruit new volunteers from outside the club
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Developing guidance to help clubs recruit new volunteers from outside the club. Peter Taylor, Richard Moore & Simon Goldsmith, Sport Industry Research Centre, Sheffield Hallam University. Geoff Nichols, Management School, University of Sheffield. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Developing guidance to help clubs recruit new volunteers
from outside the clubPeter Taylor, Richard Moore & Simon Goldsmith,
Sport Industry Research Centre, Sheffield Hallam University.Geoff Nichols, Management School, University of Sheffield
Volunteers in sports clubs – what’s the problem?
• 53% of clubs say recruiting / retaining volunteers is a problem (SARA club survey 2011)
• A few volunteers do a lot of the work• Volunteer roles grow around key people –
who are hard to replace.
Volunteers in sports clubs – what’s the problem?
• Volunteers’ work becomes more demanding and therefore off-putting– Coaching qualifications– Accreditations – Clubmark– Legislation – CRB checks– Club have to offer an experience that attracts
and retains members – more ‘professional’
Clubs don’t look outside for volunteers
• Unusual for volunteers to come outside of– Players and parents: easier to recruit from but
they restrict recruitment• If a new person just comes along and
wants to help – do clubs know what to do with them?
The ‘market’ for volunteers – less volunteering and more episodic
• 25% of people volunteered formally at least once a month in 2010-11, which is lower than at any point between 2001 and 2007-08.
• A trend towards ‘episodic’ volunteering – people are willing to volunteer for a limited time.
The EYV project
• Funded from Office for Civil Society• Brokered by Sport's Strategic Partnership
for Volunteering– Phase 1: guidance from best practice cases
of recruiting volunteers from outside the club– Phase 2: test guidance with clubs which do
not recruit from outside the club– Phase 3: finalise guidance and disseminate
Phase 1: best practice
• Six focus groups with clubs– facilitators and constraints to the recruitment,
utilisation and development of volunteers from outside the club
• previous guidance - NB runningsports; NGB guidance
Phase 2: testing the guidance
• 12 interviews:– 1 Phase 1 club– 6 Clubs with volunteer shortages and internal
recruitment of volunteers – 3 CSPs – 2 NGBs
• Clubs have 'just not thought to recruit volunteers from outside'
• Very positive response to guidance• Presentation as important as content
The guidance: key messages• People from outside the club are not aliens
– they have relevant skills – in the current economic environment they
want opportunities• Many tasks in the clubs are not sport-
specific, e.g.:– chair, treasurer, secretary, fixture secretary,
child protection, health and safety, PR, sponsorship and fundraising, website
The guidance: key messages• Preparation for recruitment, e.g.:
– task descriptions– task splitting– specific skill requirements– training needs– duration and frequency of tasks
• Consider appointing a volunteer coordinator• But the bottom line is: what does the
volunteer want?
The guidance: key messages
• Consider all possible external sources, including:– Friends of players and members– Local volunteer centres– Universities and colleges– Probation Service– Local sports centres, fitness clubs, etc.
The guidance: key messages
• Use a variety of means of promoting opportunities– club website– open day– NGBs– websites, NB Do-it, vinspired, Sport Makers,
Time Bank, Gumtree
The guidance: key messages• Either specific role, or general helping out• Nurturing new volunteers:
– Speed of response– Volunteer coordinator– Mentors– Training opportunities– Rewards
• Formalities vs. informalities - get the balance right:– task descriptions, CRB checks, club rules and procedures vs.– making the volunteer feel comfortable and maintaining their
motivation
Phase 3 events and further dissemination
• Leeds (27/10); Birmingham (28/10); London (1/11)
• Key agencies: NGBs and CSPs
Challenges
• Alerting clubs to opportunities outside their clubs
• Achieving clubs' searching for volunteers outside clubs
• Capacity of local volunteer centres to respond• Capacity of universities and colleges to
respond• Connecting with Sport Makers
Thank you. Questions?