Let’s first look at attrition – there are many causes for volunteers walking away. Reasons range from insufficient training and boredom through to strained relationships with paid staff. Volunteers with experience are highly sought after, so ensuring that they add value at the right level of an organisation is critical.
For the purposes of this post, I want to focus on onboarding.
Recruiting is a time consuming and costly business for not-for-profit organisations. Without volunteers, a significant number of organisations wouldn’t be able to operate at all. This being the case, once you have found a volunteer that matches your requirements, it is critical that the onboarding process is as effective and efficient as possible. You only get one chance to make a first impression, an overused phrase but totally true. Onboarding is a major part of the first impression that a volunteer gets of the organisation they are committing their precious time to.
A key element of onboarding is safeguarding and ensuring that background checks are carried out in a timely fashion is an important component of this. For most not-for-profit organisations, a volunteer is unable to start until the DBS application process has been completed.
If done incorrectly, the required result can take far longer than it should. The application could be filled out incorrectly or an incorrect level of disclosure selected.
Delays = frustration = volunteer drop out.
At Disclosure Services, we have a UK-based team of experts that pride themselves on supporting volunteers and the organisations they are volunteering for through the DBS application process. They check every application with a view to getting it right the first time.
Right first time = fast results = getting the volunteer onboarded and productive sooner
We’re also the NCVO’s Trusted Supplier for DBS Checks so we’re able to offer a preferential rate for volunteers and paid staff that are NCVO members.
To see how we could improve your volunteer onboarding process, please register for free here. Alternatively, contact us online or give the team a call today on 01978510100 and they will be able to guide you through our simple and straightforward process and answer and questions that you may have along the way.
