We’ve known for some time (both from statistical evidence and anecdotally) that volunteer recruitment is one of the biggest worries for local groups. The results of our Volunteer Survey in 2019 also reinforced this. Groups are struggling with recruiting new volunteers, and with diversifying their volunteer population in terms of age, gender and ethnic background.
The Volunteering and Community Network teams have been thinking long and hard about how best to address this issue. So, after an extensive consultation with volunteers and stakeholders, we launched the Online Recruitment Research Project. We wanted to test solutions which could have a positive impact on recruitment rates and improve diversity, as well as providing a great experience for both recruiters and new volunteers.
The goal of the project is to advertise volunteering opportunities online and promote them locally via social media platforms. We’ve been working on this with a small number of local groups over the last couple of months. We picked groups (both rural and urban) from all areas of the UK, to see how geographical factors influence volunteer recruitment. And we made sure that the groups had varied experience of using IT, so we can ensure that the support we provide is well tailored to different abilities.
We’re already seeing some positive signs of how this approach may improve our ability to recruit new, and more diverse, volunteers.
Nicola-Jayne Roe, Group Coordinator for the Tamworth & Lichfield Group said: “I’ve been using online recruitment for a few months and we recruited four really good volunteers in a fortnight. I think the benefits come from the widespread reach offered by sites like Do-it.org and CharityJob, as well as being able to share our roles online on social media. If we’d done this locally with posters and leaflets, rather than online, we wouldn’t have been able to attract these volunteers, some of whom live a bit further away but close enough to get involved.”
Jenny Barnes, Administration Volunteer for the South West Bucks Group said: “Getting involved with the Online Recruitment Research Project was very interesting, as I think it allows us to spread the advertising much further than we can locally. I also find dealing with online applications is much easier; getting rid of processing application forms and removing the need to post paperwork and reference forms to National Centre.”
“It has also made recruitment far easier during the pandemic, as we’ve been able to organise our interviews on Zoom and can safely carry out the whole procedure without having to meet up. Obviously, now it’s safe, we’re enjoying being together again and it’s wonderful to meet our new volunteers.”
We’ll continue the research project until the middle of March 2022, to ensure we have a strong set of results and user experiences to evaluate. And we’ll keep you posted about any new developments. In the meantime, any groups not involved in the project are welcome to start using ‘Reach’ (our own online platform for the recruitment of volunteers). Contact [email protected] if you’d like to know more.
We hope you’re as excited as we are about the prospect of this groundbreaking (for the MS Society) approach to recruitment.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact [email protected] or [email protected].
