In some areas staff are embracing volunteers and understand the positive impact that they have; however, this may vary from one department to another within the same organisation,

What’s working well

Approaching staff members with previous experience to champion volunteers
Having a designated staff member (eg ward manager) to take on volunteer inductions and offer support for new volunteers.

Challenges

Continual staff changes.
Lack of staff time to carry out inductions.
Trying to get a slot on corporate inductions.
Volunteers lacking in confidence and training.

Top tips from our guests

Show the monetary value of volunteers by calculating the number of hours they are contributing, based on minimum wage.
Meet face to face with staff and help them understand the benefits that volunteers can bring to their department
Ask volunteers at the end of their shift to give feedback which can then be shared with the wards / departments. In one organisation the positive feedback they are receiving from volunteers is creating a better understanding and encouraging staff to invest more time.
Allocate a named mentor for every volunteer.
Offer staff training to demonstrate the value of volunteers. One of our guests would like to create a video as part of this training.
Don’t wait to be invited to staff meetings / ward huddles - ask if you can go along to see if there are opportunities to promote your volunteers
Arrange for staff champions to promote volunteering as part of department meetings.
Organise a meeting with all your staff champions every 3 months.

Volunteer Service Manager guides

One of our guests is looking at writing a guide and is interested to hear if others have done something similar. If you have any useful information, please reply on this Forum.

Comms

If your organisation has sites spread across a large area it can work well to hold a promotion day for volunteering at each location.

Useful resources shared by our guests

Hospice Ward volunteer role description

Volunteers in Partnership flyer – see attached below