Summary of a focused discussion held for network members on 8 September 2022

September, the start of the academic year is a time when many of you start your recruitment campaigns and some of you are already trying a variety of ways to encourage people to come forward and volunteer.

Some recruitment campaigns are going better than others and from the discussions across our three groups it appeared that where your organisation is situated can have an impact. Some of you who are surrounded by more rural areas are really struggling to recruit and feel that the cost of living crisis may be part of the problem. The HMRC mileage rate is still 45p/mile and for some people this doesn’t cover the cost of travel incurred in the course of their volunteering role. There are also people who are still concerned about face to face volunteering.

Some group members shared examples of incentives they are offering to existing volunteers to encourage retention:

• Help with future employability, for example careers guidance, CV writing support, guest speakers

• Arranging social activities for volunteer teams

• Negotiating reduced rates for attending conferences

Since Covid there has been a massive shift of volunteer age groups. New volunteers in a lot of areas are predominantly young people, which is great news. However, some teams are now missing the retired volunteers who have more time to give and will stay longer. This has been particularly challenging for organisations with charity shops.

The groups discussed and shared ideas on how they could get their recruitment message across to potential volunteers and encourage vaccination volunteers to stay on in another role.

• Add evidence to the advertisement about the difference this volunteer role makes. It will help make the role feel meaningful.

• When advertising a role, get existing volunteers to share their experience of the role and encourage them to share on social media with a link to the application form.

• For ideas on creating impactful advertisements get someone involved in recruitment to come along and transport their world into the volunteering world.

• Be diverse with your communications. For example, have written materials available in another language.

• If your volunteers are able to claim travel expenses make it clear that it is available.

• Carefully target where you place posters and leaflets. These can be expensive to produce and the response minimal.

Where to go or advertise

• Community groups and events

• Universities, schools and colleges

• Faith groups

• Refugee and Asylum seeker community groups

• If you have one in your area, Military bases.

• Employment hubs / Job centres

• Local volunteering advertising agencies

• Networking groups

• NHS jobs

• Facebook